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| Millennium Madness | |
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As we approach the end of 1999 the excitement of starting a new millennium on
the 1st of January 2000 is building up, in the UK at least.
And this is despite the fact that the new millennium doesn't start until the 1st
of January 2001. I have argued, time and time again, with people as to when the new millennium
starts. The explanation is simple but when
people have
been brainwashed by those who are pushing for millennium celebrations at the end
of 1999 it's hard to be convincing when the media is proclaiming otherwise.
Even the BBC, a body one usually trusts to research the facts first, have
started to refer to the year 2000 as the start of the next
millennia, and even worse, as the start of the next century and are now
refering to events at the end of 1999 as, "The last whatever, this
century". Now, there may be some [ unjustifiable, in my opinion ] argument over when the
first millennia started, at the start of 0 AD or 1 AD, but it is
common sense that
the start of a new millennium coincides with the start of a new century; that's
even accepted by those who now maintain that this will be when we enter
2000 AD. So, if we take a lateral approach to arguing when the next millennium starts we
can say it starts at the same time we enter the next century. That fits
in with what both the start of 2000 AD'ers and the start of
2001 AD'ers say. If we look at when the 20th century started, add on the necessary 100 years
then we will know when the 21st century starts. Easy. And when was the start of the 20th century ?
The 1st of January 1901. It's well documented and can be easily researched.
There are even real newspapers, from that date, which can still be found
celebrating the fact on their front covers. It's also something which I and
many others were taught at school. And if we check historical records back, we find the 19th century started on the
1st of January 1801, the 18th century on the 1st of January 1701 and so on.
And it is therefore patently obvious that the 21st century starts on the 1st of
January 2001 and, amazingly enough, so does the new millennia.
Unless of course someone's decided that the 20th century is only going to have
99 years in it this time round. Then next century starts on the 1st of January 2001 Then next millennia starts on the 1st of January 2001 It's a shame that this has to be shouted out so loudly to sink in | ||||||||||||||||
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First published sometime before Sunday the 16th of January, 2000
Last upload was on Wednesday the 7th of January, 2004 at 17:44:53 |
