When did the millennium begin and why?
This millennium (and century) officially begun on: 1 January 2001
GMT
The simple explanation is that our Calendar System began at 1AD. There
was no year 0. The calendar we use today goes from 1BC to 1AD.
The calendar base that we use today was not conceived until the year 525
AD. At that time the Roman Calendar was still being used which was based
on the founding of the city of Rome on April 22, 753 BC. The new calendar
was conceived by a monk called Dionysius Exiguus. He proposed that Christ
was born in the year of Rome 753 (but most historians agree that it should
have been some years earlier_. The Venerable Bede, an English monk, through his
writings in the 8th century re-chronicled history. Up to that time people
had been living, say, in the (Roman) year 1500 suddenly found they were
living in 747 AD. (I.E. Don't believe anyone who finds a coin with a year
in the first 6 centuries AD (they didn't exist for the people living in that
time)!
- For a full explanation of calendaring see here.
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