At the risk of being incredibly tedious, Mr Taylor (Letters, January, 20) is wrong.
When the Christian calendar was drawn up by Dionysius Exiguus in about 523 AD no year zero was included. The calendar ran from 1BC to 1AD. At that time, Europeans did not have the concept of the number zero, introduced later by the Arabs from the Indians..
Simply, the first year of the first decade of the first century of the first Millennium Anno Domini is 1 AD, the first year of the second Millennium is 1001 AD, so the first year of the third Millennium is 2001 AD.
Dr Duncan Campbell
Albemarle Road.
York
"This correspondence is now closed - until 2999." Letters editor.
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article