Turn of Millennium
- Share via
R.E. Bonson (letter, Jan. 9) is of course correct in pointing out that, absent a zero year, 2000 and not 1999 should be the last year of the 20th century--providing the sequence begins with 1. However, when Dionysius Exiguus (also called Denis the Little by Anglophones) first proposed the anno Domini system of numbering years, he calculated that Christ was born in 1 B.C. and suggested that years thereafter be numbered consecutively.
By this odd system, the first year in the sequence is minus 1, the second is 1, and the 2,000th is 1999.
PETER LARSEN
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
