Select from the English alphabet only those letters, and just once each, which represent Roman numerals. Place them in a special order to represent a year in history that holds significance.

What is that year, and what are at least two reasons for that significance?

(In reply to another interpretation by Daniel)

One of them comes up as an "Annus mirabilus", and the entry in Wikipedia for that for this 1666 is:

<H2>1666 - The year of wonders</H2>

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known written usage of the Latin phrase "Annus Mirabilis" is as the title of a poem composed by English poet John Dryden about the events of 1666 C.E. The phrase "annus mirabilis" translates as "wonderful year" or "year of miracles". In fact, the year was beset by great calamity for England (including the Great Fire of London), but Dryden chose to interpret the absence of greater disaster as miraculous intervention by God, as "666" is the Number of the Beast and the year 1666 was expected by some to be particularly disastrous.

In addition to this, the English fleet defeated a Dutch fleet in the St James' Day Battle, for a great victory at sea. (However, in 1667 the Dutch burned much of the English fleet in the raid on the Medway and Charles II was forced to sue for peace.)

<H4>[edit] Isaac Newton</H4>

In the year 1666, Isaac Newton made revolutionary inventions and discoveries in calculus, motion, optics and gravitation. As such, it has later been called Isaac Newton's "Annus Mirabilis." It is this year when Isaac Newton observed an apple falling from a tree, and hit upon gravitation (Newton's apple). He was afforded the time to work on his theories due to the closure of Cambridge University by an outbreak of plague. Going to his country home, he thought about many things that, in Cambridge, he did not have the opportunity to do with such devotion.

Edited on August 21, 2009, 2:34 pm

Posted by Charlie on 2009-08-21 14:20:17