19XX

Poster for a stage adaptation of It Can't Happen Here, ca. 1936-7

For the video game, see [[19XX: The War Against Destiny]].

19XX (now 20XX) is a placeholder year. It's used in fiction to indicate that the events in the work will take place in the near future. By doing this, the author tries to increase the sense of realism. It's also used on demonstration memos and other paperwork, instead of a real date.

A third use is on license plates, which are, in some states, printed with the millennium and century digits separate from the decade and year digits:

19 89

so that stickers with the new year dates can be placed over the second two digits:

19 90

Now that the century and millennium have changed, the plate itself will have to be replaced .

Alternate version of this fictional date are 19??, 19xx, 19—, etc.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.