As with anything, the Year 2000 Date Crisis has a long history. It has been explained in many ways, but none better than in a term paper written by David Martineau. He explains everything in "layman's" terminology and tells you the why's and how's of the millennium bug. You can read his term paper from Robert's Year 2000 Main Page at www.tyler.net/tyr7020/y2k.htm. It is good reading and very informative.

The Millennium starts in Greenwich because in 1884 at an international conference in Washington, it was agreed to have a Universal Day. The day begins at the Prime Meridian of the World (zero longitude) - the Greenwich Meridian - an imaginary line from North Pole to South Pole through the primary transit instrument (telescope) at the Royal Greenwich Observatory. Hence each and every day begins in Greenwich including of course January 1, 2000 (although the Millennium officially starts January 1, 2001).

Prepare for a shock. There has been a lot of speculation about which country, city, or town will be the one to see the first sunrise of the new Millennium. Countries have even been jumping the international date line in order to achieve this status. If you really want to see the first sunrise, get your coats and gloves and head for Antartica.

This has been the subject of a lot of debate. When the year is a century (for example when the year ends in 00) the century rule applies. The century has to divide by four. So, 1900 was not a leap year. The year 2000 will be a leap year. Nobody has worked out if there will need to be a correction for the year 4000. For more information on why the year 2000 is a leap year, refer to Robert's Y2K Mailbox.

The Millennium officially starts on January 1, 2001 at Greenwich. But most people are regarding January 1, 2000 as a good day to start the yearlong celebration.

There is a thousand years of history in Greenwich. This Millennium started with the murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury in Greenwich in 1012 and has seen many famous events and characters in history visit here. King Henry VIII was born in Greenwich as were his children, including Queen Elizabeth I.