Re: Concalendrical reference point

(Types meekly) There is a point in time astronomers use for calendrical
purposes, but it's not really an 'event' such as a supernova outburst,
bright comet or anything like that. It's simply the point in time at which
various divergent calendars are actually harmonious. The system that uses
this as its zero point is called the Julian calendar, and the date is in
4713BC. The actual date escapes me - but is that suitable?
Mike
> troubles me - from what date to start the long count of years?  I
> could just start it from when I finish the calendar (or that year,
> anyway - I'm thinking of having the year start at the vernal equinox,
> like the Vorlin calendar) but that seems to perhaps attach too much
> importance to the creation of the calendar itself.  I'm unable to
> decide on any one event of such importance in history.  So one idea I
> had was to simply take the earliest recorded event which can be
> precisely dated (at least to the year) with a reasonable degree of
> certainty. So my question is, does anyone know what that event is?
> (Preferably not an astronomical observation, as we only know these
> with accuracy because we can project them back in time, and could do
> this in theory regardless of contemporary records - but another event
> recorded with reference to an astronomical event would be fine.)