Why is the Star Wars timeline based on the Battle of Yavin?

I would think that it would make more sense if it was based either off of the Battle of Endor or the Empire's formation. Also, going off of Anakin's birth would make sense given that our calendar is based around the birth of Jesus Christ.

 

It's an out-of-universe reason. It refers all SW stories to the original film, to create the most common point of reference for viewers/fans. In a lot of the early EU the dating system referred to the battle of Endor (check out the timelines in your old Bantam novels). I preferred that system.

 

I like to think of the destruction of the Death Star as the ultimate punctuation point. So why not have it be the prime meridian too?

 

Because the first Star Wars movie/story was "A NEW HOPE", which featured the Battle of Yavin.

 

I think in-universe it makes sense as long as it's the New Republic/Alliance/Alliance-in-exile doing the timekeeping. Because it was the first moment that they actually had a victory worth talking about. The beginning of an era, the end of the Dark Times, and a sign of things to come.

Out of universe, i think it'd make sense to have different timelines for each era, different battles that count. One for Old Republic, one for Prequels, one for Dark Times/OT, a New Republic one and a Legacy one.

 

Yeah, pretty much because Yavin is super-significant to the New Republic. A pretty good OOU case could be made for associating the "start" with Naboo, but I seriously doubt anybody say 150 years later seriously remembers Naboo and it's significance besides maybe professional historians.