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A once-in-a-lifetime line-up for time and date? Well ... sort of

At 34 minutes and 56 seconds past noon on the August 7, 2009 - yesterday - nothing happened. Nothing, that is, except what some described in awe as a rare coincidence that occurs only once a century. That moment - 12:34:56 7/8/9 - is a consecutive number aficionado's dream, a coincidence where the digits of our clock and calendar systems line up for one second.

If you were lucky enough to catch the hype over this phenomenon - mainly created by bloggers on the internet - perhaps you paused at that moment, advertised as 'only happening once in your lifetime'. If you're reading about it now for the first time, well, you missed it.

But here's some good news if you're part of the latter category. You don't have to be an old geezer in 2109 to see the next occurrence, despite the internet frenzy.

The truth is, at least in this case, coincidence can be manipulated. You could wake at 01:23:45 06/07/89 and experience the same thing. Or 12:34:05 06/07/89, for that matter - that's twice in one day.

A lot of people are even more excited for 12:34:56 07/08/90, seen as an even more perfect version. Even if you can't wait around 81 years for that, you can revel in consecutive digits next year - 23:45:67 08/09/10.

While yesterday's special moment was valid for residents of Hong Kong, the moment had already occurred for people in North America - on July 8, because the month comes first in their date format. Watchmakers there bubbled over with excitement, and a woman had a baby at that exact special moment.

But, really, was it so special if it was going to happen here only a month later? It's all a matter of perspective - manipulation through time zones, date formats, seconds and milliseconds - but coincidence is still fun to look out for.

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