When did everyone adopt the same calendar ?

Question

Also, was it the romans who started using the terms BC and AD? Was it also them who said that year 1, was in fact year 1 and so on?

Answer 1

Not all modern countries use the gregorian calendar as we do - some have their own system ,others have more than one.

In Japan, it is currently Heisei 19 (based on the traditional Japanese calendar) and the Year of the Pig (following Chinese tradition), and 2007 (as a result of American influence).

The Romans did not use BC and AD - they had several different calendrical systems including calculating the year as "so many after the foundation of the city (Rome)", or naming the two Consuls for a particular year (they changed evey year).

It was only after the founding of Christianity that a calendrical system evolved with Before Christ and Anno Domini (The Year of the Lord) - for a very long time there was no agreement about when Jesus was actually born. Then years were calculated with reference to that date. Even today we have probably got the date of His birth completely wrong.

Answer 2

The greatest catalyst that the spread the calendar that the western world uses today was British Empire. During that period the calendar was used by the British in most of the British colonies around the world. This degree of influence gave the prominence that it has today. Just as the American film, music and television industry brought the English language as the world wide language that was been since fortified by the advent of the Internet.

It was the Church, Roman Catholic Church, the first began using the AD Anno Domini and

Before Christ. Reasons being natural the measured time + - from the Birth of Christ. Time was important for the Church, the majority of churches have clocks which woke, put to work, and called the masses to church.

And yes time was measured from the birth of Christ, 1 being Christ 1st birth date.

It is an easy way to interpret time when one believes that time passes linear.

Answer 3

1582 for most of the Western World; 1752 in England as far as the adoption of the Gregorian calender goes;

and as far as AD see th second link

Answer 4

Not every one does use the same calendar