Dear Kort,
Al Derr was right about me having an error in the Oct Port of Call, but he missed it. I said we could celebrate the New Millennium on Saturday (wrong) or Sunday. The true choice is:
Celebration Start New Millennium Friday Night, Dec. 31, 1999 Saturday, Jan. 1, 2000 Sunday Night, Dec. 31, 2000 Monday, Jan. 1, 2001
Don't believe all the arguments about when the millennium starts. When do you want to start it? With a whole weekend to goof off? Or on a Monday? Yuck! Since 1999 ends on a weekend, you might get your New Year's holiday on Friday or Monday. (You might get a choice.) I think the parties will be better when 1999 end's. I hope you get to party both years!
Al was wrong about 2000 not being a leap year. 2000 will be the first century leap year since the Gregorian Calendar reform. Our whole calendar repeats every 28 years, except when we omit three century leap years every 400 years, The leap Year patterns below show 1900 and 2100 should be leap years, but they won't be per the Pope's edict.
Jan.1 Leap Years Starting on Day Named
Sunday *1900 1928 1956 1984 2012 2040 2068 2096
Monday 1912 1940 1968 1996 2024 2052 2080
Tuesday 1924 1952 1980 2008 2036 2064 2092
Wednesday 1908 1936 1964 1992 2020 2048 2076
Thursday 1920 1948 1976 2004 2032 2060 2088
Friday 1904 1932 1960 1988 2016 2044 2072 *2100
Saturday 1916 1944 1972 2000 2028 2056 2084
*1900 started on Monday, and wasn't a leap year.
*2100 starts on Friday, but won't be a leap year.
The 28 year pattern repeats for almost 200 years between 1904 and 2096. When crossing centuries that are not leap years, the pattern shifts with seven regular years in a row. 1897 started on Friday, '98 on Sat., '99 on Sun., 1900 on Mon., '01 on Tues., '02 on Wed., '03 On Thurs., '04, a leap year, started on Friday. 2100 will start on Friday as predicted by the pattern, but 2101 will start on Saturday (52 weeks + one day) rather than Sunday as it would after a leap year (52 weeks+ 2 days).
This is good stuff, isn't it?! I've been putting "Reuse Your Old Calendars" in the E TX Mensa Spectrum for 10 years. I think Al Derr is the first one to look at my chart closely! I'm using four 1986 calendars this year, including a really nice owl calendar.
Charles Dixon