[Eagle of Liberty]

I also get annoyed with writers who use BCE and CE, meaning "Before the Common Era" and "Common Era" instead of BC and AD.

Funny you should mention this. Neal Boortz was reading a Wiki article today and it referenced a talk about Friday the 13th with the date and then CE. Hate it. They just can't bring themselves to mention the word GOD! It's like a toxin to them.

[Fiji Hill]

The first publication that I ever read that used a substitute for BC and AD was Kleine Enzyklopadie Weltgeschichte (Little Encyclopedia of World History) (Leipzig, German Democratic Republic: VEB Bibliografisches Institut, 1971), which used "u.Z." (unsere Zeit, or our time) for AD and "v. u. Z." (vor unsere Zeit, or before our time) for BC. This book was published in Communist East Germany.