It turns out:
· Ben Franklin began writing Poor Richard’s Almanack under the pen name of Richard Saunders in 1732.
· David Rittenhouse was born outside of Philadelphia in 1732 – he gave us the circular border that separates Delaware and Pennsylvania.
· In 1732, the first professional librarian was hired – Louis Timothee – right in Philadelphia.
· The first mass was held at Old Saint Joseph’s, an Jesuit-affiliated congregation, in Philadelphia.
· It wasn’t just happening in Philadelphia, James Oglethorpe was given the charter for the Georgia Colony (King George II liked the name!) in 1732 and we had our 13th colony!
· In Germany, Bach wrote the Magnificat, Handel was still a few years away from Messiah.
· And, yes, who can forget that Russia and Persia signed the Treaty of Riascha (Rasht) in 1732.
Now just as I was getting excited about all these connections, I read that in the year 1732, there were two calendars in the world — the Gregorian and the Julian. Pope Gregory tried to bring the calendar back to the sun (so to speak), and, in 1582, skipped 10 days and moved the start of the year from March 25 to January 1. Not all countries were willing to follow the lead of a Roman Catholic Pope — it was (a) Papal Bull, after all. So, for example, Washington’s birthday can listed as Feb. 22, 1732 or February 11, 1731.
Well, we all eventually got on board with the Pope and we have a standard calendar, but we realize that history may not be an exact science. Yet, we can still marvel at how time treats important events of years past. The Ephrata Community no longer exists; Ben Franklin stopped publishing the Almanack; but, St. Joseph’s still celebrates mass. Georgia became a State, then a member of the Confederacy, and then a State again. People still enjoy libraries run by professional librarians, still enjoy sitting in Rittenhouse Square and still wonder about the funny border of northern Delaware. 1732 did not end fighting between Russia and Persia nor the signing of treaties between them.
So, we might ask: What will be the events of 2011 that will be remembered? What events will be lasting? In the meantime, let’s make the most of our years, our months and our days.
