2012 phenomenon galaxy, or Earth's collision with a mythical planet called Nibiru. Scholars from various disciplines quickly dismissed predictions of concomitant cataclysmic events as they arose. Professional Mayanist scholars stated that no extant classic Maya accounts forecast impending doom, and that the idea that the Long Count calendar ends in 2012 misrepresented Maya history and culture, while astronomers rejected the various proposed doomsday scenarios as pseudoscience, easily refuted by elementary astronomical observations. December 2012 marked the conclusion of a "b'ak'tun"—a time period in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used in Central America prior to the arrival of Europeans. Although the Long Count
Adoption of the Gregorian calendar when a 13th Julian leap day was skipped in 1900, so the tax year in the United Kingdom still begins on 6 April. The European colonies of the Americas adopted the change when their mother countries did. In 1752, the British colonies (which as stated above adopted the New Style calendar in that year) extended as far west as the Appalachian Mountains. New France and New Spain had adopted the new calendar in 1582. In Alaska, the change took place after the United States purchased Alaska from Russia. Friday, 6 October 1867 was followed by Friday, 18 October. Instead of