The 20th century started on 1 January 1901 and ended on 31st of December 2000, according to the Gregorian calendar. Many individuals confuse the 20th century and the so-called nineteen-hundreds (1900s).

However, a number of arguments have been put forward to justify the common usage. One advanced by Stephen Jay Gould is that the first decade consisted of only nine years, thus contradicting the definition of a decade (ten years). Another argument is that the astronomical year numbering system for years does have a year zero, the year generally referred to as 1 BC. In 2000 the International Organization for Standardization clarified ISO 8601 to use the astronomical year numbering system, which could be interpreted as retroactively endorsing all those who had celebrated the new century a few months earlier. Also, decades are almost always considered as starting with the "0" year and named accordingly ("1960s", etc.).

The term is also used to describe various historical periods that overlap with the calendar definition, most notably the Short twentieth century, which describes the 20th Century as spanning from 1914 to 1989 (or sometimes up to and including 1990 or 1991), relegating the pre-World War I 1900s into the 19th Century and putting the post-Soviet 1990s at the beginning of the 21st Century.

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Journalists didn't make 20th century newspapers profitable — readers did. http://bit.ly/6cxwYt
whawkins (Will Hawkins) Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:36:23 -0000
Journalists didn't make 20th century newspapers profitable — readers did. http://bit.ly/6cxwYt
Journalists didn't make 20th century newspapers profitable — readers did. http://bit.ly/6cxwYt
MMT_Digital (MMT Digital) Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:36:23 -0000
Journalists didn't make 20th century newspapers profitable — readers did. http://bit.ly/6cxwYt
@juansemo a mi me pasa lo mismo pero con el logo de Columbia Pictures o de 20th Century Fox :p
JulianD (Julian Munoz) Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:36:18 -0000
@juansemo a mi me pasa lo mismo pero con el logo de Columbia Pictures o de 20th Century Fox :p
RT @nasalcrooner: The Strangest Disaster of the 20th Century. http://bit.ly/HgoVS Recommended Read
nirjharsarkar (Nirjhar Sarkar) Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:27:04 -0000
RT @nasalcrooner: The Strangest Disaster of the 20th Century. http://bit.ly/HgoVS Recommended Read
Whoa!! RT @nasalcrooner: The Strangest Disaster of the 20th Century. http://bit.ly/HgoVS Recommended Read
benly (benly) Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:19:16 -0000
Whoa!! RT @nasalcrooner: The Strangest Disaster of the 20th Century. http://bit.ly/HgoVS Recommended Read
RT @nasalcrooner: The Strangest Disaster of the 20th Century. http://bit.ly/HgoVS Recommended Read
veramaz (rAAmA vI) Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:07:41 -0000
RT @nasalcrooner: The Strangest Disaster of the 20th Century. http://bit.ly/HgoVS Recommended Read

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