Re: WHEN DOES IT START THE TWENTY ONE CENTURY?

There was no "year zero;" our most commonly-used dating system counts backward 
beginning in the year 1 BC ("before Christ") or BCE ("before common era"), and 
the forward counting begins in the next subsequent year, 1 AD ("anno Domini," 
"the year of our Lord") or CE ("common era").

Therefore, the last year of each century is the century year (e.g. the last year
of the 15th Century was the year 1500), and so the 20th Century ends on 
December 31, 2000.

However, this really comes down to nit-picking. Historians don't typically worry
about whether, say, the year 1000 was the last of the 10th Century or the first 
of the 11th; similarly, the hoo-dah about whether the 21st Century begins on 
January 1, 2000, or January 1, 2001 seems to me a tempest in a teapot. My advice
is to go along and have fun, without worrying about whether the whoop-ti-do 
scheduled for January 1, 2000, is a year early or not.

                                              Dan Berger
                                              MadSci Admin