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We’ll be updating our page on Facebook regularly. We’ll be using our Facebook page to announce updates and new services or applications as they become readily available. For more information visit our Facebook information page.

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Countdown for Facebook

We’ve just added a new application for you to use in your Facebook profile – the timeanddate.com Countdown. You can use the application to count down to any special event – including birthdays, anniversaries, wedding days, baby due dates, graduations, and other occasions.

Once you’re finished customizing your countdown for your special event (including time, location, and visual appearance), you can share it with others on Facebook. Here is more information on how to use the countdown for Facebook.

Upgraded Countdown App for iPhone

You can now get our upgraded iPhone countdown application, also known as the Exact Countdown 2011. It is found in the App Store with the name “Exact Countdown 2011”. This application includes the countdown to the New Year (January 1, 2011), birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, and other events.

This application tells you exactly when you enter the year 2011, and is synchronized with an accurate time source. We plan to enhance and extend this countdown application with more functionality in the near future.

Please feel free to comment on timeanddate.com’s updated iPhone application by sending an email to: [email protected].

Monthly Poll

June Poll

Our monthly poll lets readers voice out their opinions. For this month’s poll, tell us which tool you find most useful on our website. If you are having troubles with the vote function below, you can also vote online.

Previous Poll Results

You can view the previous poll results online for last month's poll question "What do you think about daylight saving time (DST)?".

All the Time in the World

by Allan Eastman

If It’s Tuesday, It Must Be Thursday

Allan Eastman left behind his successful career as a Film and Television Director and Executive Producer to travel the world. He has visited over 100 countries on all six continents. He spends most of his time reading, writing and thinking about things. He is an amateur historian, a music archivist, a reasonable chef and a seeker after happiness .

First Time Round The World

In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan set out from Spain under a Royal commission with 5 ships and about 270 men to find a route westward to the Spice Islands.

Like most voyages during the so called Age of Exploration, Magellan’s journey was really a predatory quest in pursuit of riches. The dominant European powers of Spain and Portugal were in battle with each other and with Asian Muslim regimes for control of the trade in pepper, cinnamon and cloves – commodities which at the time were worth far more than their weight in gold.

Magellan may have had a map derived from the epic explorations of the great Chinese sea expeditions of 1421. But his own voyage quickly degenerated into a disaster. After failing to find an inland water route through Brazil, several of Magellan’s subordinates mutinied so he ruthlessly executed or marooned many of the rebels. One ship deserted to report his tyrannies back to the King. During the terrifying passage of Cape Horn, another of the small wooden ships sank in the towering storm tossed seas.

Magellan finally arrived in the Philippines with 2 ships. He himself was killed by hostile natives during a beach battle on Mactan Island. The Portuguese captured another ship and hung most of the crew for poaching in their territory.

The one remaining ship – the Victoria – with a hold full of spices, crept back westward toward home. In July 1522, it made landfall in the Cape Verde islands. And there, the crew made a very curious discovery. Like most sailors, they had kept scrupulous records during their voyage with numerous entries in their daily log. According to their well kept records, the date was Wednesday, 9 July. But the local authorities informed them that No, it was in fact Thursday, 10 July.

An entire day had disappeared somehow. What had happened?

In September, the 18 remaining survivors of Magellan’s circumnavigation limped into their home port in Spain, the first people ever to complete a planned around the world journey. The crew’s reports of their strange Time distortion caused a sensation and a special commission was empanelled to investigate and report to the Pope.

Well, the answer is actually relatively simple – it was just that no one had ever experienced the phenomenon before so no one had ever really thought about it. Magellan’s crew had traveled westward all the way around the planet and in effect, had caught up with an entire day’s rotation of the planet by arriving back in the same place.

Read more of Allan Eastman’s articleIf It’s Tuesday, It Must Be Thursday, found at our guest feature section All the Time in the World.

June Solstice on June 21, 2010

The June solstice occurs at 11:29am Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on June 21 in 2010. The June solstice is often referred to as the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere and winter solstice in the southern hemisphere.

The June solstice occurs when the sun is at its furthest point from the equator – it reaches its northernmost point and the earth’s North Pole tilts directly towards the sun, at about 23.5 degrees. It is important to note that earth does not move at a constant speed in its elliptical orbit. Therefore the seasons are not of equal length.

You can use the Seasons Calculator to find the June solstice date in other time zones or other years (the calculator is under the table on the page). The calculator also lists the September equinox, December solstice, and March equinox in 2010 and other years.