Millennium

I was surprised that the coverage of the president’s State of the Union speech didn’t mention the gaffe in his statement, “With barely 700 days left in the 20th century.” There were, of course, 1,069 days until the 21st century and the third millennium begin on the first day of the year 2001.

My Webster’s dictionary defines a century as: “3. a period of a hundred years reckoned from a certain time, especially from the beginning of the Christian Era, as the first century, A.D. 1-100; the nineteenth century, A.D. 1801-1900, both inclusive.”

WILLIAM J. McGEE

Tustin