The monk who taught Europe to count the years

The AD system of numbering years was devised by Dionysius Exiguus around 525 CE, but it was Bede the Venerable who spread it. In works completed in 725 and 731 CE he popularized counting years from a date traditionally assigned to the birth of Jesus — and he was among the first writers to reckon years backward before that point as well.

One of many fact-checked wonders across eight traditions at The Spring of Wisdom.