Newspapers, for whom marking round numbers is the easiest excuse to report an issue, were mostly uninterested
We are pattern-forming creatures which may explain the round number theory of history. That is our habit of seeking order and meaning in easy round numbers where there may be none. Whole nations grind to a halt to celebrate a royal anniversary arbitrarily divisible by the number 10 or five. Conversely, at the turn of the first Christian millennium an apocalypse was expected to mark the neatly rounded year 1000AD.
When it failed to materialise, doom-laden millenarians claimed that they weren't wrong, but had failed to allow for the lifetime of Christ. The end was due in 1000AD plus 33 years. We don't learn.
See full Article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/may/30/carbon-milestone-newspapers
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