AD (year system)

This article refers to the year system. For other uses, see AD (disambiguation).

AD (sometimes A.D.) refers to the years after Christ was born. What "AD" stands for is Anno Domini. Translated from Latin it means, "Year of our Lord".

It was created when Paul and other disciples started working out the years since Christs' birth and crucifixion. Originally, Christs' birth was supposed to be AD 0 (as seen in Back to the Future), but now Christ's actual birth had been variously dated from 4 BC to 7 AD.

Politically correct people will say that "there is no year 0", saying the calendar goes directly from 1 BC to 1 AD.Also, politically correct people will say that it should be "CE", for "Common Era", but most people will use just plain old "AD".

BC comes after this.