Cambridge Coincidences Collection

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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.

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Well I Never!

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

birthday conincidence

One Christmas in Cambridge we invited a lonely student to have lunch with us. I asked him where he came from. Later I asked him about his family. I asked him his age. Something prompted me to ask his place of birth and then his month of birth and finally the date. I then said," I've met you before" When my middle son was born in Zambia in 1968 I worried that I may be given the wrong baby. Having looked intently at all the other babies in the nursery. I was reassured. My baby was the only white one.Our Christmas guest was one of the black ones.

A wedding dress

I am from New Zealand and I have been living in Cyprus for 28years. I met my current partner 5 years ago. Last year in Sepetember we attended the wedding of his nephew. There was a woman who was wearing the same dress as myself. I had bought the dress in England on a previous visit in June that year. We had a laugh and made our way to the reception. We had the usual photos for the record and on we went. Later on that evening, the " other woman came up to me and sat down. She said to me " not only do we have the same dress, but the same name!" she went on to tell me that she was Lynley DODD and I am Barbara DODD. She was the auntie of the bride married to Mr.Dodd. My family was originally from England on my fathers side, but there maybe a family connection even so.

Who do you think you are - our family home

Turning on the television randomly one day, we were stunned to see my former family home on the screen as the home of Amanda Redman's distant relative in BBC's Who Do you think you are. Visiting Falmouth to track down her Uncle Percy, she drove down Wood Lane, then Wodehouse Terrace before stopping and pointing to no 38 - "This is where Uncle Percy lived" she said pointing to the house that had been my parents' home for more than 20 years. There was another coincidence - Percy had been the illegitimate son of a visiting seaman with the same unusual name as my wife's maiden name, so there may well have been an actual distant family connection.

A Chinese Connection

This happened to my friend. He was in Shanghai and got talking to a Dutchman in an Irish Pub, the dutch man said he had lived in Ireland. "Where", "Dublin", "Where in Dublin", "Donnybrook", Where in Donnybrook "Greenfield Pk" What Number "Number xx" My friend then promptly reeled off this guys landline telephone number. He had been staying in the house a very good friend used to live in

A dog and a horse

My daughter and I were walking our excitable young labrador up the narrow country path, towards a corner which led to the open fields - at which point the dog would be let off her lead. ''Why can't we take her off the lead now'' she asked. ''Better to wait until we get around the corner and into the fields, since it'll be easier to spot any chaseable objects such as cyclists and horses'' I suggested. ''But we're nearly there, nothing will come'' she told me. ''It might - a horse might come round the corner at any moment'' I said. Seconds later, with the dog still on the lead, around the corner came a horse....

birthday co incidence

I have just heard reference to your research on Radio 4 where you commented that siblings sharing the same birthday years apart is a relative rarity. My brother Simon and I share the same date, I was born on 17th April 1947 and he was born 10 years later on 17th April 1957. For years I joked that he was my twin, with a 10 year gap. Penny

Family

I lived in London, my sister lived in Chelmsford. I had not seen her for a number of years. I was on my way to run a IT course for early one morning and walked past this woman, who, stopped and said, "don't say hello to your sister". I barely recognised her, we had not seen each other for so long. We stopped and chatted. She was in London sitting an examination. We agreed to meet and catch up early in the future and went our separate ways. At the end of the training day, about 6pm, I left to go home, and - yes, you've guessed it - I bumped straight into her again.

death on the same day on different years

My boyfriend s mother died last week on the day after her birthday. Her mother also died no the day after her birthday.

Hospital Delivery Unit

My University had made an admin error with my booking for living in halls of residence in my first year. When I got there on my first day it was clear that they'd screwed up with 40-50 other new students. For the first week therefore the Uni had to put us up in a sports hall on fold up beds- think emergency shelter following natural disaster. Anyway the lad on the foldable next to me was from Bangor, Ireland and I was from London. We got chatting and realised that his family an my family had lived in Kenya during the 60s. It then transpired that we were delivered in the same Nairobi hospital; same year, 3 days apart.

Lots of shared birthdays

I have an only child, a daughter;<br /> My birthday 27th January, my son-in-law's mother's birthday 27th January<br /> My daughter's birthday 30th April her father-in-law's birthday 30th April<br /> I have two grandsons;<br /> My grandson Thomas' birthday 22nd February, his great grandmother's birthday 22nd February<br /> My grandson Matthew's birthday 23rd November, his great Uncle's birthday 23nd November<br /> Plus my husband and our friend Bob share the same birthday 17th March<br />

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