Board Thread:General Mod Discussion/@comment-108.35.168.58-20170531205843/@comment-25101089-20170531222701

''"I imagine the gap [between the Fall of Barad-dûr and modern times] to be about 6000 years; that is we are now at the end of the Fifth Age, if the Ages were of about the same length as Second Age and Third Age. But they have, I think, quickened; and I imagine we are actually at the end of the Sixth Age, or in the Seventh." - ''J.R.R. Tolkien

The Fourth Age marked the end of the mythical pre-history of Middle-earth, and the transition into 'real', recorded history. An idea that I've seen passed around a lot is that the Fourth Age ended with the Noachian Flood; the Fifth Age spanned from the Flood until the birth of Jesus; the Sixth Age from Jesus to the defeat of Hitler (corresponding to the Fall of Barad-dûr in modern times); and we are now living in the Seventh Age. Admittedly all of that is non-canonical, but it seems to align with what Tolkien himself might have thought.