--- Forwarded Message from [log in to unmask] (Gordon Hartig) ---

>Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 10:34:05 -0400
>Subject: Millenium
>To: [log in to unmask]
>From: [log in to unmask] (Gordon Hartig)

>
>Ursula Williams
>1999 elections chair
>
>*Really! They'll still be there in 2001!  (We've given up trying to
>convince people that December 31, 1999 really isn't the end of the
>milennium.)

Is it possible that both sides are right in this debate?
        From the American Heritage College Dictionary:  Millennium: 1. A span of
one
        thousand years....
        From Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary:  Millennium: ... 2a. A
period
        of 1000 years....
It's a matter of perspective.  The year 1999 is the final year of the
millennium that began in the year 1000, while the year 2000 is the final
year of the 2nd millennium in our calendar (because there was not a year
"zero").
        Just out of curiosity, was there a similar debate at the end of the last
century?  The 1800's obviously began in the year 1800 and ended in 1899,
while the 19th century began in 1801 and ended in 1900.
        What a difference a year makes!

Gordon Hartig
Language Lab Coordinator
Middlesex Community College
33 Kearney Square
Lowell MA  01852
(978) 656-3358