Everyone’s talking today about it being the 12th of December 2012. Or in brief, 12/12/12. You don’t have to be a mathematician, statistician or biometrician to like it when dates align into cool patterns.
Shoes for a 12/12 party! The donor, Christabel Mattingley, wore these at her wedding on 12 December 1953. (SH 940382)
Source: Museum Victoria
I discovered that we have a staff member with a birthday today. That probably doesn’t sound too special because if you remember anything from first year statistics at uni, you'll know it only takes a room of 20 or 30 people to have a pretty high chance of two of them having the same birthday (see the birthday problem on Wikipedia if you like probability theory).
Gents from the Royal Society of Victoria setting up their 12" reflectro telescope at Cape York to observe the solar eclipse of 12 December 1871. This is one of ten postcards printed to mark the occasion. (MM 98903)
Source: Museum Victoria
But it gets better. The person whose birthday it is today here, is turning 12 plus 12 plus 12 years old. Now that is cool: turning 12+12+12 on the 12/12/12! I’m not sure whether or not this means the person will self-destruct with all those twelves. Whatever it means, today is the last time this century that the day, month and year will align in numbers, which seemed reason enough to write a blog post celebrating this auspicious date, and to publish it at exactly 12:12 PM.
Cover of the lunch menu served on 12 December 1951 on board the MN Neptunia. The passengers feasted on soups, hot and cold mains, side dishes, dessert, fruit, cheese and coffee. (HT 1556)
Source: Museum Victoria