Word: calendars
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...more astonishing is the evidence of a scientific society that produced a calendar (circa 353 B.C.), based on astronomical observations, which is considered more accurate than the Julian calendar that was devised in 46 B.C. The Mayans reckoned time from a zero date beginning, according to one scientist, with Oct. 15, 3375 B.C. Their month (urinal) lasted 20 days; a year (tun) 18 months, or 360 days,' which was completed (to correspond more accurately to the solar year) by adding five so-called "unlucky days." Thus they had a fixed calendar year of 365 days. It was nearly...
...sense of history, the Mayans even calculated time divisions to include a 400-year unit 1582 and ultimately an alautun (64 million years). It was, presumably, in carefully built astronomical observatories such as that in Chichen Itza on the Yucatan peninsula (opposite) that the Mayans perfected their calendar. Three square openings in the masonry walls fixed sight lines on the heavens for specific reference points, where the sun and moon could best be observed at their most informative stages...
...survivors of the revolution maintain a grim sense of humor. "Have you heard that the new Hungarian calendar has only eleven months?" asks the first Hungarian. "Yes," replies the second. "Premier Kadar has eliminated October...
...Calendar Watch. General Time Corp. put on sale the first cheap U.S.-made calendar watch. The watch face has a date window where the numeral 3 would be, made more legible by a magnifying lens built into the watch crystal. Each day the number changes from one through 31; hand setting corrects for shorter months. Price...
September Morn went on to become a staple of calendar art, was reproduced on candy boxes, postcards, cigars and suspenders. Purity leagues demanded its suppression. Postcard reproductions of the painting were forbidden the mails. Art dealers were even arrested for handling them. It became the subject of stock gags on the old Keith-Orpheum circuit, and inspired an anonymous couplet that swept the country...