Going as far back in time as Noah's ark, the lack of a yardstick was not a serious drawback. Most measuring was done by one craftsman completing one job at a time, rather than assembling a number of articles piecemeal to be assembled later, it didn't make much difference how accurate the measuring sticks were or even how long they were. Generally, it doesn't make much difference how long is a mile, yard or inch or how heavy is a pound or ounce. What is really important is that everyone means the same thing when referring to each unit of measurement. Measurements must be standard to mean the same thing to everyone.
The cubit of Noah's time was the length of a man's forearm or the distance from the tip of the elbow to the end of his middle finger. Many times this was useful, because it was readily available, convenient, and couldn't be mislaid. However, it was not a positive fixed dimension or a standard.
While the cubit is no longer used as a unit of measurement, there are many customary standards that originated in about the same way. Our foot-rule started out as the length of a man's foot. So, in the early days of history, the foot varied in length, sometimes as much as 3 or 4 inches. Once the ancients started using arms and feet for measuring distance, it was only natural that they also thought of using fingers, hands, and legs. They also may have discovered that some surprising ratios existed in body measurements. What is now called an inch originally was the width of a man's thumb. It also was the length of the forefinger from the tip to the first joint. Twelve times that distance made a foot. Three times the length of the foot was the distance from the tip of a man's nose to the end of his outstretched arm. This distance very closely approximates what is called the yard. Two yards equaled a fathom which, thousands of years ago, was the distance across a man's outstretched arms. Half a yard was the 18-inch cubit, and half a cubit was called a span, which was the distance across the hand from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger when the fingers were spread out as far as possible. A hand was half a span.
For thousands of years, this was the way people measured comparatively short distances. Each succeeding civilization added to mankind's knowledge, building an accumulation of measuring standards and techniques. Some contributed weight measures. Others showed us how to measure time. Still, others gave us methods for surveying big areas of land and establishing boundaries.
In techniques for measuring weights, the Babylonians made important improvements upon the invention of the balance. Instead of just comparing the weights of two objects, they compared the weight of each object with a set of stones kept just for that purpose. In the ruins of their cities, archaeologists have found some of these stones finely shaped and polished. It is believed that these were the world's first weight standards.
The Babylonians used different stones for weighing different commodities. In modern English history, the same basis has been used for weight measurements. For the horseman, the "stone" weight was 14 pounds. In weighing wool the stone was 16 pounds. For the butcher and fishmonger, the stone was 8 pounds. The only legal stone weight in the imperial system was 14 pounds.
The Egyptians and the Greeks used a wheat seed as the smallest unit of weight, a standard that was very uniform and accurate for the times. The grain is still in limited use as a standard weight. However, wheat seeds are no longer actually put in the pan of the balance scale. Instead, a weight that is practically the same as that of an average grain of wheat is arbitrarily assigned to the grain. The Arabs established a small weight standard for gold, silver and precious stones which very often were a part of trade or barter deals. To weight the small valuable quantities, they used as a weight standard a small bean called a karob. This was the origin of the word carat which jewelers still use to express the weight of gems and precious metals.
In trading between tribes and nations, many of these methods for measuring weights and distances gradually became intermixed, particularly by the Romans who spread this knowledge throughout the known world at that time, also adding some standards of their own. As the Roman soldiers marched, they kept track of the distance they traveled by counting paces. A pace was the distance covered from the time one foot touched the ground until that same foot touched the ground again, or the length of a double step.
When the Roman Empire passed into history about six hundred years after the time of Christ, Europe then drifted into the Dark Ages. For six or seven hundred years mankind generally made little progress with regard to standardizing measurement. Sometime after the Magna Charta was signed in the Thirteenth Century, King Edward I of England took a step forward. He ordered a permanent measuring stick made of iron to serve as a master standard yardstick for the entire kingdom. This master yardstick was called the "iron ulna", after the bone of the forearm, and it was standardized as the length of a yard, very close to the length of our present-day yard. King Edward realized that constancy and permanence were the key to any standard. He also decreed that the foot measure should be one-third the length of the yard, and the inch one thirty-sixth. King Edward II, in 1324, reverted back to the seed concept of the ancients and passed a statute that "three barleycorns, round and dry," make an inch. However, seeds, as well as fingers and feet, were no match for a world that soon was to emerge from the ignorance and unrefined practices of the Dark Ages.
In 1672, Sir Isaac Newton presented the world with new ideas on the nature of light and color. He had noticed that when two flat pieces of glass were pressed together, he could see circular bands of rainbow-like colors. These were called Newton's Rings. Actually, Newton had come upon a very precise method of measurement, but he didn't recognize it as such at the time. Later, other scientists were to build on Newton's seminal findings and establish a new branch of science called interferometry . Today, this method of using a ray of light as a measuring stick enables man to measure distances within millionths of an inch or a millimetre.
As the scientists were experimenting in their laboratories, practical tradesmen were making themselves permanent standards. In 1793, during Napoleon's time, the French government adopted a new system of standards called the metric system, based on what they called the metre. The metre was supposed to be one tenth-millionth part of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator when measured on a straight line running along the surface of the earth through Paris. With the metre now determined as the basis of the metric system, other linear units of the system were set up in decimal ratios with the metre. With this system, all units are in multiples of ten: ten decimetres in a metre, a hundred centimetres in a metre, and a thousand millimetres in a metre. In the other direction, there are ten metres in a dekametre, a hundred metres in a hectometre, and a thousand metres in a kilometre. Compared to the yardstick, the metre is just a little longer: 39.37 inches long.
The metric system also has volume, liquid capacity, and weight measures. The litre is the basic measure of liquid capacity. It corresponds roughly to a quart. For weight, the basic unit in the metric system was at first the gram; now it is the kilogram. The gram was a very small unit, for it takes a thousand grams -- or what is known as a kilogram -- to equal about 2.2 pounds.
The French government thought it had an infallible system of weights and measures that would be easy to use and would be embraced by everyone. But people were accustomed to thinking in terms of yards, inches, pounds and quarts. At first the new metre as a measure of length proved confusing. Most Frenchmen thought in the old familiar terms, doing some mental arithmetic to convert one quantity into another and, after nineteen years, Napoleon finally was forced to renounce the metric system. However, in 1837, France again went back to the metre, this time for good, hoping to make it universal throughout the world. Today almost all of the countries of the world use a modernized metric system called the SI metric system.
While France was evolving the metric system, England also was setting up a more scientifically accurate determination of the yard. Where the French relied on the assumed constancy of the earth's size as a basis for the permanency of their standards, the British turned to the measured beat of the pendulum. Galileo already had learned the secrets of a pendulum. He found that the length of time it took for a pendulum to complete a swing depended upon the length of the pendulum itself. The longer the pendulum, the slower it swung. He also found that a pendulum a little over 39 inches long would swing through its arc in exactly one second. Since a pendulum always behaves exactly the same way under the same conditions, here was another unchanging distance upon which to base a standard measurement.
In 1824, the English Parliament legalized a new standard yard which had been made in 1760. It was a brass bar containing a gold button near each end. A dot was engraved in each of these two buttons. These two dots were spaced exactly 1 yard apart. The same act that legalized this bar as the standard for England also made the provision that, in the event it was lost or destroyed, it should be replaced using the pendulum method to determine its length. A few years copies of both the English yard and the French metre standards were brought to the United States. The English system of measuring was almost universally adopted in the United States.
Since colonialists brought with them the measuring methods of their homeland, confusing and contradictory measuring systems came to America. For instance, the imperial gallon used in England did not come to America. The U.S. gallon is a smaller one, and was called the Queen Anne wine gallon by the British. Today this difference in size between the Imperial gallon and the U.S. gallon causes confusion when converting to the metric system.
The law of 1792, under the new Constitution of the United States, provided for fractional coinage and for the decimal system. The adoption of the decimal system for coins shows that the American leaders recognized the advantages of the simple decimal system. In 1795, France tried to convince the United States to use the metric system, but Congress did nothing. In 1821 John Quincy Adams wrote a comprehensive report for Congress based on a four-year investigation. His report dealt with the metric question and the modernization of our measurement system: An excerpt of the report follows:
"Weights and Measures may be ranked among the necessaries of life to every individual of human society. They enter into the economical arrangements and daily concerns of every family. They are necessary to every occupation of human industry; to the distribution and security of every species of property; to every transaction of trade and commerce; to the labors of the husbandman; to the ingenuity of the artificer; to the studies of the philosopher; to the researches of the antiquarian; to the navigation of the mariner; and the marches of the soldier; to all the exchanges of peace, and all the operations of war. The knowledge of them, as in established use, is among the first elements of education, and is often learned by those who learn nothing else, not even to read and write. This knowledge is riveted in the memory by the habitual application of it to the employments of men throughout life."
This was the first U.S. metric study. Although three decades earlier, Thomas Jefferson also had written a report for the Congress on the need for modernization of weights and measures, the metric system was no more than a conception in this time, and his report was considered only an alternative not to be entertained seriously by the newly founded United States of America.
In spite of repeated requests in Congress, there was no legal length standard in the U.S. until 1832. More or less authentic copies of the British copies of the yard were used as length prototypes. In 1832, the Treasury Department decided to admit as a legal Yard the distance between the lines 27 and 63 of a certain bronze bar, 82 inches in length, bought in 1813 in England for the Federal Survey Department. When the British yard bar, which was destroyed in 1834, was replaced in 1855, a new bronze copy No. 11 was sent to the United States which became the legal American Yard Standard.
Even though progress was slow, there was an improvement in establishment of the metric standards which all the world recognized. Like the United Kingdom, the Americans found it necessary to define their customary measurements in terms of international metric standard. Our units of length, mass and volume are all stated in terms of the metric standards.
In 1863, the United States was represented at two important international congresses convened to consider matters of weights and measure. The International Statistical Congress in Berlin declared that uniformity in weights and measures was o the highest importance, particularly for international commerce. Recommendations made by the Postal Congress held at Paris resulted in the adoption of the metric system for international postal service.
Congress passed a Bill in 1866 which permitted use of the metric system of measurement in the United States. The value for the metre was given as: 1 metre = 39.37 inches or 1 yard = 0.914 401 829 metre. The metric prototype chosen was a metal bar known as the Committee Meter because it had been guaranteed to conform to the Metre des Archives by the French Committee in 1799. In 1873, metric weights were extended to silver coins. The weight of the half dollar is 12.5 grams; the quarter 6.25 grams; the nickel is 5 grams and the dime is 2.5 grams. In 1875 the United States entered into a treaty with 17 other countries establishing the International Bureau of Weights and Measures. In 1890, the United States received two of the International prototype metres and two of the kilogram artifacts. One of each of these standards was adopted as the National Prototype Metre and Kilogram and as the primary standards for the United States. As such they became the fundamental standards for determining the yard and the pound. The prototype metres and kilograms are preserved at the National Bureau of Standards. In 1896, and again in 1901, bills were introduced recommending the adoption of the metric system for all weights and measures in the United States, but for one reason or another the bills failed to pass. In the years following, many bills have been introduced which recommended establishing the metric system as the legal standard of the United States, however, very little action has been taken.
In 1968, Congress asked for a three-year, sweeping investigation of the metric question because it determined that the world trend toward metric called for a new assessment. The investigation involved public hearings, supplemented by surveys on international trade, business, and industry, education, national security -- almost every activity in our society -- and in 1971, the final report titled A Metric America -- A Decision Whose Time Has Come was released. It consisted of the comprehensive report plus twelve sub-study reports covering all aspects of the study.
Finally, in 1975 Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act. The major provisions of the bill provide for:
- treat as other costs of doing business
- no tax credits or subsidies
- hardship cases to be reviewed by Board
1791 - "Jefferson Report." Thomas Jefferson described England's weight and measures standards to Congress "on the supposition that the present measures are to be retained," and also outlined a decimal system of weights and measures of Jefferson's conception.
1821 - "Adams Report." John Quincy Adams recommended to Congress that they act to bring about uniformity in weights and measures, and described France's young Metric System as a praiseworthy attempt at uniformity.
1866 - "Law of 1866." Congress made use of the Metric System legally permissible throughout the United States.
1875 - "Treaty of the Meter." On May 20, the United States entered into a treaty with 17 powers establishing the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, and providing for its administration.
1890 - The United States officially received Metre No. 27 and Kilogram No. 20.
1893 - "The Mendenhall Order." The Secretary of the Treasury announced that the International metre and kilogram would be regarded as fundamental standards by the Office of Standard Weights and Measures (which became the National Bureau of Standards in 1901).
1902 - A bill brought before the Congress to make the Metric System mandatory within the Federal Government was defeated.
1957 - In September, a committee of the Organization of American States proposed that the Metric System be adopted throughout the Western Hemisphere.
1959 - Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States adopted common standards for the inch-pound system in metric terms. One inch was made equivalent to 2.54 centimetres and 1 pound was made equivalent to 0.453 592 37 kilograms. (The Coast and Geodetic Survey, which had used a slightly different conversion factor previously, retained their established relationship of 1 inch equaling 2.540.005 centimetres because of the extensive revisions which would be necessary to their charts and measurement records. The resulting foot based on this retained conversion is known as the U.S. Survey foot).
1965 - On May 24, the British Board of Trade announced that the government consider it desirable to adopt metric units in the United Kingdom, with a target date for conversion of 10 years.
1968 - An Act providing for a 3-year program to determine the impact of increasing use of the metric system on the United States was passed by Congress and signed into law by the President.
1969 - New Zealand began an eight-year conversion to metric units.
1970 - Australia announced plans for a 10-year change over to SI metric measurement.
1970 - Canada announced its commitment to metric conversion.
1971 - The comprehensive report on the U.S. Metric study titled A Metric America: A Decision Whose Time Has Come is released.
1973 - The American National Standards Institute established the American National Metric Council with offices in Washington, D.C.
1974 - Congress passed the first official legislation concerning conversion to the metric system as part of Public Law 93-380, to extend and amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Under section 403 of this Act entitled, "Education for the Use of the Metric System of Measurement", it states "the metric system of measurement will have increased use in the United States, and as such, the metric system will become the dominant system of weights and measures in the United States."
1975 - Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act.
1976 - The U.S. Metric Board is appointed.
Beginning December 23, 1975, the U.S., Metric Conversion Act was signed declaring a national policy of encouraging the voluntary use of the metric system. Federal agencies are in the process of making a transition to the metric system for their business-related activities.
Today the metric system, or SI system (Systeme International d'Unites), exists side by side with the U.S. customary system, which dates back to colonial days but is different from the British Imperial System. The debate on whether the United States should adopt the metric system has been going on for nearly 200 years. Today the United States is the only country in the world not totally committed to adopting the system.
The metric system is often considered a simpler form of measurement in that it includes only seven base units for different types of measurement:
All other metric units are derived from these units. For example, a newton, the unit of force, involves meters, kilograms, and seconds. A pascal, the unit of pressure, is one newton per square meter. Although the metric system was designed to fill all the needs of scientists and engineers, laypeople need know and use only a few simple parts of it.
The metric system is based on the decimal system and follows a consistent name scheme using prefixes. Multiples and submultiples are always related to powers of 10. For example, deka means ten times, hecto means a hundred times, kilo means a thousand times, mega means a million times, and so on; deci means a tenth of, centi means a hundredth of, milli means a thousandth of, micro means a millionth of, and so on.
Linear Measurement
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Area Measure
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Fluid Volume Measure
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Mass
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Cubic Measure
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A world heritage site is a site (natural or cultural) recognized by the international community (in the shape of the World Heritage Convention founded by the General Conference of UNESCO in 1972) as possessing universal value, and coming under a collective responsibility. A country nominates a site to the Convention, and a decision on whether to include it in the world heritage list is made by an 21-member international committee.
Butrinti
Jesuit Missions of the Guaranis: San Ignacio Mini, Santa Ana, Nuestra Senora de Loreto and Santa Maria Mayor (Argentina) ruins of Sao Miguel das Missoes (Brazil)
Belovezhskaya Pushcha/Bialowieza Forrest
Royal Palaces of Abomey
Angkor
Dja Faunal Reserve
Kluane National Park/Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park and Preserve, and Glacier Bay National Park
Parc, national du Manovo-Gounda Saint Floris
Port, fortresses and group of monuments, Cartagena
Talamanca Range-La Amistad Reserves/La Amistad National Park
Colonial city of Santo Domingo
Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve
National History Park - Citadel, Sans Souci, Ramiers
Vatican City
Hatra
Historic Centre of Rome, the properties of the Holy See in that city enjoying extraterritorial rights, and San Paolo fuori la Mura
Tsingy Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve
Lake Malawi National Park
Banc d'Arguin National Park
Island of Mozambique
Air-Tenere Reserve
The fortifications on the Caribbean side of Portobelo-San Lorenzo Darien National Park
Danube Delta
Skocjan Caves
Royal Domain of Drottningholm
Kiev: Saint Sophia Cathedral and related monastic buildings, and Lavra of Kiev-Pechersk
Itchan Kala
Victoria Falls/Mosi-oa-Tunya
Tip: use your browser's "find" capability to do a quick and efficient search.
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January -- Australia Day on the last Monday in Australia's calendar
January 1 -- New Year's Day throughout the Western world and in India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand; founding of Republic of China (Taiwan)
January 2 -- Berchtoldstag in Switzerland
January 3 -- Genshi-Sai (First Beginning) in Japan
January 5 -- Twelfth Night (Wassail Eve or Eve of Epiphany) in England
January 6 -- Epiphany, observed by Catholics throughout Europe and Latin America
mid-January -- Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, birthday on the third Monday in the Virgin Islands
January 15 -- Adults' Day in Japan
January 20 -- St. Agnes Eve in Great Britain
January 26 -- Republic Day in India
January-February -- Chinese New Year and Vietnamese New Year (Tet)
February -- Hamstrom on the first Sunday in Switzerland
February 3 -- Setsubun (Bean-throwing Festival) in Japan
February 5 -- Promulgation of the Constitution Day in Mexico
February 6 -- New Zealand Day in New Zealand
February 11 -- National Foundation Day in Japan
February 27 -- Independence Day in the Dominican Republic
March 1 -- Independence Movement Day in Korea; Constitution Day in Panama
March 8 -- International Women's Day in U.N. member nations
March 17 -- St. Patrick's Day in Ireland and Northern Ireland
March 19 -- St. Joseph's Day in Colombia, Costa Rica, Italy, and Spain
March 21 -- Benito Juarez's Birthday in Mexico
March 22 -- Arab League Day in Arab League countries
March 23 -- Pakistan Day in Pakistan
March 25 -- Independence Day in Greece; Lady Day (Quarter Day) in Great Britain
March 26 -- Fiesta del Arbol (Arbor Day) in Spain
March 29 -- Youth and Martyrs' Day in Taiwan
March 30 -- Muslim New Year in Indonesia
March-April -- Carnival/Lent/Easter: The pre-Lenten celebration of Carnival (Mardi Gras) and the post-Lenten celebration of Easter are movable feasts widely observed in Christian countries.
April 1 -- Victory Day in Spain; April Fools' Day (All Fools' Day) in Great Britain
April 5 -- Arbor Day in Korea
April 6 -- Van Riebeeck Day in South Africa
April 7 -- World Health Day in U.N. member nations
April 8 -- Buddha's Birthday in Korea and Japan; Hana Matsuri (Flower Festival) in Japan
April 14 -- Pan American Day in the Americas
April 19 -- Declaration of Independence Day in Venezuela
April 22 -- Queen Isabella Day in Spain
April 23 -- St. George's Day in England
April 25 -- Liberation Day in Italy; ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand
April 26 -- Union Day in Tanzania
April 29 -- Emperor's Birthday in Japan
April 30 -- Queen's Birthday in The Netherlands; Walpurgis Night in Germany and Scandinavia
April-May -- Independence Day in Israel
May -- Constitution Day on first Monday in Japan
May 1 -- May Day-Labor Day in the Commonwealth of Independent States and most of Europe and Latin America
May 5 -- Children's Day in Japan and Korea; Victory of General Zaragosa Day in Mexico; Liberation Day in The Netherlands
May 8 -- V-E Day in Europe
May 9 -- Victory over Fascism Day in the Commonwealth of Independent States
May 14 -- Independence Day in Paraguay
May 31 -- Republic Day in South Africa
June 2 -- Founding of the Republic Day in Italy
June 5 -- Constitution Day in Denmark; World Environment Day in U.N. member nations
June 6 -- Memorial Day in Korea; Flag Day in Sweden
June 8 -- Muhammad's Birthday in Indonesia
June 10 -- Portugal Day in Portugal
June 12 -- Republic Day in the Commonwealth of Independent States; Independence Day in the Philippines
mid-June -- Queen's Official Birthday on second Saturday in Great Britain; Midsummer Celebrations in Sweden
June 16 -- Soweto Day in U.N. member nations
June 20 -- Flag Day in Argentina
June 29 -- Feast of Saints Peter and Paul in Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Italy, Peru, Spain, Vatican City, and Venezuela
July 1 -- Half-year Holiday in Hong Kong; Bank Holiday in Taiwan; Dominion Day in Canada
July 5 -- Independence Day in Venezuela
July 9 -- Independence Day in Argentina
July 10 -- Bon (Feast of Fortune) in Japan
July 12 -- Orangemen's Day in Northern Ireland
July 14 -- Bastille Day in France
mid-July -- Feria de San Fermin during second week in Spain
July 17 -- Constitution Day in Korea
July 18 -- National Day in Spain
July 20 -- Independence Day in Colombia
July 21-22 -- National Holiday in Belgium
July 22 -- National Liberation Day in Poland
July 24 -- Simon Bolivar's Birthday in Ecuador and Venezuela
July 25 -- St. James Day in Spain
July 28-29 -- Independence Day in Peru
August -- Bank Holiday on first Monday in Fiji, Grenada, Guyana, Hong Kong, Ireland, and Malawi; Discovery Day on first Monday in Trinidad and Tobago; Independence Day on first Tuesday in Jamaica
August 1 -- Lammas Day in England; National Day in Switzerland
August 9 -- National Day in Singapore
August 10 -- Independence Day in Ecuador
August 14 -- Independence Day in Pakistan
August 15 -- Independence Day in India and Korea; Assumption Day in Catholic countries
August 16 -- National Restoration Day in the Dominican Republic
August 17 -- Independence Day in Indonesia
August 31 -- Independence Day in Trinidad and Tobago
September -- Rose of Tralee Festival in Ireland
September 7 -- Independence Day in Brazil
September 9 -- Choxo-no-Sekku (Chrysanthemum Day) in Japan
September 14 -- Battle of San Jacinto Day in Nicaragua
mid-September -- Sherry Wine Harvest in Spain
September 15 -- Independence Day in Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Nicaragua; Respect for the Aged Day in Japan
September 16 -- Independence Day in Mexico and Papua New Guinea
September 18-19 -- Independence Day in Chile
September 28 -- Confucius' Birthday in Taiwan
October -- Thanksgiving Day in Canada on second Monday; Kruger Day in South Africa during second week
October 1 -- National Day in People's Republic of China; Armed Forces Day in Korea; National Holiday in Nigeria
October 2 -- National Day in People's Republic of China; Mahatma Gandhi's Birthday in India
October 3 -- National Day in the Federal Republic of Germany; National Foundation Day in Korea
October 5 -- Republic Day in Portugal
October 9 -- Korean Alphabet Day in Korea
October 10 -- Founding of Republic of China in Taiwan
October 12 -- Columbus Day in Spain and widely throughout Latin America
October 19 -- Ascension of Muhammad Day in Indonesia
October 20 -- Revolution Day in Guatemala; Kenyatta Day in Kenya
October 24 -- United Nations Day in U.N. member nations
October 26 -- National Holiday in Australia
October 28 -- Greek National Day in Greece
November 1 -- All Saints' Day, observed by Catholics in most countries
November 2 -- All Souls' Day in Ecuador, El Salvador, Luxembourg, Macao, Mexico, San Marino, Uruguay, and Vatican City
November 3 -- Culture Day in Japan
November 4 -- National Unity Day in Italy
November 5 -- Guy Fawkes Day in Great Britain
November 11 -- Armistice Day in Belgium, French Guiana, and Tahiti; Veterans Day in France; Remembrance Day in Canada and Bermuda
November 12 -- Sun Yat-sen's Birthday in Taiwan
November 15 -- Proclamation of the Republic Day in Brazil
November 19 -- National Holiday in Monaco
November 20 -- Anniversary of the Revolution in Mexico
November 23 -- Kinro-Kansha-No-Hi (Labor Thanksgiving Day) in Japan
November 30 -- National Heroes' Day in the Philippines
December 5 -- Discovery by Columbus Day in Haiti
December 6 -- Independence Day in Finland
December 8 -- Feast of the Immaculate Conception, widely observed in Catholic countries
December 10 -- Constitution Day in Thailand; Human Rights Day in U.N. member nations
mid-December -- Nine Days of Posada during third week in Mexico
December 25 Christmas Day, widely observed in all Christian countries
December 26 -- St. Stephen's Day in Austria, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, San Marino, and Switzerland; Boxing Day in Great Britain and Northern Ireland
December 28 -- National Day in Nepal
December 31 -- New Year's Eve throughout the world; Omisoka (Grand Last Day) in Japan; Hogmanay Day in Scotland