The Next Millennium Starts Jan 1, 2001

(As featured in the Contra Costa Times and other newspapers.)

Contrary to popular belief, the next millennium starts January 1, 2001 -- not January 1, 2000. To see this, enumerate the years that comprised the first decade AD:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

You can easily count these yourself, if you need to, to see there are ten of them. So the year 10 was the last year of the first decade, and the second decade started with the first day of the year 11. The last year of the second decade was the year 20, and the first year of the third decade was 21. Or, to put it visually:

         1  1111111112  2222222223  3333333334  4444444455
1234567890  1234567890  1234567890  1234567890  1234567890
----------  ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------
1st decade  2nd decade  3rd decade  4th decade  5th decade ...

By the same reasoning, it's easy to see that the last year of the first century AD was the year 100; the first year of the second century was 101. The last year of the second century was 200, and the first year of the third century was 201.

So by now it should be obvious that the last year of the first millennium was 1000, and the first year of the second millennium (this one) was 1001. Hence, the last year of this millennium will be 2000, and the first year of the next millennium will be 2001. Q.E.D.

(Of course, if you're Jewish, ``the next millennium'' starts in four or five hundred years -- not everyone uses the Gregorian calendar ....)