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July 16

July 16

July 16 is the 197th day (198th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 168 days remaining.

Events

- 622 - The Prophet Mohammed begins his Hijra from Mecca to Medina. This marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar.
- 1661 - The first banknotes in Europe are issued by the Bank of Stockholm.
- 1769 - Father Junipero Serra founds Mission San Diego de Alcalá, the first mission in California. The mission later evolves into the city of San Diego.
- 1779 - American Revolutionary War: United States forces led by General Anthony Wayne capture Stony Point, New York from British troops.
- 1782 - First performance of Mozart's opera The Abduction from the Seraglio.
- 1783 - Grants of land in Canada to American United Empire Loyalists are announced.
- 1790 - The signing of the Residence Bill establishes a site along the Potomac River as the District of Columbia (seat of government).
- 1862 - American Civil War: David G. Farragut becomes the first United States Navy rear admiral.
- 1880 - Dr. Emily Howard Stowe becomes the first woman licenced to practice medicine in Canada.
- 1918 - Russian Revolution: At Ekaterinburg, Bolsheviks execute Czar Nicholas II of Russia and his family.
- 1930 - Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia signs the first constitution of Ethiopia.
- 1942 - Holocaust: The Vichy France government headed by Pierre Laval orders French police officers to round up 13,000-20,000 Jews and imprison them in the Winter Velodrome.
- 1945 - Manhattan Project: The Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon at the Trinity site near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
- 1951 - The novel Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger published.
- 1951 - King Léopold III of Belgium abdicates in favour of his son, Baudouin I of Belgium, to avoid internal social strife.
- 1957 - United States Marine Major John Glenn flies a F8U supersonic jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds setting a new transcontinental speed record.
- 1963 - Timothy Leary takes LSD for the first time.
- 1965 - The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France with Italy opens.
- 1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 11 launches from Cape Kennedy, Florida and will become the first manned space mission to land on the moon.
- 1973 - Watergate Scandal: Former White House aide Alexander P. Butterfield informs the United States Senate committee investigating scandal that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations.
- 1979 - Iraqi President Hasan al-Bakr resigns and is replaced by Saddam Hussein.
- 1983 - Sikorsky S-61 disaster: helicopter crash off the Isles of Scilly, causing 20 fatalities.
- 1990 - In the Philippines, an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter Scale kills over 1600.
- 1994 - The planet Jupiter is hit by fragments of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet.
- 1994 - The civil war in Rwanda comes to an end.
- 1997 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 63.17 to close at 8,038.88, closing above 8,000 for the first time.
- 1999 - John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette are killed in a plane crash off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. The Piper Saratoga aircraft was piloted by Kennedy Jr.
- 1999 - Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace is released in the United Kingdom.
- 1999 - First game at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium in Newark, New Jersey.
- 2001 - The FBI arrests Dmitry Sklyarov at a convention in Las Vegas, Nevada for violating a provision of the DMCA.
- 2003 - The Corsicans reject a referendum for increased autonomy from France by a very thin majority: 50.98 percent against, and 49.02 percent for.
- 2004 - Millennium Park, considered the first and most ambitious architectural project in the early 21st century for Chicago, Illinois, is opened to the public by Mayor of Chicago Richard M. Daley.
- 2004 - Barclays Bank freezes the bank accounts of the British National Party.
- 2004 - A fire at a private school in Kumbakonam, India kills over 80 people.
- 2005 - Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, the sixth in J.K. Rowling's hugely popular Harry Potter series, is published in English-speaking countries.

Births

- 1194 - Clare of Assisi, Italian follower of Francis of Assisi (d. 1253)
- 1486 - Andrea del Sarto, Italian painter (d. 1530)
- 1611 - Cecylia Renata, Queen of Poland
- 1714 - Marc René, marquis de Montalembert, French military engineer and writer (d. 1800)
- 1722 - Joseph Wilton, English sculptor (d. 1803)
- 1723 - Joshua Reynolds, English painter (d. 1792)
- 1796 - Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, French painter (d. 1875)
- 1821 - Mary Baker Eddy, American religious leader (d. 1910)
- 1862 - Ida B. Wells, American journalist and anti-lynching crusader (d. 1931)
- 1872 - Roald Amundsen, Norwegian explorer (d. 1928)
- 1888 - Percy Kilbride, American actor (d. 1964)
- 1888 - Frits Zernike, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1966)
- 1889 - Shoeless Joe Jackson, American baseball player (d. 1951)
- 1889 - Larry Semon, comedian (d. 1928)
- 1896 - Trygve Lie, first United Nations Secretary General (d. 1968)
- 1896 - Evelyn Preer, American actress (d. 1932)
- 1902 - Alexander Luria, Russian psychologist (d. 1977)
- 1903 - Carmen Lombardo, Canadian singer, saxophonist, composer, and arranger (d. 1971)
- 1903 - Mary Philbin, American actress (d. 1993)
- 1906 - Vincent Sherman, American director
- 1907 - Orville Redenbacher, American farmer and businessman (d. 1995)
- 1907 - Barbara Stanwyck, American actress (d. 1990)
- 1911 - Ginger Rogers, American actress and dancer (d. 1995)
- 1911 - Sonny Tufts, American actor (d. 1970)
- 1919 - Choi Kyuha, President of South Korea
- 1924 - Bess Myerson, American beauty queen and television personality
- 1925 - Cal Tjader, American musician (d. 1982)
- 1926 - Irwin Rose, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- 1932 - Richard Thornburgh, American politician
- 1939 - Mariele Ventre, Italian choir director (d. 1995)
- 1942 - Margaret Smith Court, Australian tennis player
- 1945 - Victor Sloan, Irish visual artist
- 1946 - Ron Yary, American football player
- 1947 - Assata Shakur, American activist
- 1948 - Rubén Blades, Panamanian actor, musician, and politician
- 1948 - Pinchas Zukerman, Israeli violinist
- 1952 - Stewart Copeland, American musician
- 1956 - Tony Kushner, American playwright
- 1957 - Alexandra Marinina, Russian writer
- 1958 - Pierre Roland Renoir, Canadian artist
- 1959 - Gary Anderson, South African-born American football player
- 1963 - Phoebe Cates, American actress
- 1963 - Srečko Katanec, Slovenian footballer and coach
- 1963 - Fatboy Slim, English musician
- 1964 - Phil Hellmuth, American poker player
- 1964 - Miguel Induráin, Spanish cyclist
- 1967 - Will Ferrell, American comedian
- 1968 - Dhanraj Pillay, Indian field hockey player
- 1968 - Barry Sanders, American football player
- 1968 - Larry Sanger, American co-founder of Wikipedia
- 1971 - Corey Feldman, American actor
- 1976 - Anna Smashnova, Israeli tennis player

Deaths

- 1324 - Emperor Go-Uda of Japan (b. 1267)
- 1342 - King Charles I of Hungary
- 1546 - Anne Askew, English protestant (burned at the stake) (b. 1521)
- 1557 - Anne of Cleves, queen of Henry VIII of England (b. 1515)
- 1630 - Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy (b. 1562)
- 1647 - Masaniello, Italian rebel (b. 1622)
- 1664 - Andreas Gryphius, German writer (b. 1616)
- 1686 - John Pearson, English theologian (b. 1612)
- 1691 - François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, French war minister (b. 1641)
- 1729 - Johann David Heinichen, German composer (b. 1683)
- 1770 - Francis Cotes, English painter (b. 1726)
- 1796 - George Howard, British field marshal (b. 1718)
- 1882 - Mary Todd Lincoln, First Lady of the United States (b. 1818)
- 1916 - Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, Russian microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1845)
- 1949 - Vyacheslav Ivanov, Russian poet (b. 1866)
- 1953 - Hilaire Belloc, French writer and journalist (b. 1870)
- 1979 - Alfred Deller, English countertenor (b. 1912)
- 1981 - Harry Chapin, American singer and songwriter (b. 1942)
- 1985 - Heinrich Böll, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1917)
- 1989 - Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (b. 1908)
- 1991 - Robert Motherwell, American painter (b. 1915)
- 1991 - Frank Rizzo, Mayor of Philadelphia (b. 1920)
- 1994 - Julian Schwinger, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
- 1995 - Stephen Spender, British poet (b. 1909)
- 1998 - John Henrik Clarke, American historian and scholar (b. 1915)
- 1999 - Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, wife of John F. Kennedy Jr. (plane crash) (b. 1966)
- 1999 - John F. Kennedy Jr., American publisher (plane crash) (b. 1960)
- 2002 - John Cocke, American computer scientist (b. 1925)
- 2003 - Celia Cruz, Cuban musician (b. 1924)
- 2003 - Carol Shields, Canadian author (b. 1935)
- 2005 - Pietro Consagra, Italian sculptor (b. 1920)
- 2005 - Prince Gu of Korea (b. 1931)

Holidays and observances

- Botswana - President's Day (2nd day)
- Catholic - Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/16 BBC: On This Day] ---- July 15 - July 17 - June 16 - August 16 -- listing of all days ko:7월 16일 ms:16 Julai ja:7月16日 simple:July 16 th:16 กรกฎาคม

July 16

July 16 is the 197th day (198th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 168 days remaining.

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

- Botswana - President's Day (2nd day)
- Catholic - Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

External links

Leap year

A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing an extra day or month in order to keep the calendar year in sync with an astronomical or seasonal year. Seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of days, so a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would over time drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. Leap years (which keep the calendar in sync with the year) should not be confused with leap seconds (which keep clock time in sync with the day).

Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar, the current standard calendar in most of the world, adds a 29th day to February in all years evenly divisible by 4, except for century years (those ending in -00), which receive the extra day only if they are evenly divisible by 400. Thus 1996 was a leap year whereas 1999 was not, and 1600, 2000 and 2400 are leap years but 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 are not. The reasoning behind this rule is as follows:
- The Gregorian calendar is designed to keep the vernal equinox on or close to March 21, so that the date of Easter (celebrated on the Sunday after the 14th day of the Moon that falls on or after 21 March) remains correct with respect to the vernal equinox.
- The vernal equinox year is currently about 365.242375 days long.
- The Gregorian leap year rule gives an average year length of 365.2425 days. This difference of a little over 0.0001 days means that in around 8,000 years, the calendar will be about one day behind where it should be. But in 8,000 years' time the length of the vernal equinox year will have changed by an amount we can't accurately predict (see below). So the Gregorian leap year rule does a good enough job. Image:Gregoriancalendarleap.png

Which day is the leap day?

The Gregorian calendar is a modification of the Julian calendar first used by the Romans. The Roman calendar originated as a lunar calendar (though from the 5th century BC it no longer followed the real moon) and named its days after three of the phases of the moon: the new moon (calends, hence "calendar"), the first quarter (nones) and the full moon (ides). Days were counted down (inclusively) to the next named day, so 24 February was ante diem sextum calendas martii ("the sixth day before the calends of March"). Since 45 BC, February in a leap year had two days called "the sixth day before the calends of March". The extra day was originally the second of these, but since the third century it was the first. Hence the term bissextile day for 24 February in a bissextile year. Where this custom is followed, anniversaries after the inserted day are moved in leap years. For example, the former feast day of Saint Matthias, 24 February in ordinary years, would be 25 February in leap years. This historical nicety is, however, in the process of being discarded: The European Union declared that, starting in 2000, 29 February rather than 24 February would be leap day, and the Roman Catholic Church also now uses 29 February as leap day. The only tangible difference is felt in countries that celebrate feast days.

Julian calendar

The Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4. This rule gives an average year length of 365.25 days. The excess of about 0.0076 days with respect to the vernal equinox year means that the vernal equinox moves a day earlier in the calendar every 130 years or so.

Revised Julian Calendar

The Revised Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4, except for years divisible by 100 that do not leave a remainder of 200 or 600 when divided by 900. This rule agrees with the rule for the Gregorian calendar until 2799. The first year that dates in the Revised Julian calendar will not agree with the those in the Gregorian calendar will be 2800, because it will be a leap year in the Gregorian calendar but not in the Revised Julian calendar. This rule gives an average year length of 365.242222… days. This is a very good approximation to the mean tropical year, but because the vernal equinox tropical year is slightly longer, the Revised Julian calendar does not do as good a job as the Gregorian calendar of keeping the vernal equinox on or close to 21 March.

Chinese calendar

The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, so a leap year has an extra month, often called an embolismic month after the Greek word for it. In the Chinese calendar the leap month is added according to a complicated rule, which ensures that month 11 is always the month that contains the northern winter solstice. The intercalary month takes the same number as the preceding month; for example, if it follows the second month then it is simply called "leap second month".

Hebrew calendar

The Hebrew calendar is also lunisolar with an embolistic month. In the Hebrew calendar the extra month is called Adar Alef (first Adar) and is added before Adar, which then becomes Adar Sheni (second Adar). According to the Metonic cycle, this is done seven times every nineteen years, specifically, in years, 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19. In addition, the Hebrew calendar has postponement rules that postpone the start of the year by one or two days. The year before the postponement gets one or two extra days, and the year whose start is postponed loses one or two days. These postponement rules reduce the number of different combinations of year length and starting day of the week from 28 to 14, and regulate the location of certain religious holidays in relation to the Sabbath.

Hindu Calendar

In the Hindu calendar, which is a lunisolar calendar, the embolismic month is called adhika maas (extra month). It is the month in which the sun is in the same sign of the stellar zodiac on two consecutive dark moons.

Iranian calendar

The Iranian calendar also has a single intercalated day once in every four years, but every 33 years or so the leap years will be five years apart instead of four years apart. The system used is more accurate and more complicated, and is based on the time of the March equinox as observed from Teheran. The 33-year period is not completely regular; every so often the 33-year cycle will be broken by a cycle of 29 or 37 years.

Long term leap year rules

The accumulated difference between the Gregorian calendar and the vernal equinoctial year amounts to 1 day in about 8,000 years. This suggests that the calendar needs to be improved by another refinement to the leap year rule: perhaps by avoiding leap years in years divisible by 8,000. (The most common such proposal is to avoid leap years in years divisible by 4,000 [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22gregorian+calendar%22+error+%22leap+year%22+4000]. This is based on the difference between the Gregorian calendar and the mean tropical year. Others claim, erroneously, that the Gregorian calendar itself already contains a refinement of this kind [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mleapyr.html].) However, there is little point in planning a calendar so far ahead because over a timescale of tens of thousands of years the number of days in a year will change for a number of reasons, most notably: #Precession of the equinoxes moves the position of the vernal equinox with respect to perihelion and so changes the length of the vernal equinoctial year. #Tidal acceleration from the sun and moon slows the rotation of the earth, making the day longer. In particular, the second component of change depends on such things as post-glacial rebound and sea level rise due to climate change. We can't predict these changes accurately enough to be able to make a calendar that will be accurate to a day in tens of thousands of years.

Marriage proposal

There is a tradition, said to go back to Saint Patrick and Saint Bridget in 5th century Ireland, whereby women may only make marriage proposals in leap years.

Saint Patrick and the leap year

:Saint Patrick, having driven the frogs out of the bogs was walking along the shores of Lough Neagh, when he was accosted by Saint Bridget in tears, and was told that a mutiny had broken out in the nunnery over which she presided, the ladies claiming the right of popping the question. :Saint Patrick said he would concede them the right every seventh year, when Saint Bridget threw her arms round his neck, and exclaimed, "Arrah, Pathrick, jewel, I daurn't go back to the girls wid such a proposal. Make it one year in four." Saint Patrick replied, "Bridget, acushla, squeeze me that way again, an' I'll give ye leap-year, the longest of the lot." Saint Bridget, upon this, popped the question to St Patrick himself, who, of course, could not marry: so he patched up the difficulty as best he could with a kiss and a silk gown. (Source: Evans, Ivor H, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988) According to a 1288 law in Scotland, fines were levied if the proposal was refused by the man; compensation ranged from a kiss to a silk gown to soften the blow. Because men felt that put them at too great a risk, the tradition was in some places tightened to restricting female proposals to 29 February.

Birthdays

A person who was born on 29 February may be called a "leapling". In non-leap years they usually celebrate their birthday on 28 February or 1 March. There are many instances in children's literature where a person's claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out be based on counting their leap-year birthdays. A similar device is used in the plot of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance. Category:Calendars Category:Units of time als:Schaltjahr ko:윤년 ja:閏年 simple:Leap year th:ปีอธิกสุรทิน

Hijra

Hijra may refer to:
- Hijra (Islam)(Hegira/Hijrah/Hejira) is an Arabic term referring to the migration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622. :
- For the actual event, see Migration to Medina. :
- For the Islamic calendar, see Hijri year.
- Hijra
- Hijras are members of a "third gender" on the Indian subcontinent.
- Hejira is an album by Joni Mitchell, used in the sense of exodus or flight, see above. :
- Hejira is a song on the album mentioned above.

Mecca

:This article is about the holy city in Saudi Arabia. For other uses, see Mecca (disambiguation) Mecca or Makkah (in full: Makkah al-Mukarramah; ) is the capital city of Saudi Arabia's Makkah province, in the historic Hijaz region. It is located at , 73 kilometers inland from Jeddah, in the narrow sandy Valley of Abraham, 277 meters (909 feet) above sea level. 80 km from the Red Sea. It has a population of approximately one million. The city is revered as the holiest site of Islam, and a pilgrimage to it is required of all Muslims who can afford to go. Muslims regard the al-Masjid al-Haram (or 'The Sacred Mosque') as the holiest place on Earth. Both the mosque and the city itself are strictly off-limits to non-Muslims. The term 'Mecca' has come into common usage metaphorically to mean any all-important site for any particular group of people. In the 1980s the government of Saudi Arabia changed the official English transliteration of the city's name from 'Mecca', as it had been commonly spelled by westerners, to 'Makkah'. See below for the reasons.
The importance of Mecca
For Muslims, a pilgrimage to Mecca is required as one of the Five Pillars of the faith. In recent years, about two to three million have gathered for the major pilgrimage or Hajj, during the Muslim month of Dhu al-Hijjah, and many more perform the minor pilgrimage or Umrah, which may be performed at any time of year. Few non-Muslims have ever seen the rites and rituals of the Hajj as non-Muslims are strictly prohibited from entering Mecca and Medina. The focal point of Mecca is the Ka'bah, the "House of God" believed by Muslims to have been built by Abraham and his son Ishmael, and is covered in a gold-embroidered black fabric. The Pilgrims circle the Ka'bah seven times and may also try to touch or kiss its cornerstone, the Black Stone. Pilgrims then drink from the well of Zamzam. The water of Zamzam is believed to have special properties and is alleged to have health benefits. Few pilgrims return from the Hajj without a large plastic bottle of the Zamzam water. During the Hajj the pilgrims travel to Mina, a small village, where Iblis (the Devil), symbolised by stone columns, is ritually stoned. They then proceed to the Hill of Arafat (sometimes called the Mountain, but it is only 70 meters high), a site for prayers, where Muhammad is believed to have delivered his final Sermon. Hill of Arafat The importance of Mecca for Muslims is inestimable. All Muslims, wherever they are on the earth, are required to pray five times a day in the direction of the Ka'bah in Mecca (located at ). The direction of prayer is known as the qiblah. Muslims regard the al-Masjid al-Haram (or 'The Sacred Mosque') as the holiest place on Earth. Both the mosque and the city itself are strictly off-limits to non-Muslims.
Muhammad
Muhammad, the final prophet of Islam, was born in Mecca in 571 CE. When he was forty years old, he received the first revelation in a cave called Hira in Jabal al-Nour (Mountain of Light), approximately 2 miles from Mecca. In the year 622 CE, after an attempt on his life, he moved to Yathrib (now Madinah), which also became a holy city. Later, Muhammad led the Muslims and conquered Mecca from the pagans.
Non-Muslims and Mecca
Non-Muslims are not permitted to enter Mecca. Road blocks are stationed along roads leading to the city. The most celebrated case of a non-Muslim visiting Mecca was that of the British explorer Sir Richard Burton in 1853. Burton disguised himself as an Afghan Muslim to visit and write his Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Meccah.
Is Mecca the city of the Valley of Bakkah?
:See main article: Bakkah Some have identified Mecca as the ancient city Bakkah, the Biblical "valley of Baca" in Psalm 84, but this association is controversial. It is known that the name Bakkah was changed to Mecca at some time, which is the location identified in the Qur'an. Some Muslims also believe it is the same location as mentioned in the Old Testament, but this is contestable.
The spelling of the name
For most English-speakers, Mecca has long been the accepted spelling for the holy city. The word is a transliteration of the original Arabic, and has become part of the English language. In an effort to distinguish between the metaphorical and official references to the holy site, the Saudi Arabian government in the 1980s began promoting a new transliteration, 'Makkah al-Mukarramah', which is even closer to the original Arabic. This new usage has been adopted in many places and by certain organization, such as on the [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3584.htm U.S. Department of State] website, but it is not part of the active vocabulary of English-speakers at large.
See also

- Islamic architecture
- List of famous mosques
- List of holy cities
- Medina
- Mecca (disambiguation)
External links

-
- [http://haqaonline.lightuponlight.com/pg/index.php?cat=2 Pictures of Mecca]
- [http://www.irbs.com/lists/navigation/0008/0039.html Mention of the Kaaba's coordinates]
- [http://www.asinah.org/travel-guides/saudiarabiamecca.html Mecca Information]
- [http://peace-city.tripod.com/Glory_of_Makkah.html Is it the Glory of Mecca or Zion in Isaiah, Chapter 60?]
- [http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/b/burton/richard/b97p/chapter27.html Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Meccah, by Richard Burton] (opinionated)
- [http://www.3dkabah.com A 3D model of the Kaaba and Haraam. With Pictures and Videos] Category:Holy cities Category:Mecca Category:Pilgrimages Category:Arabic words ko:메카 ms:Makkah al-Mukarramah ja:マッカ simple:Mecca th:มักกะหฺ

Medina

This article is about the city of Medina in Saudi Arabia. For other uses, see Medina (disambiguation). Medina (; alternatively transliterated into English as Madinah) is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia. It currently has a population of 839,400 (1999). Medina is located at . Medina was originally known as Yathrib, but later the city's name was changed to Madīnat al-Nabī ("city of the Prophet") or Al Madīnah al Munawwarah ("the enlightened city" or "the radiant city"), while the short form Medina simply means "city". Medina is the second holiest city of Islam, after Mecca. Its importance as a religious site derives from the presence there of the Shrine of the Prophet Mohammad by Masjid al-Nabawi or the Mosque of the Prophet, famously known as Gumbad-e-Khizra, Prophet's Dome or Green Dome, which was built on a site adjacent to Muhammad's home. His home later became part of the mosque when it was expanded by the Umayyad caliph al-Waleed ibn AbdelMalek. The first mosque of Islam is also located in Medinah and is known as Masjid Quba, the Quba Mosque. Like Mecca, the city of Medina only permits Muslims to enter. Both citys' numerous mosques are the destination for large numbers of Muslims on their annual pilgrimage. The income derived from visiting pilgrims forms the basis of their economies.

History

In pre-Islamic times the city was known as Yathrib. It was an important trading town and its pagan inhabitants would make yearly pilgrimages to the shrines in Mecca, being that the chief god of both cities was Manat. It was also notable as a center of Arab Jews, who were only distinguished from their fellow citizens by their religion. ManatIn 622, Medina became the seat of Muhammad's growing movement after the Hijra. In the same year Muhammad was invited to come and live in Yathrib (and act as a sort of governor). Islamic sources such as the hadith state that Medina had a population of two pagan tribes (the Aus and Khazraj) as well as three Jewish tribes (Banu Qainuka'a, Banu Nadhir and Banu Qurayza). According to Islamic tradition, the two tribes got word of a new, self-styled prophet in Mecca whose people were being persecuted by the Meccans, and decided to see if he could help them resolve their conflict. Muhammad and his followers thus agreed to move (known as the Hijra migration) to Yathrib, which eventually became known as al-Madinah al-Nabi, the city of the Messenger, where Muhammad drafted the Madinah or Medina Charter [http://www.constitution.org/cons/medina/con_medina.htm] which made him the leader of the city. According to tradition, the text - the Medina Charter - that was passed down was agreed to by all tribes in the city. In 627, the army of Mecca attacked Medina under the command of Abu Sufyan. Abu Sufyan asked the Banu Qurayza tribe to help them conquer Medina, by attacking the Muslims from behind the lines or letting them into the town. According to the Hadith Bukhari, the Banu Qurayza's assistance of Abu Sufyan constituted a breach of the treaty and the males of the tribe were executed per the judgement of Sa'ad ibn Mua'dh. Since the Islamic hadith written 2 centuries after is the only source there is about this event, it is impossible to know the exact circumstances surrounding the execution and expulsion of the various tribes. Muhammad urged all people in the city to follow the new religion of Islam, and the Medina Charter refers to Muhammad as a prophet of God. However, he had trouble convincing the majority of the Jewish population (which was actually quite large) and the Christian population that Islam was the true version of Judaism or the true religion of Jesus. In the ten years following the Hijra, Medina formed the base from which Muhammad attacked and was attacked and it was from here that he marched on Mecca, becoming its ruler without battle. Even when Islamic rule was established Medina remained for some years the most important city of Islam and the de facto capital of the Caliphate. Under the first four Caliphs, known as the Rightly Guided Caliphs, the Islamic empire expanded rapidly and came to include historical centres of learning such as Jerusalem and Damascus, and Baghdad. After the death of Ali, the fourth caliph, Mu'awiyya transferred the capital to Damascus and the importance of Medina dwindled and became of a religious more than a political nature. In 1924 the city, which had been in Ottoman hands for centuries, fell to Ibn Saud, who later became the first King of Saudi Arabia.

External links

-
- [http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=24.468313,39.611174&spn=0.007876,0.013393&t=k&hl=en Satellite map of Medina - Google] Category:Holy cities Category:Medina ms:Madinah al-Munawwarah ja:マディーナ

Islamic calendar

The Islamic calendar or Muslim calendar (also called "Hijri calendar", Arabic التقويم الهجري) is the calendar used to date events in many predominantly Muslim countries, and used by Muslims everywhere to determine the proper day on which to celebrate Muslim holy days. It is a purely lunar calendar having 12 lunar months in a year of about 354 days. Because this lunar year is about 11 days shorter than the solar year, Muslim holy days, although celebrated on fixed dates in their own calendar, usually shift 11 days earlier each successive solar year, such as a year of the Gregorian calendar. Islamic years are also called Hijra years because the first year was the year during which the Hijra occurred—Muhammad's emigration from Mecca to Medina. Thus each numbered year is designated either H or AH, the latter being the initials of the Latin anno Hegirae (in the year of the Hijra).

Pre-Islamic calendar

The predecessor to the Islamic calendar was a lunisolar calendar in that it used lunar months but was also kept synchronized with the seasons by the insertion of an additional, intercalary, month when required. Whether the intercalary month (Nasi) was added in the spring like that of the Hebrew calendar or in autumn is debatable. It is assumed that the intercalary month was added between the twelfth month (the month of the pre-Islamic Hajj) and the first month (Muharram) of this pre-Islamic year. The two Rabi' months denote grazing and the modern Meccan rainy season (only slightly less arid than normal), which would promote the growth of grasses for grazing, occurs during autumn. These imply a pre-Islamic year beginning near the autumnal equinox. But the rainy season after which these months are named may have been different when the names originated (before Muhammad's time) or the calendar may have been imported from another region which did have such a rainy season. On the other hand, Muhammad forbade the intercalary month (released the calendar from the seasons) near the end of his life, which implies a pre-Islamic year beginning near the vernal equinox because that is when the modern lunar year began during his last year.

Numbering the years

Abraha, a governor of Yemen, then a province of the Christian nation of Abyssinia (modern Ethiopia), attempted to destroy the Kaaba with an army which included an elephant (possibly several). Although the raid was unsuccessful, the elephant so impressed the Meccans that that year became known as the Year of the Elephant, which was also the year that Muhammad was born. (See surat al-Fil.) Although most Muslims equate it with the Western year 570, a minority equate it with 571. Later years were numbered from the Year of the Elephant, whether for the years of the pre-Islamic lunisolar calendar, the lunisolar calendar used by Muhammad before he forbade the intercalary month, or the first few years of the lunar calendar thus created. In 638 (AH 17), the second Caliph Umar began numbering the years of the Islamic calendar from the year of the Hijra, which was postdated AH 1. The first day of the first month (1 Muharram) of that proleptic Islamic year, that is, after the removal of all intercalary months between the Hijra and Muhammad's prohibition of them nine years later, corresponded to July 16, 622 (the actual emigration took place in September). The first surviving attested use of the Hijri calendar is on a papyrus from Egypt in 22 AH, PERF 558.

Months

Each month has either 29 or 30 days, but usually in no discernible order. Traditionally, the first day of each month was the day (beginning at sunset) of the first sighting of the lunar crescent (the hilal) shortly after sunset. If the hilal was not observed immediately after the 29th day of a month, either because clouds blocked its view or because the western sky was still too bright when the moon set, then the day that began at that sunset was the 30th. Such a sighting had to be made by one or more trustworthy men testifying before a committee of Muslim leaders. Determining the most likely day that the hilal could be observed was a motivation for Muslim interest in astronomy, which put Islam in the forefront of that science for many centuries. This traditional practice is still followed in a few parts of the world, like Pakistan and Jordan. However, in most Muslim countries astronomical rules are followed which allow the calendar to be determined in advance, which is not the case using the traditional method. Malaysia, Indonesia, and a few others begin each month at sunset on the first day that the moon sets after the sun (moonset after sunset). In Egypt, the month begins at sunset on the first day that the moon sets at least five minutes after the sun. The official Umm al-Qura calendar of Saudi Arabia used a substantially different astronomical method until recent years [http://www.jas.org.jo/sau.html]. Before AH 1420 (before April 18, 1999), if the moon's age at sunset in Riyad was at least 12 hours, then the day ending at that sunset was the first day of the month. This often caused the Saudis to celebrate holy days one or even two days before other Muslim countries, including the dates for the Hajj, which can only be dated using Saudi dates because it is performed in Mecca. During one memorable year during the AH 1380s (the 1970s), different Muslim countries ended the fast of Ramadan on each of four successive days! The celebrations became more uniform beginning in AH 1420. For AH 1420-22, if moonset occurred after sunset at Mecca, then the day beginning at that sunset was the first day of a Saudi month, essentially the same rule used by Malaysia, Indonesia, and others (except for the location from which the hilal was observed). Since the beginning of AH 1423 (March 16, 2002), the rule has been clarified a little by requiring the geocentric conjunction of the sun and moon to occur before sunset, in addition to requiring moonset to occur after sunset at Mecca. This ensures that the moon has moved past the sun by sunset, even though the sky may still be too bright immediately before moonset to actually see the crescent. Strictly speaking, the Umm al-Qura calendar is intended for civil purposes only. Their makers are well aware of the fact that the first visual sighting of the lunar crescent (hilāl) can occur up to two days after the date calculated in the Umm al-Qura calendar. Since AH 1419 (1998/99) several official hilāl sighting committees have been set up by the government of Saudi Arabia to determine the first visual sighting of the lunar crescent at the begin of each lunar month. Nevertheless, the religious authorities of Saudi Arabia also allow the testimony of less experienced observers and thus often announces the sighting of the lunar crescent on a date when none of the official committees could see the lunar crescent. In nearly all of these cases, a retrospective analysis indicates that these extremely early reports of the lunar crescent are impossible and are based on false sightings. The moon sets progressively later than the sun for locations further west, thus western Muslim countries are more likely to celebrate some holy day one day earlier than an eastern Muslim country. Microsoft uses the "Kuwaiti algorithm" to convert Gregorian dates to the Islamic ones. It is based on statistical analysis of historical data from Kuwait. There exists a variation of the Islamic calendar known as the tabular Islamic calendar in which months are worked out by arithmetic rules rather than by observation or astronomical calculation. It has a 30-year cycle in with 11 years are leap years with 355 days instead of 354 days. In the long term, it is accurate to one day in about 2500 years. It also deviates up to about 1 or 2 days in the short term.

Forbidding intercalary months

In the ninth year after the Hijra, Muslims believe God forbade the intercalary month. This is expressed in the Qur'an (9:36-37):

The number of months with Allah has been twelve months by Allah's ordinance since the day He created the heavens and the earth. Of these four are known as sacred; That is the straight usage, so do not wrong yourselves therein, and fight the Pagans.

Verily the transposing (of a prohibited month) is an addition to Unbelief: The Unbelievers are led to wrong thereby: for they make it lawful one year, and forbidden another year, of months forbidden by Allah and make such forbidden ones lawful. The evil of their course seems pleasing to them. But Allah guideth not those who reject Faith.

This prohibition was repeated by Muhammad during his last sermon on Mount Arafat which was delivered during his farewell pilgrimage to Mecca on 9 Dhu al-Hijja AH 10 (this paragraph is often deleted from the sermon by its modern editors as now unimportant):

O People, the unbelievers indulge in tampering with the calendar in order to make permissible that which Allah forbade, and to forbid that which Allah has made permissible. With Allah the months are twelve in number. Four of them are holy, three of these are successive and one occurs singly between the months of Jumada and Shaban.

The three successive holy months are Dhu al-Qada, Dhu al-Hijja, and Muharram, thus excluding an intercalary month before Muharram. The single holy month is Rajab.

Names of the Islamic months

The Islamic months are named as follows: # Muharram ul Haram (or shortened to Muharram) محرّم # Safar صفر # Rabi`-ul-Awwal (Rabi' I) ربيع الأول # Rabi`-ul-Akhir (or Rabi` al-THaany) (Rabi' II) ربيع الآخر أو ربيع الثاني # Jumaada-ul-Awwal (Jumaada I) جمادى الأول # Jumaada-ul-Akhir (or Jumaada al-THaany) (Jumaada II) جمادى الآخر أو جمادى الثاني # Rajab رجب # Sha'aban شعبان # Ramadan رمضان # Shawwal شوّال # Zil Khad ذو القعدة (or Thw al-Qi`dah) # Zil Hijjah ذو الحجة (or Thw al-Hijjah) Of all the months in the Islamic calendar, Ramadan is the most sacred, during the daytime of which no Muslim may eat food or drink liquid, except for those who are ill or traveling, who must make up the days missed later. Daytime begins at dawn, traditionally when a white thread can be distinguished from a black thread, but now often equated with astronomical dawn, which occurs when the center of the sun is 18° below the eastern geometric horizon. It ends at sunset, when the entire disk of the sun has gone below the actual western horizon, even if substantially elevated above the ideal horizon by mountains.

Names of the days of the week

The Islamic week is derived from the Jewish week, as was the medieval Christian week, all of which have numbered weekdays in common. All three coincide with the Sunday through Saturday planetary week. The Islamic and Jewish weekdays begin at sunset, whereas the medieval Christian and planetary weekdays begin at the following midnight. Muslims gather for worship at a Masjid or mosque at noon on "gathering day", which corresponds to the sixth day of the Jewish and medieval Christian weeks, and to Friday of the planetary week. # yaum as-sabt يوم السَّبْت (sabbath day) # yaum al-ahad يوم الأحد (first day) # yaum al-ithnayn يوم الإثنين (second day) # yaum ath-thalatha' يوم الثُّلَاثاء (third day) # yaum al-arba`a' يوم الأَرْبعاء (fourth day) # yaum al-khamis يوم الخَمِيس (fifth day) # yaum al-jum`a يوم الجُمْعَة (gathering day)

Sacred days

Important dates in the Islamic (Hijri) year are:
- 1 Muharram (Islamic new year)
- 10 Muharram (Day of Aashurah, a day of mourning for Shia Muslims and the flight of Moses and the Israelites from Egypt and Pharo's oppression to the Blessed Land for Sunni Muslims)
- 27 Rajab (Isra and Miraj)
- 15 Shabaan (Shab-e-Br'aat)
- 1 Ramadhan (first day of fasting)
- 17 Ramadhan (Nuzul Al-Qur'an) (Malaysia only; often 27 Ramadhan elsewhere)
- 19-22 Ramadan (Shia Muslims mourn the death of Imam Ali.
- Last 10 days of Ramadhan which include Laylat al-Qadr
- 1 Shawwal (Eid ul-Fitr)
- 8-10 Thw al-Hijjah (the Hajj to Makkah)
- 10 Thw al-Hijjah (Eid ul-Adha).

Current correlations

Portions of the Islamic calendar years 1424 and 1425 occur in the Gregorian calendar year 2004. January 1, 2004 is 8 Dhu al-Qa'da 1424 AH. 1 Muharram 1425 AH is February 22, 2004. For a very rough estimate, multiply the Islamic year number by 0.97, and then add 622 to get the Gregorian year number. The Islamic calendar year of 1429 occurs entirely within the Gregorian calendar year of 2008. Such years occur once every 33 or 34 Islamic years (32 or 33 Gregorian years). More are listed here:

External links

- [http://www.phys.uu.nl/~vgent/islam/islamyear_en.htm Islamic-Western Calendar Converter (Based on the Arithmetical or Tabular Calendar)]
- [http://www.phys.uu.nl/~vgent/islam/mecca/ummalqura.htm The Umm al-Qura Calendar of Saudi Arabia]
- [http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~jkatz/The%20Islamic%20Jewish%20Calendar.pdf Correspondence between Hebrew and Islamic calendars, months and holidays (pdf)] Category:Islam Category:Specific calendars ms:Takwim Hijrah ja:ヒジュラ暦 th:ปฏิทินฮิจญ์เราะหฺ

1769

1769 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar).

Events

- Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen exhibits the "Mechanical Turk", a chess-playing machine
- May 14 - Charles III of Spain sends Spanish missionaries, who found California missions in San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Monterey and begin the settlement of California.
- Famine in Bengal kills 10 million people, a third of the population, in the worst natural disaster in human history (in terms of lives lost).
- The Maharajah of Mysore forces the British to agree a treaty of mutual assistance in view of the famine, but the British East India Company increases its demands on the Bengali people to keep profits up.
- David Garrick holds the first Shakespeare Festival at Stratford-upon-Avon.
- June 7 - Frontiersman Daniel Boone first began to explore the present-day Bluegrass State, Kentucky.
- Richard Arkwright invents the spinning frame.
- April 13 - James Cook arrives in Tahiti on the ship HM Bark Endeavour, preparing to observe the solar eclipse of the planet Venus, which took place on June 3rd. After the voyage, the data was found to be inaccurate in determining the distance between the Sun and Earth.
- The city of Brescia, Italy is devastated when the Church of San Nazaro, near Venice, is struck by lightning. The resulting fire ignites 200,000 lb (90,000 kg) of gunpowder being stored there, causing a massive explosion which destroys one sixth of the city and kills 3,000 people. The disaster prompts the Roman Catholic Church to abandon their religious objection to using lightning rods to protect their property.

Births

- January 10 - Michel Ney, French marshal (d. 1815)
- March 1 - François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers, French general (d. 1796)
- March 10 - Jospeh Williamson, philanthropist and builder of the Williamson's tunnels (d. 1840)
- March 23 - William Smith, English geologist and cartographer (d. 1839)
- March 29 - Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult, French marshal (d. 1851)
- April 3 - Christian Gunther von Bernstorff, Danish and Prussian statesman and diplomat (d. 1835)
- April 11 - Jean Lannes, French marshal (d. 1809)
- April 13 - Thomas Lawrence, English painter (d. 1830)
- May 1 - Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, British general and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1852)
- May 6 - Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1824)
- June 18 - Viscount Castlereagh, British statesman, diplomat, and soldier
- August 15 - Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France (d. 1821)
- September 14 - Karl Salomo Zachariae Von Lingenthal, German jurist (d. 1843)
- October 6 - Isaac Brock, British general and administrator (d. 1812)
- December 13 - James Scarlett Abinger, English judge (d. 1844)
- James Dadford, English canal engineer

Deaths

- February 2 - Pope Clement XIII (b. 1693)
- April 20 - Chief Pontiac, Ottawa chief (murdered)
- June 1 - Edward Holyoke, American President of Harvard University (b. 1689)
- August 2 - Daniel Finch, 8th Earl of Winchilsea, English politician (b. 1689)
- August 29 - Edmond Hoyle, English game expert (b. 1672)
- December 13 - Christian Fürchtegott Gellert, German poet (b. 1715)
- December 30 - Nicholas Taaffe, 6th Viscount Taaffe, Austrian soldier (b. 1685) Category:1769 ko:1769년 ms:1769 simple:1769 th:พ.ศ. 2312

California

California is a state located on the west coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous state in the U.S., as well as the most physically diverse, with the highest and the lowest points in the lower 48 states located within 150 miles of each other. If California were an independent nation, it would have the sixth largest economy in the world (after the rest of the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain and France; see economy of California). The state's official nickname is "The Golden State" in reference to California's 1849 Gold Rush. California's U.S. postal abbreviation is CA, and its Associated Press abbreviation is Calif. As one of the most demographically diverse states in the nation, California is a dominant force in American culture as well as the nation's economy. It has some of the nation's largest cities, including Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and San Francisco, and is responsible for many legal and technological innovations. The entire region originally known as California was composed of the Mexican peninsula now known as Baja California and much of the land in the current states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Wyoming, known as Alta California. In these early times, the boundaries of the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific coast were only partially explored and California was shown on early maps as an island. The name comes from Las sergas de Esplandián (Adventures of Splandian), a 16th century novel, by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, where there is an island paradise called California. (For further discussion, see: Origin of the name California.)

History

:Main articles: History of California, History of California (20th century) The first European to explore parts of the coast was the Portuguese João Rodrigues Cabrilho in 1542. The first to explore the entire coast and claim possession of it was Francis Drake in 1579. Beginning in the late 1700s, Spanish missionaries set up tiny settlements on enormous grants of land in the vast territory north of Baja California. The missions played a dominant role in the decimation of California's indigenous population. Upon Mexican independence from Spain, the chain of missions became the property of the Mexican government, and they were quickly dissolved and abandoned. In 1846, at the outset of the Mexican-American War, the California Republic was founded and the Bear Flag was flown, which featured a golden bear and a star. The Republic came to a sudden end, however, when Commodore John D. Sloat of the United States Navy sailed into San Francisco Bay and claimed California for the United States. Following the war, the region was divided between Mexico and the United States. The Mexican portion, Baja (lower) California was later divided into the states of Baja California and Baja California Sur. The western part of the U.S. portion, Alta (upper) California, was to become the state of California. In 1848, the Spanish-speaking population of distant upper California numbered around 4,000. But after gold was discovered, the population burgeoned with Americans and a few Europeans in the great California gold rush. In 1850, the state was admitted to the Union of the USA. During the American Civil War, popular support in California was divided 70% for the South and 30% for the North, and although California officially entered on the side of the North, many troops went east to fight for the Confederacy CSA. At first, travel between the far Pacific West to the eastern population centers was time-consuming and dangerous, requiring either long ocean voyages, or difficult transcontinental passages. A more direct connection came in 1869 with the completion of the first transcontinental railroad. After this rail link was established, hundreds of thousands of Americans came west, where new Californians were discovering that land in the state, if irrigated during the dry summer months, was extremely well suited to fruit cultivation and agriculture in general. Citrus, oranges in particular, was widely grown, and the foundation was laid for the state's prodigious agricultural production of today. During the early 20th century, migration to California accelerated with the completion of major transcontinental highways like the Lincoln Highway and Route 66. In the period from 19