If I put 1/1/1900 into Excel, it tells me it was a Sunday - what’s going on?
Of course it’s arbitrary. How could it be otherwise? What would be a non-arbitrary start?
You can argue that a start far enough back to keep all human history positive would be less silly. However, that date would still be arbitrary and any date far enough back to include everything that’s included just in homo sapiens would require a six digit date, something that few would care for.
If you want precise but arbitrary, how about BP, Before Present, the date used to calibrate all archaeological data. The Present in BP is 1950.
Excel counts 1900 AD as a leap year, for legacy reasons. The standard program at the time Excel was originally released had it as a bug. To retain compatibility, Microsoft deliberately broke Excel.
Thus, January 1, 1900, was actually a Monday.
See Excel incorrectly assumes that the year 1900 is a leap year - Microsoft 365 Apps | Microsoft Learn for more information.
Correct. And in any case, January 1, 1900 was not the beginning of a century. January 1, 1901, the beginning of the century, was a Tuesday.
Let’s all blame Pope Gregory.
I blame this on the definte article.
The century commonly known as the 20th century started at a different time from the centruy commonly known as the nineteen hundreds.
Both dates cited are the start of a century. Clarification is needed as to the specific century when precision is needed or people are being pedantic.
1/1/1951 was the start of a century.
So was 3/30/1834.
The question is WHAT century.
The first day of the 21st Century was 1/1/2001.
The first day of the 2000s was 1/1/2000.
Neither was a Sunday.
I may be crazy but wasn’t January 1, 1900 a Sunday?
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10842178&postcount=23
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10842776&postcount=24
Not according to this site:
This thread is a perfect example of why Karen referred to pedants. The issue of whether the first day of the century (or The Century, or whatever) is on a 0 year or a 1 year is irrelevant to the topic of the column, which was, can the first day of a century (or at least a Century) be on a Sunday. According to the calculations performed, neither a 0 year nor a 1 year can have the first day on a Sunday.
We don’t need them fancy charts and such to figure this out.
You’ll recall that January 1, 2001 was a Monday. I remember being annoyed that the new millennium started on a Monday.
January 1, 1900 was 101 years before that. So the date advanced through the weekly calendar 101 days, plus the intervening instances of February 29 (the leap years). Since 1900 was not a leap year, that gives us 25 leap years (1904, 1908, etc. to 2000).
101 + 25 = 126 days. Multiple of 7. So, January 1, 1900 was the same weekday as January 1, 2001: a Monday.
If it was irrelevant, then why mention it? It is no more pedantic to state that the first number in a counting series is 1, than it is to state that bacon comes from pigs.
Karen was defining her terms. She made an explicit definition of “first day of the century”. She knew that no matter how clear she was about that, someone would come along and say “But the century begins in 01 not 00.” So she stated as much.
Well, it does. Why is that pedantic?
Using a script I wrote implementing Zeller’s congruence [Zeller's congruence - Wikipedia], here are some first day results:
If you believe a century starts with the 00 year:
Year 1700 starts on a Friday
Year 1800 starts on a Wednesday
Year 1900 starts on a Monday
Year 2000 starts on a Saturday
Year 2100 starts on a Friday
Year 2200 starts on a Wednesday
Year 2300 starts on a Monday
Year 2400 starts on a Saturday
…
Year 8900 starts on a Friday
Year 9000 starts on a Wednesday
Year 9100 starts on a Monday
Year 9200 starts on a Saturday
Year 9300 starts on a Friday
Year 9400 starts on a Wednesday
Year 9500 starts on a Monday
Year 9600 starts on a Saturday
If you believe a century starts with the 01 year:Year 1701 starts on a Saturday
Year 1801 starts on a Thursday
Year 1901 starts on a Tuesday
Year 2001 starts on a Monday
Year 2101 starts on a Saturday
Year 2201 starts on a Thursday
Year 2301 starts on a Tuesday
Year 2401 starts on a Monday
…
Year 8901 starts on a Saturday
Year 9001 starts on a Thursday
Year 9101 starts on a Tuesday
Year 9201 starts on a Monday
Year 9301 starts on a Saturday
Year 9401 starts on a Thursday
Year 9501 starts on a Tuesday
Year 9601 starts on a Monday
So, regardless of which way you lean, no ‘century’ will start on a Sunday. At least this is what my calculations say. If someone has a different answer, I would love to see it.
Chronology is a human invention.
Weeks have seven days. Days have twenty four hours. Why? Because people think so.
March has 31 days. April has 30 days. Why? Because people think so.
The year 2008 was 366 days long. The year 2009 will be 365 days long. Why? Because people think so.
And the 21st century started on January 1, 2000 and will end on December 31, 2099. Why? Because people think so.
If that means the first century was only 99 years long, so be it. A glitch in the system? Sure. But in 1750, the British Parliament passed a law that said 1751 was only going to be 282 days long and 1752 was only going to be 355 days long. Compared to that, eliminating a year from a century that happened over 1900 years ago is trivial.
THANK YOU! It’s so annoying when pseudo-pedants try to extend the “first year of the 21st century” argument to all named centuries, and to all decades. The '90s didn’t start in 1991; 1990 is a '90 – in fact, it’s THE '90! Similarly, AD 300 was the first year of the 300s.
Yeah. Like the first dozen eggs have only eleven.
What was the first year of the first century?
AD 1, of course. And AD 301 was the first year of the fourth century. Which doesn’t change the fact that AD 300 was the first year of the three hundreds.