We live, according to current reckoning, in the year A.D. 2007. Who or what civilization designated year 0/1?

I 've asked other people for answers and never found a satisfactory one.We live, according to current reckoning, in the year A.D. 2007. Who or what civilization designated year 0/1?
The 6th-Century Christian monk Dionysius Exiguus is credited with developing the concept of the Anno Domini, i.e., Year of our Lord, while creating tables designating when Easter would occur. In the process he noted at one point that "the present year" was 525 years "since the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ." Since he had also noted that same year was also the year of "the consulship of Flavius Probus," it was possible for later scholars to determine the year that Dionysius was referring to.



Although it is unclear exactly how Dionysius determined that it had been 525 years since Jesus's birth, it was nevertheless a relatively simple matter to count backward from the year of the Flavian consulship to the year that would come to be known as 1 AD. However, for various reasons there is still dispute among scholars as to exactly when Jesus is supposed to have been born, despite Dionysius's assertions.



The use of Anno Domini was popularized by the Anglo-Saxon historian Bede (known as The Venerable Bede) in his "Ecclesiastical History of the English People" in 731.
I can guarantee you it was the catholic church that decide it.

Here's when it happened:



"'Anno Domini' dating was first calculated in 525 and began to be adopted in Western Europe during the eighth century"



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anno_DominiWe live, according to current reckoning, in the year A.D. 2007. Who or what civilization designated year 0/1?
probably the answers where unsatisfying because they didn't understand the question. really what do you mean
Catholic Church designated it when searching for the accurate date of Easter. It was first used by the monk Dionysius Exiguus. Simply means in the year of our Lord, anno domini.We live, according to current reckoning, in the year A.D. 2007. Who or what civilization designated year 0/1?
OK, there was no year 0



When you count things, the first number is ONE



The first century was from year 1 to year 100

the second century was from year 101 to 200



the first millennium was from year 1 to year 1000

The second was from 1001 to 2000



That's why the 1900's was called the 20th century

the 1800's were the 19th century and so on



It still amazes me to no end the stupidity of the entire world who celibrated to turn of the century and the millenium back on New Years 1999-2000.



We still had one more year to go. the century (21st) and the Millenium (3rd) did not start until New Years 2000-2001.



2001 was the first year of the new century/millenium.



As far as who and when was it designated, Ronin has the when in his answer 525 AD

and Infamous has the who in his answer with the Roman Catholic Church.



A.D.

Anno Domini (In the Year of our Lord)

not After Death as many think



though BC does mean Before Christ
Instead of reiterating, I would just read Jeffrey's answer, for it is the most correct.