1 BC

File:Nativity 01.jpg (pictured above) is widely regarded to have been placed by Dionysus Exiguus, inventor of the Anno Domini dating system, in 1 BC. Modern scholarship, however, regards the birth of Christ to have taken place between 6 and 4 BC.{{Cite book |last=Meier |first=John P. |title=A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus |publisher=Anchor Bible Reference Library |year=1991 |volume=v. 1 |pages=373–433 |chapter=A Chronology of Jesus' Life}}]]

Year 1 BC was a common year starting on Friday or Saturday in the Julian calendar (the sources differ; see leap year error for further information) and a leap year starting on Thursday in the proleptic Julian calendar. It was also a leap year starting on Saturday in the Proleptic Gregorian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Lentulus and Piso (or, less frequently, year 753 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 1 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. The following year is AD 1 in the widely used Julian calendar and the proleptic Gregorian calendar, which both do not have a "year zero".

Events

= By place =

== Han dynasty ==

August 15 – Emperor Ai dies and is succeeded by his 8-year-old cousin Ping, who is enthroned on October 17. Wang Mang is appointed regent by Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun, his aunt.{{Cite book|editor-last=Bowman |editor-first=John Stewart |year=2000 |title=Columbia Chronologies of Asian history and Culture |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |page=12 |isbn=978-0-231-50004-3 |oclc=51542679 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cYoHOqC7Yx4C }}{{Cite journal|last=Furth |first=Charlotte |date=1991|title=Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homo[sex]ual Tradition in China. By Bret Hinsch. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. xvii, 232 pp. $22.50.|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2058567|journal=The Journal of Asian Studies|volume=50|issue=4|pages=911–912|doi=10.2307/2058567 |jstor=2058567|issn=0021-9118|url-access=subscription}}
Former regent Dong Xian, who was previously Ai's lover, commits suicide with his wife.Hinsch, Bret. (1990) Passions of the Cut Sleeve. University of California Press.

== Roman Empire ==

Gaius Caesar marries Livilla, daughter of Antonia Minor and Nero Claudius Drusus, in an effort to gain prestige.{{Cite web|title=Cassius Dio - Book 55|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/55*.html#10 |access-date=2021-05-25 |website=penelope.uchicago.edu }}
The Roman theatre in Cartagena, built by Gaius and Lucius Caesar, finishes construction.{{Cite web|title=Cartagena Roman Theatre Museum|url=https://murciatoday.com/cartagena-roman-theatre-museum_1943-a.html|access-date=2021-05-26|website=murciatoday.com}}
Aulus Caecina Severus was appointed consul by Emperor Augustus succeeding Cossus Cornelius Lentulus Gaetulicus and Lucius Calpurnius Piso.{{Cite book |last=Syne |first=Ronald |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/30318791 |title=Anatolica : studies in Strabo |date=1995|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=0-19-814943-3|oclc=30318791}}

== Kingdom of Kush ==

The approximate date of Natakamani succeeding Amanishakheto as the King of Kush.{{Cite book|last=Garlake|first=Peter S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q-P5fGXeX2AC|title=Early Art and Architecture of Africa|date=2002|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-284261-9|language=en}}

== Satavahana dynasty ==

Kunatala Satakarni is succeeded by Satakarni III.{{Cite book|last=Singh|first=Rajesh Kumar|title=Ajanta Paintings: 86 Panels of Jatakas and Other Themes.|publisher=Hari Sena|year=2013|isbn=9788192510750|pages=15–16}}

= By topic =

== Religion ==

Estimated birth of Jesus, in the Christian religion, as assigned by Dionysius Exiguus in his Anno Domini era; according to most scholars, Dionysius used the word "incarnation", but it is not known whether he meant conception or birth. However, at least one scholar thinks Dionysius placed the incarnation of Jesus in the next year, AD 1.Georges Declercq, Anno Domini: The origins of the Christian Era (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2000), pp.143–147.G. Declercq, "Dionysius Exiguus and the introduction of the Christian Era", Sacris Erudiri 41 (2002) 165–246, pp.242–246. Annotated version of a portion of Anno Domini. Most modern scholars do not consider Dionysius' calculations authoritative, and place the event several years earlier.James D. G. Dunn, Jesus Remembered, Eerdmans Publishing (2003), page 324.

Deaths

August 15 – Ai of Han, Chinese emperor of the Han dynasty (b. 27 BC){{cite book|last=Fairbank|first=John|title=The Cambridge History of China: Volume 1, The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 BC-AD 220|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A2HKxK5N2sAC&q=Emperor+Ai+of+Han+%2215+august%22&pg=PA227|year=1986|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521243278|page=227}}{{cite book|last=Loewe|first=Michael|title=Crisis and Conflict in Han China|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BrJqDwAAQBAJ&q=Emperor+Ai+of+Han+%2215+august%22&pg=PT190|year=2018|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9780429849107|orig-year=1974}}
Dong Xian, Chinese politician and commander-in-chief (b. 23 BC)
Xiaoai, Chinese empress and wife of Ai of Han{{Cite book|last=Thomsen|first=Rudi|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/19912826|title=Ambition and Confucianism : a biography of Wang Mang|date=1988|publisher=Aarhus University Press|isbn=87-7288-155-0|location=[Aarhus, Denmark]|oclc=19912826}}
Zhao Feiyan, Chinese empress and wife of Cheng of Han (b. 45 BC){{Cite book|editor-last=Peterson |editor-first=Barbara Bennett |date=2015 |title=Notable women of China: Shang dynasty to the early twentieth century |location=Armonk, New York |publisher=M. E. Sharpe (Routledge) |pages=75–77 |isbn=978-0-7656-0504-7 |oclc=41231560 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kJ4ECwAAQBAJ&pg=PT75 }}