if the 20th century began in the 1900s, why doesn't it start w/the digits 2000?

Doesn't make sense. 21st century...2100

5 answers

Consider the history of our calendar.

We date it from the supposed year that Jesus was born, so that would be year 1 A.D. (or C.E.) When he was 30 years old, the year was 30 A.D. Jesus lived in the first century.

The year 101 A.D. marked the 100th anniversary of Jesus birth and the start of the second century. All of the dates from 101 to 200 were in the second century.

We are now living in the 21st century after Jesus's birth.

I hope this clears it up for you.
What does "a.d." or c.e. mean?
I googled Timeline of Christinaity before I posted the first time and it further confused me because I think Paul Harvey had compiled some of it and I read that Jesus learned "magic" and had appointed himself "God". It was odd to read, but thank you for your explanation.
AD stands for Anno Domini, which is Latin for "in the year of our Lord."

CE stands for Common Era, which is a non-Christian way to refer to the "AD" time period.
Thanks...I didn't know that...(latin terminology)
You're very welcome. Differentiating all the world cultures' ways to denote time is interesting, I think. Depends on when a culture decides to count, I guess!

=)
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