Subject:
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Re: When did the 3rd millennium start?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.geek
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Date:
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Tue, 2 Jan 2001 04:49:52 GMT
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Viewed:
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817 times
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In lugnet.castle, Todd Lehman writes:
> In lugnet.castle, Frank Filz writes:
> > [...]
> > to the digits, and for some reason, we have a liking to numbers which end in
> > lots of 0s, so with that perspective in mind, the millenium clearly starts • in
> > 2000, after all, when we talk about the 80s, we mean 1980/01/01 to • 1989/12/31
> > not 1981/01/01 to 1990/12/31.
>
> But if you're talking about the 9th decade of the 20th century, aren't you
> referring to 1981/01/01 to 1990/12/31?
Well, my point would be that the 20th century most sensibly (to me) starts
1900/01/01 so the 9th decade would still start at 1980/01/01.
But really its all pretty irrelevant. The 20th century isn't the 20th century
of anything real (since 1/12/25 is almost certainly not the day Jesus was
born). The only thing real is that the world generally accepts the Gregorian
calendar. Any assignment of particular meaning to particular dates is purely
based on the personal preferences of each individual. The only shortcut
reference to a span of years which I see as being generally understood the same
way is that a reference such as "the 80s" refers to 1980-1989, and even there,
there will be folks who won't accept the meaning (some people may feel "the
80s" refers to 1880-1889, in 90 years, if I'm still alive, I may change to feel
that "the 80s" refers to 2080-2089, a few people with year 1/0 hang ups may
translate "the 80s" to "the 9th decade of the 20th century" and therefore
assume it refers to 1981-1990).
Heck, in just checking out about the international date line, one web site I
looked at claimed that the new millenium starts about 2001/01/01 00:00:01 GMT,
but in documenting their claim, they refer to a US Naval Observatory site which
points out that international law is contradictory as to the international
definition of when a new year starts, a quote from that page:
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/aa/faq/docs/first_sunrise.html
> The Washington Prime Meridian Conference of 1884, which
> established the Greenwich Meridian as the prime meridian,
> did not settle this matter. The final resolution states:
> That the Conference proposes the adoption of a universal
> day for all purposes for which it may be convenient, and
> which shall not interfere with the use of local or other
> standard time where desirable.
> Thus the two conflicting definitions are enshrined in
> international law.
Frank
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: When did the 3rd millennium start?
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| (...) That's when the *1900s* start -- just as the 80s start at 1980. (...) Sure. But for whatever reason, we do say that we are currently in the year 2001. Note that it doesn't work like birthdays, which count the number of years *completed*. (...) (24 years ago, 2-Jan-01, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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