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!

Mr graham B

Me and my wife won a trip on a clipper ship sailing from Calcavecia Italy for five days. We hit it off with another couple (Jeremy and Caroline)and spent all our time with them. When the cruise was over we kept in touch for about a year. We went to Hull to see them and they visited Derby to see us. After that the friendship fizzled out and neither couple kept in touch. About three years later, me and my wife were in Mexico on holiday for two weeks near Xmas. About four days into the holiday, we were in a night club and it was about one in the morning, on my way to the toilets and who should be walking towards me but Caroline. It turned out that she and Jeremy were booked into the sister hotel next door to ours. We spent the rest of the holiday with them. Ps I can supply dates & photos if needed.

Double 'jobs' coincidence across countries.

In 1966 my boyfriend and I got jobs in Geneva, mine as a radiographer in the main hospital there. We had to leave the country for a while to sort out work permits. When we returned he was able to start work but I was told that as we had come back a week late my job had been given to someone else. I was quite mad about this as I had been persuaded to go to Geneva from another part of Switzerland where I had been working and unlike other parts of Switzerland at the time there were not that many jobs. I would have had to go to another part of the country to get work but he would have been unable to as his permit was job specific. About 6 months later and after we had married we decided to go to England for a while and see if there was work there. We were in London and when looking through a magazine with jobs vacancies I saw a summer job in Barnstaple Devon in the local general hospital. I rang the hospital department but was told that the job had been just taken by someone else. We went back to Switzerland and found jobs there.

Must be telepathy

On a quiet day in the office, I started writing a short story about a man I decided to call Charlie Luke. When I'd finished it, I handed it to a colleague for his amusement. But it was more like amazement. "That was the name of my maternal grandfather!" We both agreed that he'd never had any reason to mention that name to me, and it must have been some kind of telepathy.

Doppelganger!

My name is Jonathan Begg, and in July 1974, I started a new job as a copywriter at a small London advertising agency, taking my seat on the Monday morning at 9.30. Half an hour later, my boss, in the next office, received a call from a copywriter he'd never heard of, called Jonathan Pegg, asking if there were any jobs in his department!

Cursed Birthdays

Apologies in advance as this one's a downer. My daughter and my stepmother shared the same February 4 birthday. My stepmother passed away after an accident on my mother's birthday, April of 2008. Now, sadly both my mother and my daughter have a touch of shadow cast on 'their' days in remembrance. - Jay

stranger with uncanny connection

In 1983 my husband was killed in a R.T.A. in Germany while serving in the RAF. In 1992 on my way home from Euro Disney on a bus I started talking to the man opposite as all our travelling companions had fallen asleep, It turned out that he was the military policeman who attended the accident and a colleague of my late husbands.

Of all the towns...

It was in the Eighties, before we had mobiles, but I carried a bleeper, whose number I advertised nationwide as my preferred method of contact. One day I happened to be walking through Maidenhead and the bleeper went off. The message was from a total stranger who'd been given my name and number, and wanted to talk to me about a job. He turned out to be in Maidenhead - about two streets away!

Birthday coincidence

I have two sons born on the same day,27th September,five years apart. My Daughter was born on the same day,28th July,as her paternal Grandmother and a cousin. I share a birthday 17th June,with my Stepmother.

Family names

My name is Helen. My father's name was John. I have a sister called Christine who is married to a Michael. I married a man called Michael who's father's name is John. He has two sisters called Helen and Christine. His sister Christine is married to a Michael. My sister Christine is married to a Michael. Both families were brough up thousands of miles from each other. What are the chances!

My tenant vanished but I trampled his toe in Canterbury

I once owned a small house by Brissago Switzerland.I had little time to enjoy it so decided to let it for a year.A couple from Texas came to see it,loved it and rented it for one year.All the papers were signed and they moved in.We celebrated by dring " red beer " on the terrace. I was introduced to the idea of pouring tomato juice into beer to make " Texan Red Beer ". The rent ceased being paid into my account after about 6 months and the neighbours said that the couple had left. About one year after that I was standing with my wife looking at Canterbury Cathedral, I took one step back and stood on someone's toe. I turned round to apologise and there he was,my tenant together with his wife. I am 6ft 4 inches my tenant was about 5ft 4 inches so he complained that I had hurt his toe. I complained that he had hurt my wallet. Neither of us lived in Caterbury or the UK. Nevertheless, quite a coincidence.

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