[whatwg] <time>

[Andy Mabbett]

In message
<22c1222d0903091317i4dccafd0peb182de2ba008e4b at mail.gmail.com>, Tom
Duhamel <tom420.duhamel at gmail.com> writes

>Julian for instance cannot give a precise date

In what way is "Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547)" not
precise?

>Wikipedia is often mentioned as a use-case, but based on my own experience
>(I am not an historian or anything, so my use of Wikipedia for historical
>events is sporadic) they most usually convert Julian dates to the Gregorian
>calendar. Julius Caesar died in 14 BC, not 52 of the Julius era on the
>Julian calendar (or whatever date it would convert to).

The above dates are from Wikipedia.

>Gregorian calendar entered common use somewhere during the 15th century, I
>believe.

It was first proposed in 1582 but was not widely used until later:

        <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar>


>Dates in 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries are very common.
>Dates before the 15th centurie are less common

I think there were still ~365 per year ;-)

>they are usually not precise
>(just 14th century, for example, as the exact year cannot be determined),
>but there are cases where the exact date is known. Julius Caesar is one
>instance where a precise date is known (for both his birth and death) and
>this is around 50 BC. I don't think there are many known precise date before
>that.

Thee are in some fields, for instance astronomy, when the exact times of
eclipses can be calculated; or the appearance of the night sky on a
given date can be determined.

>I would accept that dates before year 1 be not represented.

You have just represented one, in your preceding paragraph. Why should
an author not be able to do so on a web page?

-- 
Andy Mabbett