A 2019 Gallup poll found that 40% of adults in the U.S. believed in the Biblical story of Creation. (On the other hand, a total of 55% believed in human evolution, either with God's help or without.) This means the Creationists took the Adam and Eve story literally, and thought they were real people who existed, at most, 10,000 years ago. But where does that date come from? And is that really as specific as the timeframe gets?
The Bible, particularly the Old Testament, loves a genealogy (the infamous "so-and-so begat so-and-so, who begat so-and-so" parts). On his blog, theoretical astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Luminet explains that based on the two lists of who begat whom in Genesis, which cover the generations between Adam and Abraham, plus the many other begat lists that ultimately culminate with Jesus, historical theologians settled on about 4,000 BC as the date of the creation of the earth. However, for various reasons, others believe the genealogies are missing some names, and that the date could be as late as 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.
But theologians got even more specific. Around 700 AD, the Venerable Bede wrote that the Creation took place in the spring. In 1642, the scholar John Lightfoot famously determined that "man was created by the Trinity on October 23, 4004 BC at nine o'clock in the morning." And in 1650, Archbishop James Ussher calculated that Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden of Eden on Monday, November 19.
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