The Last Gasp of the Twentieth Century
I love to watch the odometer on the car rollover to nice even numbers like 20,000. Our van had 19,999 miles on it when I got home one day and I just had to run around the block to see it change. Calendars too change to nice round numbers like 2000 and I love to watch that too. Cars are different than calendars though. Cars have no miles on them when we start to use them. Our calendar, on the other hand, started with 1 AD.
The new year has begun and everything is Y2 OK. Fears about the meltdown of all things electronic fizzled when our ATM cards still worked after midnight. Now we can turn our attention to fixing the 3M problem. The world has been bombarded with a message, from otherwise reliable media, that reinforces the misconception that we now live in the 21st century.
Everyone has given the nod to the Third Millennium as having arrived: The Associated Press, NBC, ABC, and CBS News, and CNN among others, perhaps under pressure from their advertising departments, have heralded the arrival of Twenty First Century. TIME has even named their Man of the Century: Albert Einstein. But the Twentieth Century includes the year 2000 so the 3rd millennium is a year away..
I think TIME made the right decision. Einstein was, without a doubt, the most brilliant mind of our time. The problem is that we are not yet finished with the Twentieth Century. As a physics major, I was taught that the 3rd millennium would begin in 2001.
According to the U.S. Naval Observatory:
"Years of the Gregorian calendar, which is currently in use today, are counted from AD 1. Thus, the 1st century comprised the years AD 1 through AD 100. The second century began with AD 101 and continued through AD 200. By extrapolation we find that the 20th century comprises the years AD 1901-2000. Therefore, the 21st century will begin with 1 January 2001 and continue through 31 December 2100.
Similarly, the 1st millennium comprised the years AD 1-1000. The 2nd
millennium comprises the years AD 1001-2000. The 3rd millennium will begin with
AD 2001 and continue through AD 3000."
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/faq/docs/millennium.html
There was no "year zero" so the media ushered in the New Millennium a year early. But, not to worry, I am sure the marketing department will send a press release announcing a new "end of the millennium" campaign when the discrepancy is discovered along about February.
The current calendar, supposedly dating from Christ's birth - but probably 4 years off, was begun in Roman times and fine-tuned by medieval sages. In addition, Christ was probably born during the springtime according to biblical scholars. Today's calendar is used throughout the world to conduct business, but at a historical and religious level is often rejected. Jews, for example, view the year as 5760; for Muslims it is 1420.
If we are to be true to the reference we have used since the middle-ages for our calendar, we should celebrate this millennial year with friends and family and remember the spirit of the twentieth century when it ends December 31, 2000.
Feel free to comment in the "Your Views" forum.