To find the answer, I browsed the web site of that most venerable of institutions, the Royal Observatory Greenwich (ROG). There, I learned that the Gregorian Calendar, which we use, has no year 0. This means that the first year of the calendar ended at the end of the year 1AD. By a similar argument, 2000 years will have elapsed at the end of the year 2OOO AD. Therefore, the 3rd Millennium and the 21st century will officially begin at zero hours GMT on January 1st, 2001. QED? Well, maybe not. The situation is made more complex by the almost certainly false belief that Christ was born at the end of 1BC (remember, there was no 0AD). Modern research suggests that Christ was most likely born around 6BC and before 4BC which is when Herod died. In that case, we've already missed the Millennium.

However, as it's such a long wait for the next one, people are still 9oing to celebrate so they may want to know where to see the first sunrise of the new Millennium (having decided on January 1st, 2000 as the right date) Well, the ROG have again put a damper on things by pointing out that at the South Pole, the sun rose around 5eptember 22nd last and will not set until March 22nd, 2000. This means that we've already missed it (again). However, you can derive some consolation by knowing that you have until March to see the last Sunset of the old Millennium.

For further information, go to http://www.rog.nmm.ac.uk/leaflets/new-mill.html

(Eoin Dunne in The Rocket, the 3ROC newsletter).