Some Christians are interested in the millenium because they believe that it has been about 6,000 years since Creation and therefore the next thousand years will be the millenial Sabbath. If you accept the calculations of the Irish Archbishop James Ussher which are published in the margins of many KJV Bibles, you may believe that 1996 will be the 6,000th year since Creation. In 1650 AD Archbishop Ussher calculated that God had created Adam in 4004 BC (all biblical chronologists use the ages of the patriarchs given in Genesis 5 to calculate a date for Creation). Other chronologists date the Creation of Adam at 5555 BC (Josephus - 70 AD), 5402 BC (Hales - 1803 AD), 5300 BC (Sayce - 1914 AD) 5270 BC (the Septuagint Greek OT - 200 BC), 4124 BC (Anstey - 1913 AD), 4046 BC (Mauro - 1961 AD), 3993 BC (Kepler - 17th century AD), 3964 BC (Melancthon - 16th century AD), 3961 BC (Luther - 16th century AD), 3960 BC (Lightfoot - 19th century AD) or 3759 BC (the most commonly accepted Jewish chronology calculated by a Jewish scholar about 150 AD). These differences of almost 1,800 years in the calculations of biblical chronologists should teach us that we cannot know with any reasonable degree of certainty when Adam was created. Since Christians do not know the exact date of the creation of Adam, they are not able to make accurate calculations to determine when a 6,000 year period will end.
  Predictions about 1996 are also common in the secular media. But some radical Christians outdo even the most outrageous prognostications in the pulp press. Using either simplistic or obscurely obtuse Hebrew calendars, they confidently assert Christ will return to earth this year. Many are their theories--not the least of which is the 6,000 years old earth idea promoted several centuries ago by Archbishop Usher. If the earth was created in 4004 B.C., then, they say, it makes sense that 1996 will see the end of human history. The week is seven days long, so human history will last 7,000 years. (Remember 2 Pet 3:8 "With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day!"). Subtracting 1,000 years for the millennium from 7,000 years yields 1996 for the end of this present age.