Peter K.(Fionn) Exactly. "Zero" was unknown as a number in Europe till around 1200, whereas our calendar was devised in the, I think, 7th century, no, just looked it up, 6th century, by Dionysius Exiguus.

Therefore he would have begun with 1A.D.(just as we start each month with the 1st. We don't have the 0th January etc.)

Because.,Snuffy, whereas "month" and "year" are not defined in terms of a single number, "decade" and "century" are.

Robin, that's a nice try at sleight-of-hand. "Twenty" is not a contraction of "two thousand", which you're trying to palm off on us, but of "twenty hundred", logically following the sequence "seventeen hundred", "eighteen hundred", "nineteen hundred".

And note in Doug's reference to 1900-1910, tho' you don't call it a decade, Doug, some might. However, if you count each year of 1900-1910, lo and behold, you get eleven. And THAT is exactly the kind of usage that contributes to the muddle which ends with the error of calling 2000 the first year of the new century.


Auto.(Ivor)