The reason why February has only 28 days, while the other months have 30 and 31 is attributable to the vanity of the Emperor Augustus. His uncle and predecessor corrected the calendar, arranging the year almost as we have it now; he gave to the year 12 months, or 365¼ days. The months were--March (the first month), April, May, June, Quintilis, Sextiles, September, October, November, December, January, and February (the latter being the last month of the year, which among the Romans had consisted originally of 10 months). Cæsar ordered that the year should begin with January, and divided the days among them thus: January, March, May, Quintilis, September, and November each had 31 days; April, June, Sextiles, October and December had 30 days each; and February (the last month added to the year) had 29 days regularly and a 30th day every fourth year. After Julius Cæsar’s death, Mark Antony changed the name of Quintilis to July as we have it now. Augustus wanted a month for himself, and wanted it as long as his uncle’s month, so he took Sextiles for his and changed the name to August. Then he took February’s 29th day and added it to August, so that it might have 31 days; and, to avoid having 3 months of 31 days each in succession, September and November were reduced to 30 days, and October and December increased to 31 days each. Previous to the year 1752, the legal year in England commenced on the 25th March. In that year it was enacted that the legal year should begin on 1st January. The change brought the calendar into unison with the actual state of the solar year. It is curious that in Scotland the change which made the legal year begin on January 1st was effected in 1600. For some time after the change in England, legal documents contained two dates for the period intervening between 1st January and 25th March--that of the old year and that of the new. During the time of Oliver Cromwell, Christmas Day was described as a superstitious festival, and put down in England by the strong hand of the law. There has been a superstitious notion that Fools’ Day dated back to the time of Noah’s Ark. The dove that was sent forth from the Ark is supposed to have returned on April 1st. THE MOST REMARKABLE MONTH was February, 1866. It had no full moon. January had two full moons, and so had March, but February had none. This had not occurred since the creation of the world, and it will not occur again, so scientists tell us.