Barad-dûr has fallen!

Wait, they had Roman calendars in middle earth?

Gandalf called it.

Shaka, when the walls fell.

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I always thought that the giant hole swallowing all the bad guys and none of the good guys was a bit convenient. They lost their leader and power source/structure, but why does that create a precisely targeted orc-seeking seismic event?

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That was an unnecessary flourish the movies added that was not included in the books. In the books, the Army of Sauron loses its will to fight and flees when the Ring is destroyed. The Army of the Free Peoples was then able to pursue and decimate them. I guess Jackson must have thought that that didn't have enough visual impact for the big screen, so he added in the "ground opens and swallows them whole" thing.

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Wait, they had Roman calendars in middle earth?

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No, The professor provided a whole appendix to explain the Hobbit calendar.
That’s why he’s the best.

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The answer is "yes, and no".

If you read the books, you clearly see actual dates; Bilbo's (and Frodo's) birthday and thus the date of the party in the opening, is September 22. There are other dates written, offhand I can't remember examples (although in the appendixes there's a timeline with specific dates).

If you dig deeper, you learn the whole thing is considered a translation; and that includes dates, as well as any names not Elvish. Meaning, it isn't called The Shire, and there isn't a Frodo or Sam, etc. Tolkien wrote stuff listing the actual names, the actual calendar, etc. But since this is a translation, and taken from the Hobbit's perspective, everything is given an English slant, to make it more familiar.