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List of non-standard dates

description of non-standard dates used in calendars for various reasons

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ60674392
Source-derived summary

Several non-standard dates are used in calendars for various purposes: some are expressly fictional, some are intended to produce a rhetorical effect (such as sarcasm), and others attempt to address a particular mathematical, scientific or accounting requirement or discrepancy within the calendar system.

Historical

January 0

January 0 is an alternative date for December 31. January 0 is the day before January 1 and after December 30 in an annual ephemeris. It keeps the date in the year for which the ephemeris was published, thus avoiding any reference to the previous year, even though it is the same day as December 31 of the previous year (Jan 0, 1900 is the same as Dec 31, 1899). January 0 also occurs in the epoch for the ephemeris second, "1900 January 0 at 12 hours ephemeris time". 1900 January 0 (at Greenwich Mean Noon) was also the epoch used by Newcomb's Tables of the Sun, which became the epoch for the Dublin Julian day.

February 29

February 29 was a non-standard date until its adoption between the 15th and 17th centuries. Even afterward, it was not until the passage of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 that 29 February was formally recognised in British law.

Before this change, February 24 was doubled in leap years in the Julian calendar.

February 30

February 30 is a day that does not occur on the Gregorian calendar, where the month of February contains only 28 days, or 29 days in a leap year.

Editorial summary

“List of non-standard dates” enters the record as description of non-standard dates used in calendars for various reasons. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what List, non-standard and dates can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1900, 1899, 1750—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around List, non-standard and dates.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“List of non-standard dates” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, List, non-standard and dates provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q60674392. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1900, 1899 and 1750.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow List of non-standard dates primary sources, List of non-standard dates archive and List research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from List of non-standard dates” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.