So much for popular interest in calendrical conundrums. Who really cares if the new millennium actually begins in 2001? It didn't appear to hold folks back on New Year's Eve.
Professors, however, can't be so blasé about a date.
For example, historians have all but done away with the common markers B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini, Latin for "In the Year of Our Lord") in the past decade.
"Academics, especially in the context of a field like world history, need a point of reference that's not tied to a particular culture," said Eric Hinderaker, a professor of history at the University of Utah.
Scholars in his department, and most all over the world, now use the date references B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) to replace B.C., and C.E. (Common Era) instead of A.D.
"Year 1 is still the same as it was with A.D., but it allows you to talk about what's going on in Asia and Africa and the Americas during time periods when it makes no sense to make reference to a Christian calendar," he said.
But it's the same beginning point, so what's the big deal?
"You can call it politically correct, I guess," Hinderaker said. "But it's really quite valuable to recognize that timetables and traditions are not universal."
It was primarily an explosion in the study of non-Western fields of history in the 1990s, he said, that pushed the concept of a common calendar.
Scholars in another discipline, anthropology, have been grappling with date references for much longer — but to satisfy the needs of science, not because of cultural courtesy.
"It all goes back to the first use of radiocarbon dating in the 1950s," said Steven Simms, a professor of anthropology at Utah State University.
Archeologists, meteorologists, wildlife ecologists and some kinds of geologists all use the acronym B.P. (Before Present) in their scholarly research. The "present" or zero point on this dating system is the year 1950.
"I guess that could be changed now, but it would have to be done by international convention, and all kinds of research would have to be re-correlated, so it's unlikely," he said.
In the classroom, Simms says he still uses B.C. and A.D., "because students need a familiar reference." But a radiocarbon date is always first published in B.P.
"I guess there are advantages and disadvantages to going with a less generally popular date system," Simms said. "You want your audience to be able to understand the reference, but there's a cost in doing that, when you have to capitulate to cultural biases in order for them to understand."