2000

2000 (MM) was a leap year that started on a Saturday, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. It was the 2000th year of the Common Era or the Anno Domini designation, and the last year of the 2nd millennium.

2000 was designated as:

• International Year for the Culture of Peace
• World Mathematical Year

The year 2000 was the first year of the 2000s decade. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year and the 21st millennium, due to a tendency to group the years according to decimal values, as if year zero were counted. According to the Gregorian Calendar this distinction falls to the year 2001, because the 1st century was retroactively said to start with year AD 1. Since the calendar has no year zero, its first millennium spans from years 1 to 1000, inclusively, and its second millennium from years 1001 to 2000. (See more at Millennium.)

The year 2000 was the subject of Y2K concerns: fears that computers would not shift from 1999 to 2000 correctly. However, by the end of 1999, many companies had already converted to new, or upgraded their existing software. Some even obtained Y2K certification. As a result of massive effort, much of it mis-directed, relatively few problems occurred.