Russia celebrates Programmers Day today, day 256 of the year

It’s the 256th day of the year, or when Russia celebrates a themed day called День программи́ста, or “Programmer’s Day.” The day falls on September 13 in normal years, but in a leap year it is September 12.

Programmer’s Day is one of the many official holidays and anniversaries in Russia. This falls under the professional holidays. The idea came from Dmitry Mendrelyukom on July 15, 1996. Six years later, web studio Parallel Technologies started a signature campaign to get the day officially recognized. Finally, the Ministry of Communications and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation presented the idea of ​​the day to the Russian government on July 24, 2009. On September 11, 2009, President Dmitry Medvedev signed the document proving it to be a public holiday: День программи́ста. The entire holiday list can be found on the Russian wiki.

The reason 256 was chosen is that the number represents the number of different values ​​that can be formed with a byte, i.e. 28. It is also the greatest power of 2 which is less than 365 or 366, the number of days in a year. . 256 hexadecimal is also 100.

In the rest of the world, programmers sometimes celebrate a similar day. They often use the day the Englishwoman Ada Lovelace was born, December 10, 1815, or in October, since she was recognized as the first computer programmer in 2009, along with the often-forgotten contributions of women to science.