NOT NECESSARILY THE MILLENNIUM FACTS OF THE MONTH:

When our current year-numbering system was established in the fifth century, the calendar started with Year 1, because the concept of zero as a number was not introduced in Europe until six hundred years later. For this reason, the 21st century and third millennium will not begin until 1 January 2001.

The ancient Egyptians were the originators of the solar calendar. Prior to their notice that Sirius reappeared in the night sky every 365 days, civilizations were restricted to lunar calendars.

In 365-day years, if March 11th was on a Wednesday last year, it'll be on a Thursday this year. In 366-day years however, Thursday is "leaped" over, and March 11th will be on Friday. That's why they're called Leap Years.

In Leap Years, the extra day in NOT February 29th. It's the 24th. The rest of the days of the month are just shoved down one day.

Mathematicians working for Julius Caesar created the 365-day, 12-months-of-varying-days calendar we still use a form of today.

Julius Caesar made sure one of the longer, 31-day months was named after him. When his successor, Augustus Caesar, came into power, he wanted the next month, the one he was going to rename after himself, to have just as many days as his predecessor's namesake month. So he stole a day from February.

When the Julian Calendar was created, an additional two months and 23 days were added that year to make up for errors in the ancient Egyptian calendar. Hence, 46 B.C. had 455 days.

Both the Julian and Gregorian calendars started the year on January 1st. However medieval England, and later the American colonies, celebrated the New Year on was was then the first day of Spring, March 25th. When these lands switched to the Gregorian calendar, they switched the start date of the year as well, making that year (different depending upon the location) only around 282 days long.

When people celebrated the new year on March 25th, a week of celebration accompanied it, culminating in gift-giving on the final day, April 1st. When the start of the year was changed to January 1st, some people didn't get the message and continued to give gifts on the first of April. These people would become known as "April Fools".

Difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars: in the Julian, every 4th year is a leap year. In the Gregorian, it's every 4th year EXCEPT years ending in '00' that are NOT divisible by 400. Hence, 1900 is not a leap year, but 2000 is.

Tuesday was named after Tiu, the Anglo-Saxon God of War (the equivalent of the Roman Mars).

Wednesday was named after Woden, the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of Odin, the chief Norse god (Roman Zeus).

Thursday was named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder.

Friday was named after Frigg, the Norse god of love and fertility (Roman Venus).

Saturday, Sunday and Monday were named respectively named after Saturn, the sun and the moon.

The week originated in the Babylonian calendar, in which one day out of seven was designated for rest. The week is the only part of the calendar that was not created by natural phenomena.

A.M. and P.M. stand for ante and post meridiem, Latin for "before" and "after noon". 12:00 noon, therefore, does not belong to either AM or PM.

Use the number for the month and all four digits for the year, so that 30 November 1999 becomes "11/30/1999". Using this method, the above date is the last date without a '2' in it until 1 January 3000.

February 2nd, 2000 (2/2/2000) will be the first time the date can be written without a '1' in it since September 29, 999 (9/29/999).

If a mathematician's theory that a comet appearing around the eastern Mediterranean on 17 April 6 BC was actually the Star of Bethlehem, then the birthdate of Jesus would have been pinpointed to the day!

A clock operated by cesium atoms is accurate to one second every three hundred years.

If you took fifteen books and sorted them into every possible order, changing the order every second, it would take over forty thousand years before hitting every permutation.

Use of Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3...) was originally forbidden in European business dealings because they were much easier to alter than Roman numerals.

Earth's population is currently doubling every 35 years. At this rate, in less than 300 years the population will be one trillion! By the 36th Century, the mass of people would equal the mass of the planet itself! By the 69th Century the mass of people would exceed the entire mass of the known universe!!!

The middle two digits of a Social Security Number signify a code number for the year of the application.

A year on Venus lasts 224 days. A day on Venus lasts 23 days longer.

If you take the Bible as a literal timeline and run all the begats backward to Genesis 1:1, the Universe reportedly began on 23 October 4004 BC. Because our calendar has no year 0, Existence turned 6000 years old on 23 October 1997.

The Earth is slowing in its spin. Back in the time of the dinosaurs a day lasted just under 23 hours.

The next palindromic date (reads the same forwards & backwards) is January 10, 2011 (1-10-2011). The last one using this date format was September 29, 1929 (9-29-1929).

Every month has an Ides, not just March ("Beware the Ides of March"). In March, May, July and October the Ides are on the 15th. The other eight months, the 13th.

Next January 1st, the first actual day of the 21st century and third millennium, Australia also celebrates its 100th year as a country.

For facts from the previous month, click here.