Friday, 2 Thermidor 185 05:21 LMT
Earth Enters 26th Century
by Ael t’Pir
NEW YORK, EARTH (LNN) – As it has for almost 600 years, the diamond-studded ball in New York’s Times Square dropped at midnight, (05:21 LMT) accompanied by fireworks and cheers from the almost three million people packed in from 42nd Street all the way to 81st Street.
The tradition started in the 1800s with time balls being dropped from observatories to allow passing ships to accurately set their chronometers, and eventually developed into a New Year’s celebration.
The New York celebration is Earth’s best known, but not the first. That honour belongs to several islands in the Pacific Ocean, 19 hours earlier (11:29 LMT yesterday), followed by ones rivalling New York in Auckland, New Zealand and Sydney, Australia.
Somewhat surprisingly, no official celebration was held in London (00:36 LMT), with only a small group of partygoers gathering in Trafalgar Square to hear Big Ben’s twelve chimes. British officials, like many others, instead had their big festivities last year, choosing to recognise 2500 as the beginning of the new century.
Earth’s calendar, the Gregorian, was introduced in 1582 as a revision of the earlier Julian calendar. It was originally based on years since the founding of Rome, "ab urbe condita", but changed in the sixth century to years dating from what was thought to be the birth of Jesus Christ, called Anno Domini (in the year of our Lord) 1.
As the number zero had not yet been invented, the year prior to AD 1 was 1 BC, "before Christ". Therefore, AD 1-100 was the first century, 101-200 the second century, and so on. 1 January 2501 (2 Thermidor 185) is the beginning of the 26th century.
Despite the calendar’s religious origin, it is widely used for civil purposes on Earth and elsewhere throughout the galaxy, especially starships where day and night cycles are artificial.
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