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The International Fixed calendar (also known as the Cotsworth plan, the Eastman plan, the 13 Month calendar or the Equal Month calendar) is a solar calendar proposal for calendar reform designed by Moses B. Cotsworth, who presented it in 1902.[1] It provides for a year of 13 months of 28 days each, with one or two days a year belonging to no month or week. It is therefore a perennial calendar, with every date fixed always on the same weekday. Though it was never officially adopted in any country, it was the official calendar of the Eastman Kodak Company from 1928 to 1989.[2]
The calendar year has 13 months with 28 days each, divided into exactly 4 weeks (13 × 28 = 364). An extra day added as a holiday at the end of the year, sometimes called "Year Day", does not belong to any week and brings the total to 365 days. Each year coincides with the corresponding Gregorian year, so January 1 in the Cotsworth calendar always falls on Gregorian January 1.[3] Twelve months are named and ordered the same as those of the Gregorian calendar, except that the extra month is inserted between June and July, and called Sol. Situated in mid-summer (from the point of view of its Northern Hemisphere authors), the name of the new month was chosen in homage to the sun.[4]
Leap year in the International Fixed Calendar contains 366 days, and its occurrence follows the Gregorian rule. There is a leap year in every year whose number is divisible by 4, but not if the year number is divisible by 100, unless it is also divisible by 400. So although the year 2000 was a leap year, the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 were common years. The International Fixed Calendar inserts the extra day in leap year after Saturday June 28 and before Sunday Sol 1.
Each month begins on a Sunday, and ends on a Saturday; consequently, every year begins on Sunday. All the months look like this:
Year Day and Leap Day are not considered to be part of any month.
*These dates are a day earlier in a leap year.
The simple idea of a 13-month perennial calendar has been around since at least the middle of the 18th century. Versions of the idea differ mainly on how the months are named, and the treatment of the extra day in leap year.
The winter solstice. In a later version of the plan, published in 1753, the 13 months were all renamed for Christian saints.
In 1849 the French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798–1857) proposed the 13-month Positivist Calendar, naming the months: Moses, Homer, Aristotle, Archimedes, Caesar, St. Paul, Charlemagne, Dante, Gutenberg, Shakespeare, Descartes, Frederic and Bichat. The days of the year were likewise dedicated to "saints" in the Positivist Religion of Humanity. Positivist weeks, months, and years begin with Monday instead of Sunday. Comte also reset the year number, beginning the era of his calendar (year 1) with the Gregorian year 1789. For the extra days of the year not belonging to any week or month, Comte followed the pattern of Ap-Iccim (Jones), ending each year with a festival on the 365th day, followed by a subsequent feast day occurring only in leap years.
Whether Moses Cotsworth was familiar with the 13-month plans that preceded his International Fixed Calendar is not known. He did follow Ap-Iccim (Jones) in designating the 365th day of the year as Christmas. His suggestion was that this last day of the year should be designated a Sunday, and hence, because the following day would be New Year's Day and a Sunday also, he called it a Double Sunday.[6] Since Cotsworth's goal was a simplified, more "rational" calendar for business and industry, he would carry over all the features of the Gregorian calendar consistent with this goal, including the traditional month names, the week beginning on Sunday, and the Gregorian leap-year rule.
To promote Cotsworth's calendar reform The Eastman Kodak Company, became a fervent supporter of the IFC, and instituted its use at Kodak. The International Fixed Calendar League ceased operations shortly after the calendar plan failed to win final approval of the League of Nations in 1937.[9]
The several advantages of The International Fixed Calendar are mainly related to its organization.
Torah, Kabbalah, Israel, Hebrew language, Mishnah
Martin Luther, Anglicanism, Bible, Lutheranism, Protestantism
Quran, Arabic language, God, Muhammad, Shia Islam
Time, Julian calendar, Chronology, Hebrew calendar, Islamic calendar
Aristotle, Horace, Ovid, Poetics, Longinus (literature)
Gregorian calendar, International Fixed Calendar, Calendar reform, Perennial Calendar, World Calendar
Calendar, Nicolaus Copernicus, Albert Einstein, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler
Time, Julian calendar, Chronology, Calendar, Year
Friday the 13th, Week, Calendar reform, Perennial calendar, Solar calendar
Ten Commandments, Astronomy, Calendar, Johns Hopkins University, Calendar reform