The year 2000 : the end of the 20th century or beginning of the 21st? The debate is not new. E.G. Richards (Mapping Time : The Calendar and Its History) says that "similar controversies have dogged the celebration of the turn of the century, at least from 1699/1700 ... the establishment ... has nearly always preferred the later date, whereas the populace ... has preferred the earlier." Londoners of 200 years ago, absorbed by the question of exactly when the new century would begin, submitted their views to the London Times, which refused to be drawn in : "We have rejected all letters and declined all discussion upon the question of when the present century ends ... 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." (26 December 1799)

Closer to home, Norfolk's Public Ledger in January 1900 published letters from citizens on both sides of the issue. The editor summed up the paper's stance : "It seems too plain for serious consideration. (A century) begins with 'one' and ends with 'one hundred' ... Ninety-nine (as in 1899) cannot make a century any more than ninety-nine barrels of flour can make a hundred." Today, though logic says that 2000 is the last year of the 20th century, our computers are treating 2000, "Y2K," as the critical division, and 2001 will seem almost anti-climactic.

For a more scholarly view, see Special Information Leaflet 29 of the Royal Observatory Greenwich, which may be downloaded from their web site at: www.rog.nmm.ac.uk/leaflets/new_mill.html

And a Happy New Year to all, whatever century it is !

---

Return to Norfolk Public Library Homepage.