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Actually, it was Ussher who claimed to have identified the date. The culprit who claimed,
"this work took place and man was created by the Trinity on October 23, 4004 B.C., at nine o'clock in the morning."
was John Lightfoot:
John Lightfoot (1602-1675), Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University was a contemporary of Ussher. Lightfoot published his calculations in 1644, before Ussher's were completed.
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Both were sadly deluded -- if not demented -- as are those who worship at their feet...
On October 23, 1972 at nine in the morning,(Pacific Daylight Time), my geology class at Occidental College, taught by the noted glaciologist Joe Birman, was about to begin, when students from the Geology Department, accompanied by a camera crew from NBC, barged into the room and announced that instead of listening to a lecture, we would ba having a party to celebrate the anniversary of the creation of the earth. The event was shown on the local news broadcast later in the day.