pep proposal : A date object for the standard library

[Greg Ewing]

Peter Mayne wrote:
> 
> 00:00 o'clock, November
> 17, 1858. This is the Smithsonian base date and time for the astronomical
> calendar.

All right, so does anyone know why the Smithsonian
chose this date? Does it correspond to any important
celestial occurrence, or event in the history of
astronomy?

-- 
Greg Ewing, Computer Science Dept, University of Canterbury,	  
Christchurch, New Zealand
To get my email address, please visit my web page:	  
http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/~greg