Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 145, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1920 — YEAR ONCE BEGAN IN MARCH [ARTICLE]

YEAR ONCE BEGAN IN MARCH

Change In Style May Bo Said to Date From 1752—Great Militant Events in Month. -■- - - .-Pg- r; . : i. —-. Few people know, or, if they do, have forgotten, that March, and not January, at one time was the first month of the year, remarks the Chicago Journal. For commencing the year with March there seems to be sufficient reason in the fact that it is the first season after the “dead year,” in which decided symptoms of growth fake place. The name is derived from the Romans, among Whom it wte at an early period the first month of the year, and continued to be in several countries to a comparatively late period, the legal year beginning, even in England, on March 26, until the change of style in 1752. For the Romans to dedicate their first month to Mara and call It Marilus seems equally natural, 'considering the Importance they attached to war and the use they made of It. ' In the history of our own country April appears to cgrry off the palm for the month in which great militant events occurred, yet in the world war a number es epoch-making Incidents took place in March; for Instance, the revolution in Russia in 1917, when Osar Nicholas abdicated on March 15. The big drive on the 50-mile front from Areas to La Feu began on the 21st, and Paris was ln that month bombarded by “Big Bertha.”