Best wishes to all of our readers for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012. Thanks to all who helped us win the ABA award for one of the Top 100 Law Blogs in the U.S. and the award from LexisNexis for being one of the Top 25 Business Law Blogs. We will soon be posting our annual summary of key Delaware corporate and commercial decisions.

For those who ever wondered why January 1 is the date we all mark as the first day of the year, instead of the beginning of say, March or September, for example, an article available here describes its genesis in the appointment of new consuls for the government of the Roman Empire in about 153 B.C., as well as the papal decree of Pope Gregory XIII  in 1582 A.D. The article also explains the Roman origins of the Latin names we still use for each month of the year in what continues to be known, appropriately enough, as the Gregorian calendar.