[William Terrell]

When did the use of "CE" and "BCE" come into to use? I never read anything using those terms before the last decade of the 20th century.

When "CE" is used, it refers to after the birth of Christ and "BCE" before the birth of Christ. The refusal to use "BC" and "AD" is a terminology issue only, not having anything to do with realtime dating. It appears to be consistent with the PC movement to marginalize Christianity.

[Old Student]

I can't swear to it, but I think I ran into it first in the early to mid-70's, while I was still in High School, or just shortly after...