Cambridge Coincidences Collection

As of the 23rd May 2022 this website is archived and will receive no further updates.

understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.

Well I Never!

Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University wants to know about your coincidences!

Twice in two weeks

In 1977 I went to Blackpool uk on a coach trip, I missed the coach back and didn't have enough money for a room, so I found a bus shelter and slept in that. During the night I woke up as i heard someone moving near me. It was another guy who was asleep on the next bench to me, he awoke as I moved and I realised I knew him from my home town 70 miles away, he went to the same school as me in Halifax uk. Turned out that he had missed his last train home to Halifax uk I hadn't seen him for about 3 years since I left school, we talked a bit and next morning, we went home on the train. Two weeks later I went to a football match in Portsmouth, 250 Mile's from where I lived on my own by train. I missed my last connection train back to Halifax, from Bradford, so decided to walk back the 8 miles as the taxis were all booked up for hours. About 3 miles in on the way home I walked past a man who was walking slowly and looked as I passed him, it was the same guy(Trevor) who was in the bus shelter sleeping in blackpool a couple of weeks before, the guy i knew from school! We could not believe seeing each other again in the middle of the night 70 miles from wher

Lizard

Last Tuesday I went on vacation with a couple of my friends. When we were about to head to bed I noticed the curtain wasn’t closed, so I went to close it and a lizard falls on me it really scared me. The next Tuesday which is today I’m back home and I decide to open my curtain guess what happens??? A lizard appears but this time doesn’t fall on me. Both were dead, both happened on a Tuesday, and both happened when I was either opening or closing the curtain.

an old family name

I was on a train in Russia and the train conductor called me by my grandmother’s original maiden name (“O—-“ a Russian last name which her father had changed to “K—-“ upon immigrating to Greece to better assimilate). It is not a common last name (though it is a famous one, as it belongs to a noble family) and bears no resemblance to my actual last name — “S—-.”

Cat's Mum

My fiancé's, bestie, Catriona, held a bridal shower for her at her flat in Victoria, BC, Canada. I was to come pick up my fiancé after work. I got held up so everyone had left already when I got there. Cat's Mum arrived early to visit with Cat and have a cup of tea. She arrived when we were just getting things together to leave so we were all jammed in the front entry of Cat's flat. Well we are not savages so we did proper introductions. I introduced myself and used my last name "L" in my introduction. Cat's Mum said "L" heh? Any relation to the "L's" of Talbot Terrace? Well yes my father JL was raised on Talbot Terrace in Glasgow. Cat's Mum and my father were childhood friends and had lost touch. I shared my Dad's number with Cat's Mum and they re-connected happily catching each other up.

Makes my spine chill

Sept 20, 1994 in Vancouver, BC, I fell off a balcony at work. I broke my back in 3 places and had a few other breaks and bruises. A woman was in a "Subway" restaurant across the street and looked up just in time to see me fall. "Subway" is not her choice the vegan place down the block would have been but her friend she was meeting wanted "Subway". She thought she'd seen me die. Two days later this woman is in Northern California to visit the sanctuary of her spiritual leader (A very small religious group of about 1000 people worldwide). She arrives at the sanctuary after closing and can't get in. An older woman who works there, arrives and says that the sanctuary is not open to visitors but agrees to allow her in as long as she helps her freshening the flowers. They get to talking, the one says she has just arrived from Vancouver, the older woman says what a coincidence I am just leaving for Vancouver to visit my son who is in the hospital after a workplace accident. The first woman saw me fall, the older woman is my mother.

Edinburgh AirBnB

Recently, I visited Edinburgh staying in an Air BnB. As you do, I looked in the visitors book and noticed that “Liz and Tom” from Market Bosworth had stayed there a couple of years before. I know a Liz and Tom from Market Bosworth and wondered, could it really be them? Market Bosworth is a small town but there might be a different Liz and Tom. When I returned home I contacted them and we established that we had, indeed, both stayed in the same flat.

Kermit’s Nephew

When we chat at home my husband sometimes sits on a middle stair, it’s always the same stair so I usually sing this song to him; “halfway down the stairs is a stair where I sit” which is a song sung by Kermit the frog’s nephew from the 80’s I think. Sitting down after dinner a few hours later I was reading an online news article on face masks and an advert on the same page had a photo of Kermit the frog and his nephew.

Deaths in my family

1) My son (older child)was born March 26, 1989 2) My mother’s sister died on March 26, 1989 (the day my son was born) 3) My mom died on March 26, 2020 (same day her sister died and my son’s birthday). My son had passed away April 18, 2019, so March 26, 2020 was his first birthday since his death. 4) For the first time since my dad died (April 5, 2011) his Yahrzeit (Jewish death date) fell on March 26 during 2020, the day my mom died 5) My mother and father died on the same Hebrew date (Nisan 1 on the Hebrew calendar) 6] My son was born on Easter Sunday (March 26, 1989j and buried on Easter Sunday [April 21, 2019)

Walking coincidence

I was having a really rough time. I was just starting college and already second guessing my major of music as I got into the lowest choir, whereas my boyfriend had gotten into the highest. My dad hadn’t helped much with making some comments, and it had all gotten to me. I picked myself up and went on a walk. I was just walking in my neighborhood by myself. I was talking out loud and complaining that I just felt so incredibly lost. I didn’t know if I had made a mistake, and if I was just going to be miserable as a music major. I felt like nothing was working right, because a lot was going wrong in my life. I just felt lost. I muttered something along the lines of, “If I am supposed to be at this college, studying this dumb major, give me a sign or I’m going to assume this is a mistake and I’m just going to quit.” I was talking to God at that point. Challenging him to give me a sign, which I did not expect he would do. I kept walking, and ended up walking a street I do not normally walk. I was passing a house, and this guy just kinda showed up.

Three family members dying on same day, different years

Over the course of about 10 years, 3 family members have died on April 26 but in different years. April 26, 2010, my grandfather Thomas Martinez died from blood loss after a tumor removal surgery in CA. April 26, 2010 my cousin Jonathan Martinez died of Lukemia in CA. April 26, 2020 my great-uncle died of COVID-19 in Mexico. We are wondering who else will die on April 26.

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