How do I change my Apple password - when the system won't let me?

Question

Here's what I did:
1. Originally, my password was eight lowercase letters and a number.
2. Apple's required that I change the password to include eight letters, which must include a number and a letter with a capital letter. (E.g. password format changed from something like "password1" to "Password1".)
3. I need to revert my password to my original one. However, when I try to revert to my original password get an error message in red: "The Password specified has been used in the past year. Please select another."
How do I get my original password back?

Answer 1

One of the sites I routinely use requires the following:
As of (xx-xx-xx) all passwords shall conform to the following rules
10 character minimum
12 character maximum
At least one of the following
lower case letter
upper case letter
numeral
non-alphanumeric character (see exceptions below)
Must not contain any of the following
(a list follows consisting of fifteen specific prohibitions such as name, phone, cell, birth date, driver's license number, SS number, passport number, email addy etc, spelled either forward or backward)
several specific non-alphanumeric characters
two or more consecutive characters (e.g. Password1% is NG)
three or more consecutive characters from your last password (e.g. Pswojg9@# is NG)
any of your previous 20 passwords (twenty!!)
Passwords must be changed every 30 days
Good luck with that.
The purpose of this farce is clear - to absolve the IT department of blame should a password get hacked. If you write yours down as any normal human would be required to do (that's prohibited also), well, it's just not their fault when someone finds it taped to the underside of your desk. "It's for your security" is BS. It is for theirs.
The irony is that a password conforming to the above silliness is easier for a computer to break than a longer, but more memorable phrase - one intelligible to humans. To a computer, it's all the same: just a string of bits, and the more or them, the harder it is to crack.
So how bad does Apple seem now?
Perhaps one day, in a more enlightened age, the IT geniuses who come up with this nonsense will realize ridiculous password requirements hinder security rather than enhance it. From what I've observed of our species, enlightenment is not going well.