Mesoamerican Long Count calendar 20, 2012 (Gregorian Calendar), followed by the start of the 14th b'ak'tun, 13.0.0.0.0, on December 21, 2012. There are only two references to the current creation's 13th b'ak'tun in the fragmentary Mayan corpus: Tortuguero Monument 6, part of a ruler's inscription and the recently discovered La Corona Hieroglyphic Stairway 2, Block V. Maya inscriptions occasionally reference future predicted events or commemorations that would occur on dates that lie beyond 2012 (that is, beyond the completion of the 13th "b'ak'tun" of the current era). Most of these are in the form of "distance dates" where some Long Count date is given,
Adoption of the Gregorian calendar is only occasionally used today. North Korea from 1997 officially counts years based on the Juche era, the first year of which is 1912. The Republic of China (ROC) formally adopted the Gregorian calendar at its founding on , but China soon descended into a period of warlordism with different warlords using different calendars. With the unification of China under the Kuomintang in October 1928, the Nationalist government decreed that effective the Gregorian calendar would be used. China retained the Chinese traditions of numbering the months and a modified Era System, backdating the first year of the ROC to 1912;