How did people refer to what year it was back in like 40 AD or 132 BC? When did we start putting those letters on the years?

by holddemaio
DanKensington

The Christian BC/AD calendar is just one amongst many possible systems of year counting. Various other alternative calendars exist, as we can see from the appropriate section of the FAQ, Other Dating Systems under Calendars, if your browser doesn't automatically take you there. Indeed, BC/AD is simply a regnal calendar that refuses to change eras like normal regnal calendars. Multiple other calendar systems remain in use today. Japan still uses a regnal calendar for official purposes.

Posted on this day, Monday 22 March; Primidi 1 Germinal, An CCXXIX; 1 Farvardin of 1400 Solar Hijri (happy new year to anyone using Solar Hijri!); Reiwa 3; 7529 Anno Mundi; the fourth year of the 699th Olympiad; the fifth year of Rodrigo Duterte being President.