2676: Historical Dates - Revision history

FaviFake: cat

2026-05-15T16:00:19Z

cat

82.132.237.234: Most of that added smartquotes (unintentionally, due just to the method of editing?). The date-format changes might have been valid-to-neutral, but I have no problem with their revert either.

2025-10-08T15:11:02Z

Most of that added smartquotes (unintentionally, due just to the method of editing?). The date-format changes might have been valid-to-neutral, but I have no problem with their revert either.

134.60.67.135: /* Jan 1st, 1970 */

2025-10-08T07:43:44Z

‎Jan 1st, 1970

134.60.67.135: /* Dec 30th, 1899 */

2025-10-08T07:41:59Z

‎Dec 30th, 1899

172.69.194.185 at 22:18, 21 March 2024

2024-03-21T22:18:24Z

172.68.64.222: grammar error

2024-03-21T22:04:43Z

grammar error

162.158.230.25: /* Dec 30th, 1899 */

2023-09-09T10:47:24Z

‎Dec 30th, 1899

162.158.230.25: /* Dec 30th, 1899 */

2023-09-09T10:47:09Z

‎Dec 30th, 1899

162.158.38.182: /* Dec 30th, 1899 */

2023-09-09T10:46:52Z

‎Dec 30th, 1899

Xurkitree10: /* Transcript */

2023-04-23T14:09:28Z

‎Transcript

@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 ==Transcript==
-:[Blondie is lecturing, pointing at a futuristic holographic display emanating upwards from a unit on the floor. It shows a presentation that features a timeline with two visible dates, 1899 and 1970. At the top of the hologram are two lines of text, above "1899" are three lines of text, above "1970" is one line of text, below "1899" are two lines of text, and below "1970" is one line of text; all of these lines of text are illegible.]
+:[Miss Lenhart is lecturing, pointing at a futuristic holographic display emanating upwards from a unit on the floor. It shows a presentation that features a timeline with two visible dates, 1899 and 1970. At the top of the hologram are two lines of text, above "1899" are three lines of text, above "1970" is one line of text, below "1899" are two lines of text, and below "1970" is one line of text; all of these lines of text are illegible.]
-:Blondie: Historical records show millions of business transactions occurred on Dec 30<sup>th</sup>, 1899.
+:Miss Lenhart: Historical records show millions of business transactions occurred on Dec 30<sup>th</sup>, 1899.
-:Blondie: This economic activity sparked the digital age, culminating in a "data festival" on Jan 1<sup>st</sup>, 1970, when many early digital files were created.
+:Miss Lenhart: This economic activity sparked the digital age, culminating in a "data festival" on Jan 1<sup>st</sup>, 1970, when many early digital files were created.
 :[Caption under the panel:]
@@ Line 34: / Line 34: @@
 [[Category:Time]]
 [[Category:Programming]]

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 ===Dec 30th, 1899===
-Dec 30th, 1899 comes from a [https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-review/ spreadsheet date compatibility issue] between Excel and Lotus 1-2-3 (referenced in the title text). Spreadsheets store dates as sequential numbers so that they can be used in calculations. In Excel, by default, January 1, 1900 is number 1 [https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/datevalue-function-df8b07d4-7761-4a93-bc33-b7471bbff252]. Based on that, Excel’s integer date representation would be the number of days that have passed since December 31, 1899.  However, because of a bug intentionally carried over from Lotus 1-2-3 where it counts February 29, 1900 as a day even though it actually was not [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/excel/wrongly-assumes-1900-is-leap-year], for any day since then, Excel’s integer date representation is actually the number of days that have passed since December 30, 1899.  Most other spreadsheet applications copied the behavior of Excel to maintain compatibility with it. This leads to the value of 0 in some applications (notably Open- and LibreOffice Calc and Google Spreadsheets) being interpreted as December 30, 1899. Similarly, Microsoft Visual Basic and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) interpret 0.0 as December 30, 1899.
+Dec 30th, 1899 comes from a [https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-review/ spreadsheet date compatibility issue] between Excel and Lotus 1-2-3 (referenced in the title text.) Spreadsheets store dates as sequential numbers so that they can be used in calculations. In Excel, by default, January 1, 1900 is number 1 [https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/datevalue-function-df8b07d4-7761-4a93-bc33-b7471bbff252]. Based on that, Excel's integer date representation would be the number of days that have passed since December 31, 1899.  However, because of a bug intentionally carried over from Lotus 1-2-3 where it counts February 29, 1900 as a day even though it actually was not [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/excel/wrongly-assumes-1900-is-leap-year], for any day since then, Excel's integer date representation is actually the number of days that have passed since December 30, 1899.  Most other spreadsheet applications copied the behavior of Excel to maintain compatibility with it. This leads to the value of 0 in some applications (notably Open- and LibreOffice Calc and Google Spreadsheets) being interpreted as Dec 30th, 1899. Similarly, Microsoft Visual Basic and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) interpret 0.0 as Dec 30th, 1899.
-The historian in the comic presents some research wrongly based only on the number of entries created on those dates. This confusion on the part of the future historian only grows in the title text, where they make the claim that Lotus 1-2-3 is, in fact, religious imagery related to some sort of deity, potentially a lotus god, around whom the ‘1899 event’ took place. This may be poking fun at the trope that anthropologists attribute any behavior they can’t explain to religious ritual.{{Actual citation needed}} This historian’s confusion may have been at least partially due to China’s {{w|White Lotus|White Lotus Religion}}.
+The historian in the comic presents some research wrongly based only on the number of entries created on those dates. This confusion on the part of the future historian only grows in the title text, where they make the claim that Lotus 1-2-3 is, in fact, religious imagery related to some sort of deity, potentially a lotus god, around whom the '1899 event' took place. This may be poking fun at the trope that anthropologists attribute any behavior they can't explain to religious ritual.{{Actual citation needed}} This historian's confusion may have been at least partially due to China's {{w|White Lotus|White Lotus Religion}}.
 ===Jan 1st, 1970===
-Many operating systems and software store dates as {{w|Unix time|Unix timestamps}}, which are defined as the number of seconds since January 1, 1970, 0:00 UTC. When data entry neglects to provide a value, the system may be programmed to treat it as 0; consequently, an unprovided timestamp value is interpreted as January 1, 1970, thereby creating the illusion of an “activity spike” on that date.
+Many operating systems and software store dates as {{w|Unix time|Unix timestamps}}, which are defined as the number of seconds since Jan 1st, 1970, 0:00 UTC. When data entry neglects to provide a value, the system may be programmed to treat it as 0; consequently, an unprovided timestamp value is interpreted as Jan 1st, 1970 thereby creating the illusion of an "activity spike" on that date.
 ==Transcript==

@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 ===Jan 1st, 1970===
-Many operating systems and software store dates as {{w|Unix time|Unix timestamps}}, which are defined as the number of seconds since Jan 1st, 1970, 0:00 UTC. When data entry neglects to provide a value, the system may be programmed to treat it as 0; consequently, an unprovided timestamp value is interpreted as Jan 1st, 1970 thereby creating the illusion of an "activity spike" on that date.
+Many operating systems and software store dates as {{w|Unix time|Unix timestamps}}, which are defined as the number of seconds since January 1, 1970, 0:00 UTC. When data entry neglects to provide a value, the system may be programmed to treat it as 0; consequently, an unprovided timestamp value is interpreted as January 1, 1970, thereby creating the illusion of an “activity spike” on that date.
 ==Transcript==

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 ===Dec 30th, 1899===
-Dec 30th, 1899 comes from a [https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-review/ spreadsheet date compatibility issue] between Excel and Lotus 1-2-3 (referenced in the title text.) Spreadsheets store dates as sequential numbers so that they can be used in calculations. In Excel, by default, January 1, 1900 is number 1 [https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/datevalue-function-df8b07d4-7761-4a93-bc33-b7471bbff252]. Based on that, Excel's integer date representation would be the number of days that have passed since December 31, 1899.  However, because of a bug intentionally carried over from Lotus 1-2-3 where it counts February 29, 1900 as a day even though it actually was not [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/excel/wrongly-assumes-1900-is-leap-year], for any day since then, Excel's integer date representation is actually the number of days that have passed since December 30, 1899.  Most other spreadsheet applications copied the behavior of Excel to maintain compatibility with it. This leads to the value of 0 in some applications (notably Open- and LibreOffice Calc and Google Spreadsheets) being interpreted as Dec 30th, 1899. Similarly, Microsoft Visual Basic and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) interpret 0.0 as Dec 30th, 1899.
+Dec 30th, 1899 comes from a [https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-review/ spreadsheet date compatibility issue] between Excel and Lotus 1-2-3 (referenced in the title text). Spreadsheets store dates as sequential numbers so that they can be used in calculations. In Excel, by default, January 1, 1900 is number 1 [https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/datevalue-function-df8b07d4-7761-4a93-bc33-b7471bbff252]. Based on that, Excel’s integer date representation would be the number of days that have passed since December 31, 1899.  However, because of a bug intentionally carried over from Lotus 1-2-3 where it counts February 29, 1900 as a day even though it actually was not [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/excel/wrongly-assumes-1900-is-leap-year], for any day since then, Excel’s integer date representation is actually the number of days that have passed since December 30, 1899.  Most other spreadsheet applications copied the behavior of Excel to maintain compatibility with it. This leads to the value of 0 in some applications (notably Open- and LibreOffice Calc and Google Spreadsheets) being interpreted as December 30, 1899. Similarly, Microsoft Visual Basic and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) interpret 0.0 as December 30, 1899.
-The historian in the comic presents some research wrongly based only on the number of entries created on those dates. This confusion on the part of the future historian only grows in the title text, where they make the claim that Lotus 1-2-3 is, in fact, religious imagery related to some sort of deity, potentially a lotus god, around whom the '1899 event' took place. This may be poking fun at the trope that anthropologists attribute any behavior they can't explain to religious ritual.{{Actual citation needed}} This historian's confusion may have been at least partially due to China's {{w|White Lotus|White Lotus Religion}}.
+The historian in the comic presents some research wrongly based only on the number of entries created on those dates. This confusion on the part of the future historian only grows in the title text, where they make the claim that Lotus 1-2-3 is, in fact, religious imagery related to some sort of deity, potentially a lotus god, around whom the ‘1899 event’ took place. This may be poking fun at the trope that anthropologists attribute any behavior they can’t explain to religious ritual.{{Actual citation needed}} This historian’s confusion may have been at least partially due to China’s {{w|White Lotus|White Lotus Religion}}.
 ===Jan 1st, 1970===

@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 ===Jan 1st, 1970===
-Many operating systems and software store dates as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time Unix timestamps], which are defined as the number of seconds since Jan 1st, 1970, 0:00 UTC. When data entry neglects to provide a value, the system may be programmed to treat it as 0; consequently, an unprovided timestamp value is interpreted as Jan 1st, 1970 thereby creating the illusion of an "activity spike" on that date.
+Many operating systems and software store dates as {{w|Unix time|Unix timestamps}}, which are defined as the number of seconds since Jan 1st, 1970, 0:00 UTC. When data entry neglects to provide a value, the system may be programmed to treat it as 0; consequently, an unprovided timestamp value is interpreted as Jan 1st, 1970 thereby creating the illusion of an "activity spike" on that date.
 ==Transcript==
-:[Blondie is talking, while pointing to a hologram showing a timeline with two dates, 1899 and 1970. At the top of the hologram are two lines of text, above "1899" are three lines of text, above "1970" is one line of text, below "1899" are two lines of text, and below "1970" is one line of text; all of these lines of text are illegible.]
+:[Blondie is lecturing, pointing at a futuristic holographic display emanating upwards from a unit on the floor. It shows a presentation that features a timeline with two visible dates, 1899 and 1970. At the top of the hologram are two lines of text, above "1899" are three lines of text, above "1970" is one line of text, below "1899" are two lines of text, and below "1970" is one line of text; all of these lines of text are illegible.]
 :Blondie: Historical records show millions of business transactions occurred on Dec 30<sup>th</sup>, 1899.
 :Blondie: This economic activity sparked the digital age, culminating in a "data festival" on Jan 1<sup>st</sup>, 1970, when many early digital files were created.

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 Dec 30th, 1899 comes from a [https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-review/ spreadsheet date compatibility issue] between Excel and Lotus 1-2-3 (referenced in the title text.) Spreadsheets store dates as sequential numbers so that they can be used in calculations. In Excel, by default, January 1, 1900 is number 1 [https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/datevalue-function-df8b07d4-7761-4a93-bc33-b7471bbff252]. Based on that, Excel's integer date representation would be the number of days that have passed since December 31, 1899.  However, because of a bug intentionally carried over from Lotus 1-2-3 where it counts February 29, 1900 as a day even though it actually was not [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/excel/wrongly-assumes-1900-is-leap-year], for any day since then, Excel's integer date representation is actually the number of days that have passed since December 30, 1899.  Most other spreadsheet applications copied the behavior of Excel to maintain compatibility with it. This leads to the value of 0 in some applications (notably Open- and LibreOffice Calc and Google Spreadsheets) being interpreted as Dec 30th, 1899. Similarly, Microsoft Visual Basic and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) interpret 0.0 as Dec 30th, 1899.
-The historian in the comic presents some research wrongly based only on the number of entries created on those dates. This confusion on the part of the future historian only grows in the title text, where they make the claim that Lotus 1-2-3 is, in fact, religious imagery related to some sort of deity, potentially a lotus god, around whom the '1899 event' took place. This may be poking fun at the trope that anthropologists attribute any behavior they can't explain to religious ritual.{{Actual Citation needed}} This historian's confusion may have been at least partially due to China's {{w|White Lotus|White Lotus Religion}}.
+The historian in the comic presents some research wrongly based only on the number of entries created on those dates. This confusion on the part of the future historian only grows in the title text, where they make the claim that Lotus 1-2-3 is, in fact, religious imagery related to some sort of deity, potentially a lotus god, around whom the '1899 event' took place. This may be poking fun at the trope that anthropologists attribute any behavior they can't explain to religious ritual.{{Actual Citation Needed}} This historian's confusion may have been at least partially due to China's {{w|White Lotus|White Lotus Religion}}.
 ===Jan 1st, 1970===