Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2016 December 13

= December 13 =

December 13 solstice
In the Julian calendar, the date for winter solstice (in the Northern hemisphere) gradually shifts earlier and earlier. At one time, that means winter solstice would have occurred on December 13 (that is, December 13 in the Julian calendar). Between which specific years was this true? Gabbe (talk) 09:53, 13 December 2016 (UTC)


 * Given that winter solstice would be 21 December through 23 December in the Northern Hemisphere, we would have:
 * Gregorian 21 December = Julian 13 December from 1300 to 1399
 * Gregorian 22 December = Julian 13 December from 1400 to 1499
 * Gregorian 23 December = Julian 13 December from 1500 to 1699 (note that this is two centuries, as opposed to the former ranges, which are one century, because 1600 is divisible by 400)
 * Which years correspond to which specific date of solstice is left as an exercise for someone with more time on their hands. You should recheck this yourself, of course, before climbing into the time machine, as I could easily have miscalculated.  - Nunh-huh 11:01, 13 December 2016 (UTC)
 * For most of those years, there was no Gregorian calendar, so it's not really necessary to convert a Julian date to a Gregorian one (unless you're using a Proleptic Gregorian calendar for whatever reason, or you're physically travelling back in time). Adam Bishop (talk) 18:47, 13 December 2016 (UTC)
 * It's necessary if you're calculating a Julian solstice on the basis of what its date would have been in the proleptic Gregorian calendar. Which is what I was doing. Because I know what dates the solstice could possibly fall on in our present Gregorian calendar. Do you have a better approach? - Nunh-huh 20:23, 13 December 2016 (UTC)
 * More important is that the date of the solstice will depend on your longitude.  Assuming the timings to be mean solar time at Greenwich (Greenwich Mean Time wasn't invented till 1847) the years are 1256, 1260, 1264, 1268, 1272, 1276, 1280, 1281, 1284, 1285, 1288, 1289, 1292, 1293, 1296, 1297, 1300, 1301, 1304, 1305, 1308, 1309, 1312, 1313, 1316, 1317, 1318, 1320, 1321, 1322, 1324, 1325, 1326, 1328, 1329, 1330, 1332, 1333, 1334, 1336, 1337, 1338, 1340, 1341, 1342, 1344, 1345, 1346, 1348 - 1387, 1389, 1390, 1391, 1393, 1394, 1395, 1397, 1398, 1399, 1401, 1402, 1403, 1405, 1406, 1407, 1409, 1410, 1411, 1413, 1414, 1415, 1417, 1418, 1419, 1422, 1423, 1426, 1427, 1430, 1431, 1434, 1435, 1438, 1439, 1442, 1443, 1446, 1447, 1450, 1451, 1455, 1459, 1463, 1467, 1471, 1475, 1479, 1483 and 1487. 2A02:C7F:BE2B:5600:60D9:9541:50EC:A0A (talk) 20:53, 13 December 2016 (UTC)

Michele Sindona
Is there any SERIOUS evidence -or, at least, speculation- on who killed Michele Sindona? 2A02:587:2903:6900:58F6:D59D:D0C4:B5A7 (talk) 20:50, 13 December 2016 (UTC)


 * Nobody knows. It is actually not completely clear it was murder. claims it could be suicide. Possibly the article has to be updated to reflect this. There is plenty of speculative theories about the need to silence him. And it wouldn't be surprising to discover that the mafia has killed him. --Hofhof (talk) 00:03, 14 December 2016 (UTC)