50 years ago

A brief review of the history of the calendar by Y. G. Perel suggests the urgent desirability of establishing a world calendar, such as was proposed by India in 1953 before the United Nations. According to this proposal, the year will be divided into four quarters of thirteen weeks each, with the first month of thirty-one days and the following two of thirty days each. An additional day (the day of peace and friendship) is added after December 30, and on leap years an additional day after June 30.

From Nature 21 February 1959.

100 years ago

In this day of encyclopaedias numerous and ponderous, one is often struck with the fact that in spite of the manifest care and conscientious thought bestowed by the responsible editors, the omissions and evidences of discontinuity of treatment, and lack of recognition of the prime purposes of the compilation, are as noteworthy as the imposing array of the results of our steadily advancing knowledge is startling ... As an illustration, take the word “research,” or any of the associated terms — “discovery,” “experiment,” “investigation,” and “observation.” Turning to the index volumes of the ninth and tenth editions of the “Encyclopaedia Britannica,” I find but two references in which the word “research” appears — one to the exploring vessel, the Research, and the other to “research degrees.”

Also:

The Petit Journal recently asked its readers to select by their votes twelve great Frenchmen worthy of being included in the Pantheon. Pasteur's name appeared at the top of the poll with 315,203 votes, and was followed by that of Gambetta with 279,443 votes. We wonder whether a man of science would head the list if a similar plebiscite were taken by a popular daily paper in this country.

From Nature 18 February 1909.