Editing 2nd millennium (section)

==Calendar==
{{further|Year 2000 problem}}
The [[Julian calendar]] was used in Europe at the beginning of the millennium, and all countries that once used the Julian calendar had adopted the [[Gregorian calendar]] by the end of it. For this reason, the end date of the 2nd millennium is usually calculated based on the Gregorian calendar, while the beginning date is based on the Julian calendar  (or occasionally the [[proleptic Gregorian calendar]]).

In the late 1990s, there was a dispute as to whether the millennium should be taken to end on December 31, 1999, or December 31, 2000.
[[Stephen Jay Gould]] at the time argued there is no objective way of deciding this question.<ref>Stephen Jay Gould, ''Questioning the Millennium: A Rationalist's Guide to a Precisely Arbitrary Countdown'' (New York: Harmony Books, 1999), ch 2.</ref> 
[[Associated Press]] reported that the third millennium began on 1 January  2001, but also reported that celebrations in the US were generally more subdued at the beginning of 2001, compared to the beginning of 2000.<ref>{{cite web | agency=Associated Press| title=Y2K It Wasn't, but It Was a Party | website=Los Angeles Times | date=2001-01-01 | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-jan-01-mn-7177-story.html | access-date=2025-04-14}}</ref>
Many public celebrations for the end of the second millennium were held on December 31, 1999 – January 1, 2000<ref>{{cite web | title = Millennium FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions | work = When does the Millennium start? | publisher = Greenwich2000.ltd.uk | date = 2008-08-12 | url = http://wwp.millennium-dome.com/info/millennium-faq.htm | access-date = 2009-01-29| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090112125450/http://wwp.millennium-dome.com/info/millennium-faq.htm| archive-date= 12 January 2009 <!--DASHBot-->| url-status= live}}</ref>—with a few people marking the end of the millennium a year later.