We’re in 2019. When was it decided that this year it would be 2019? Who decided it?
Basically, I’m looking for when we started counting. Did Columbus know it was 1492 when he sailed the ocean blue? Did the Romans know it was 45 BC and they were curious as to what the fuck would happen when they hit year 0?
This is common question, so there are lots of previous answers already! See here for another recent one by u/ragnarak54, and an answer by u/sunagainstgold from a few years ago, and a big list of answers compiled by u/Algernon_Asimov.