There was a thread about this some time ago, which I can’t be bothered to find or dig out the details I posted in it. Anyway, the gist was that 999-year leases only became a thing in the past few centuries, so there is no danger of any of them expiring any time soon.
As for how important the 2066 Hastings anniversary will be, one mustn’t misunderstand how these things work. No one in 1966 thought to play down the celebrations then on the basis that the big celebrations would be in 2066 - people who want to celebrate will do so anyway. Just as the scale of this year’s celebrations in the US, compared to 1976, will be determined by the immediate context rather than the number of years being celebrated. For the record, the main event for the 1966 anniversary was a re-enactment between Oxford and Cambridge students. So far as I can work out, the Queen didn’t bother attending anything connected to that anniversary. One rather suspects that the mega 1066-related extravaganza of the 21st century will actually be the forthcoming British Museum ‘Bayeux Tapestry’ exhibition.
The millennium would be my guess too. Relatively recent so a fairly high level of global wealth and population but a truly unique event with more and bigger parties than the average new year.
But wouldn’t the millennium buzz be split among two different New Years’ parties, 2000 and 2001? In my memory (I was a teenager at the time), people got more excited in December 1999, but there were a lot of smart alecks around who would correct everyone else by pointing out that they’d have to wait another year for the real turn of the millennium.
Nah, that was only a concern for dopers and a handful of other nerds . For the overwhelming majority, 1999/2000 was the big event, and I don’t remember any special parties for 2000/2001. I was an adult back then.
. For the overwhelming majority, 1999/2000 was the big event, and I don’t remember any special parties for 2000/2001. I was an adult back then.