- Title: Equinox: Special: Apocalypse When?
- Date: 9th May 2000
- Summary: An exploration of the mathematical, psychological and scientific issues surrounding the advent of 1 January 2000. The programme speculates on whether the date marks the dawn of a new epoch or whether it is just another date on the calendar. 00.30 ‰ÛÓ 05.30 Introduction. The run-up to the year 2000. From superstition to science, and the idea of a ‰Û÷technological armageddon‰Ûª. Apocalyptic cults, the Millennium Dome, and a ‰Û÷digital Utopia‰Ûª. 05.30 ‰ÛÓ 17.55 The history of the calendar, and the calendar as a communication system. The inaccuracies of the lunar calendar. The River Nile: a clue to the invention of the solar calendar. Multi-calendar societies. Caesar as a great reformer of the calendar used in the Roman Empire. Leap years and variable-length months. Great emperors steal days from February to add to July and August! 17.55 ‰ÛÓ 23.45 The ancient use of tables to calculate the date of Easter. The birth of Christ set as AD 1, and evidence of a miscalculation of the exact date by as much as four years. 23.45 ‰ÛÓ 28.40 The thousand-year cycle. A comparison of events in AD 1000 and AD 2000. Millennia and religious conversions. The ‰Û÷Rapture‰Ûª when the converted are taken from the Earth. The potential for chaos in a ‰Û÷post-Rapture‰Ûª world. 28.40 ‰ÛÓ 31.30 The introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582 in much of Europe, but not until 1752 in England. 31.30 ‰ÛÓ 35.50 The Royal Greenwich Observatory and the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington. The move from planetary cycles to atomic cycles for timekeeping, and the idea of leap seconds. 35.50 ‰ÛÓ 42.15 The psychology of zeros ‰ÛÓ signs, cults and mass suicides. The web as the medium of choice for apocalyptic figures. Premillennial tension. 42.15 ‰ÛÓ end Date-related computer bugs and their potential consequences. The millennium as the biggest event of our imaginations!
- Description:To explore ideas about the history of calender and man's relationship with passing time.
- Broadcaster:Channel 4
- Collection: Channel 4
- Genre:Documentary and Factual
- Producer:Unspecified
- Programme Episode:Episode 1
- Transmission Date:09/05/2000
- Rights:On Request
- Decade: 2000s