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Countdown Till December 31, 2003

 

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE NEW MILLENNIUM

According to the U.S. Naval Observatory, the end of the second millennium and the beginning of the third will be reached on January 1, 2001. This date is based on a calendar created in 526 A.D. by Dennis the Diminutive, the head of a Roman monastery who forged a common calendar from the divergent dating systems of his day. Rather than starting with the year zero, the calendar begins with the date January 1, 1 A.D. Consequently, the next millennium is not officially reached until January 1, 2001. Despite this fact, much of the world will celebrate on December 31, 1999 as the calendars flip to the year 2000.

The difference between the Millennium and year 2000

Short explanation

The 3rd Millennium starts January 1st, year 2001 NOT year 2000 as many people believe.
Year 2000 starts January 1st, year 2000.

Longer explanation

The reason why the 3rd Millennium / 21st Century starts in 2001 is because there was no year 0 (or 0 AD, 0 BC). The year before 1 A.D. is defined as year 1 B.C., so year 0 is not defined - it never existed (See below.) Therefore, January 1st, year 1 is defined to be the start of the 1st century and the 1st Millennium.

Because 1 Millennium is 1000 years, the first Millennium ends with year 1000. The next (2nd) Millennium starts 1000 years after the first, that is in year 1+1000 = 1001. And the 3rd one starts 1000 years later than the 2nd: 1001+1000 = 2001. The same procedure could be followed for centuries. See the tables below for more information.

What should we celebrate?

It's no problem celebrating both of them, although probably most people will think year 2000 is the biggest of them.
When going to year 2000, we celebrate that it's a special round number, and in year 2001 we can celebrate a new century, a new Millennium, and that it's passed 2000 years since year 1 started.

What would cause the "year 2000-problem"

It's year 2000 that would cause that problem in most cases, not the Millennium/century-shift in year 2001, except for places where code is based on century/Millennium-code, which might be a problem in seldom cases.
The main problem with year 2000 is that computers may think it is year 1900 or similar, because they were programmed to use only two digits for year, then presuming that it was 19xx, so when xx=0, they might think it is 1900.
There are also a problem that some programs don't know that February 29th 2000 is a real date, there IS a leap day in year 2000.

Why was there no year 0?

When the present system we use to count years was invented in the 6th century (and later established around Europe) they used Roman numerals which did not have zero. Therefore 1 BC is the year before 1 AD, with no year 0 between.

Century-tables

Century-no. First day Last day
1. 1st of January 1 31st of December 100
2. 1st of January 101 31st of December 200
16. 1st of January 1501 31st of December 1600
17. 1st of January 1601 31st of December 1700
18. 1st of January 1701 31st of December 1800
19. 1st of January 1801 31st of December 1900
20. 1st of January 1901 31st of December 2000
21. 1st of January 2001 31st of December 2100
22. 1st of January 2101 31st of December 2200

Millennium-tables

Millennium-no. First day Last day
1. 1st of January 1 31st of December 1000
2. 1st of January 1001 31st of December 2000
3. 1st of January 2001 31st of December 3000
4. 1st of January 3001 31st of December 4000

 

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