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!

Next door neighbour

Whilst living in one one house next door neighbour was called Olive Thompson when we moved from that house several years later our new next door neighbour had the same name - Olive Thompson.

A coincidental announcement

My parents published my christening in the columns of The Times newspaper in October 1932. Immediately under mine was the announcement of the christening of W.H.(Bill) Liddell. Our families were quite unknown to each other. 13 years later Bill and met for the first time on entering the same House at Harrow School . We became close friends and in time were Best Man at each others' marriage. This coincidence deepens when one realises that the letter 'L' is some way apart from 'F' in the alphabet also the announcement about me came within a wee of the event whereas Bill's was some 5 or 6 weeks afyer his christening I still have the small cutting from The Times of 79 years ago which I discovered at the back of a drawer when clearing our my mother's house in 1964. Duncan Ferguson

Convenient breakdown

Two years ago my wife was driving from her mother's home in Ardrishaig on the West Coast of Scotland to where we live in Yorkshire. When setting off she forgot to disengage the handbreak and must have driven for 45 minutes with the handbreak on before she reached Inverary burning out the brakes in the process . In Inverary the braking system failed completely and she was powerless to stop the car having to let it glide to an uncontrolled halt . She found herself exactly at rest outside the entrance to the only car mechanic's garage for many miles around.

Waiting for a friend

I was on holiday with my friend Joy in Jerusalem. We entered the hotel lift and it stopped to let some one on. A lady entered and started chatting, she was an Australian. She looked at Joy and asked her if she was too an Australian. Joy said no and the lady asked her if she had ever been to Australia. Yes said Joy, I was there about six weeks ago. Were you in Little Collins Street in Melbourne outside a departmental store on Saturday at 12 o'clock? She was! The lady had recognised her. Joy 2

Italian Holiday 2009

My wife and I used to dine out once a month with an old friend and and during the conversation we told him that we were going on holiday to Italy the following day. He replied that his daughter whom we had not seen for many years had gone to Italy the day before but did not know where. A few days into our holiday in Garda we took the boat to Bardolino. Walking up the main street from the pier after getting off the boat I heard a voice shouting "Joe" and turning round who should it be but our friend's daughter.

Birthdays

All of my children share my birthday. My birthday is 11 Aug 1970. My eldest son, Jason was born (2 days late) on 11 Aug 2003 and my twins, Daniel and Dean, were born (on their due date) 11 Aug 2006. After my first son was born I applied for a job with the Civil Service, and my boss' birthday was 11 Aug. Needless to say I got the job! I did submit this information a few days ago, but due to an error with the internet I don't know whether or not the information submission was successful or not.

Made For Each Other...

I met my fiance on Facebook. Setting aside all the circumstances and coincidences that would be needed just for that, something that came to light last summer is absolutely extraordinary. We were invited to a wedding at the registry where my fiance had previously been married. Only after the ceremony did we notice that the name of the suite where the wedding was performed was called the 'Michael Allen Suite'. My name is Michael Allen. For jam on top of this, my fiance's previous wedding date at this venue had been November 2nd - My birth date. I myself have never been married but plan to do so next summer. Seems to me that to ignore coincidence and synchronicity is just plain silly.

12th October

On 12th October 2007 devastatingly my second baby Jude was Stillborn in The Rotunda Hospital in Dublin. After much soul searching I got pregnant and my third baby Henry was born at 26 weeks and 1day on June 12 2011by emergency c section, weighing 510grams. Due to his prematurity Henry stayed in The Rotunda Hospital for 17 weeks and 3 days and finally left on the 12th October 2011, on Jude's Anniversary, 4 years to the day we left the same hospital with Henry. This date is also my Mum's Birthday and the day my parents got married.

Two tries to find the right girl

When I was single and doing online dating, two of my "serious" girlfriends happened to have the same first name and the same street number, on parallel streets just two blocks apart. This was from a pool of just four sustained relationships within a period of eight years. I didn't know their names or addresses before we started going out. PS: I married the second one! :-)

Travel Coincidences / Unbelievable Luck

1. In 1995, my wife and I were on our 25th wedding anniversary holiday in America. We had arranged to fly to Hawaii at the end of the holiday but made a snap decision to change our flight by a couple of days. Whilst boarding the aircraft we both saw another passenger looking at us from across the aisle. He got up, came over and said "We know each other don`t we?" Although he did look familiar it was only when he reminded us that we had attended the same Gym in our home town several years previously that the penny dropped. He had left to work in Maui and had also changed his flight so what were the odds of the meeting taking place. 2. Later in Hawaii (Oahu) we booked to see a show and on arrival we were allocated seats at a table at which an American family were sitting. We all introduced ourselves and the Father told us that they used to live in the UK at a place called High Wycombe, our home town and that his daughter had attended a high school in the city. The school was where our own daughter had gone and it transpired that they were there at the same time. 3.

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