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Welcome to the New Millennium!
By Claudia
Lynch, Benchmarks Online Editor
What, you thought that was last year? Heck no,
that was just a warm-up, pre-millennium celebration (and
we needed to get that messy Y2K stuff out of the way
too:). This time it's the real thing. If you don't
believe me, take a good look at what the experts have to
say:
The White House Millennium Council sought to answer the question "When
is the Millennium?" this way:
mil-len-ni-um
(n). A span of one thousand years.
The Arrival of the new millennium has sparked a
great debate: when does it actually begin? Our
instincts told us to celebrate on December 31,
1999. But logic says that every millennium is
made up of 1000 years – which means that the
year 2000 belongs to the second not the third.
Credit for this confusing state of affairs goes
to Dennis the Diminutive, a sixth century monk
who prepared a calendar for Pope St. John I.
Instead of beginning his calendar at year 0,
Dennis started with 1 A.D. – bequeathing us
the chronological quandary we face today. So what
is the answer? According to the U.S. Naval Observatory, the third millennium begins on January
1, 2001. Evenso, most Americans and much of the
world focused on the flip of the calendar from
’99 to ’00. White House millennium
programs began in 1997 and will run through
January 1, 2001. Greeting a new millennium is a
once-in-a-thousand years experience…
let’s make the celebration last!
The Royal
Observatory in Greenwich, England produced a special leaflet
on the new millennium. You may not realize that
the new millennium started at zero hours
Greenwich. Why? Because "The 'INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE HELD AT WASHINGTON FOR THE PURPOSE OF
FIXING A PRIME MERIDIAN AND A UNIVERSAL DAY' in
October 1884, resolved to adopt the meridian at
Greenwich as the prime meridian for 'all the
world' and the time and day at the Greenwich
meridian as the universal time and day for 'all
the world.' In practice, this time, referred to
now more correctly as UTC, is identical to what
is widely known as GMT and forms the basis for
our claim that the Millennium will start at zero
hours Greenwich time. The same conference stated
that the 'universal day shall not interfere with
the use of local or other standard time where
desirable.' Put simply this means that in Sydney
they are not going to wait until 10 next morning
before celebrating the New Year."
In case you think the
controversy over when the millennium will start is new,
check this out:
We [the Royal Observatory] have received a great deal of e-mail
regarding the start of the 21st Century. It is
interesting to note that this is not the first
time that this controversy has arisen. The Times
must have received many letters towards the end
of 1799, since its editors felt moved to make the
following comments about the beginning of the
19th Century:
"We have
uniformly rejected all letters and declined all
discussion upon the question of when the present
century ends, as it is one of the most absurd
that can engage the public attention, and we are
astonished to find it has been the subject of so
much dispute, since it appears plain. The present
century will not terminate till January 1, 1801,
unless it can be made out that 99 are 100... It
is a silly, childish discussion, and only exposes
the want of brains of those who maintain a
contrary opinion to that we have stated"
The
Times, 26 December 1799
Even here in the U.S., this is not a
new topic (quoted from "I Say Millennium, You Say Milinium, Let's
Call the Whole Thing Off"):
- "The Post is open to
conviction. We are not bigoted or intolerant. If
anyone will show us how a century can be
completed with less than 100 years, and how
nineteen centuries can be completed with less
than 1900 years, and how the twentieth century
can begin before the nineteenth century ends, we
shall joyfully put ashes in our hair and hail him
as a wizard."
- --Washington Post, 28
December 1899
If this topic interests you, you might
want to check out these sites:
- The World's largest collection of
2001 Millennium Website Links. This site has
links in a variety of languages.
Does all this millennial stuff irritate
you? Blame it on Dennis the Short.
A Millen(n)ial Mix-up
(Culture 2:00 a.m. PST) http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,40491,00.html?tw=wn20001228 We're on our Third Millennium now but there are
still an awful lot of people who don't know how to spell
'millennium.' An apparent spell- checking glitch in a
version of Microsoft Word hasn't helped matters.
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