A historical day: Sunday marks first eight-digit palindrome of 21st century

Penguins vs. Capitals. Groundhog Day. The Big Game.

Those are all great, but they don’t come close to the most interesting part of the day.

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Sunday is a rare eight-digit palindrome when written out as 02/02/2020 – the only one of its kind this century.

But what is a palindrome? It’s a sequence that reads the same forward as it does backward.

What makes Sunday’s palindrome so special is that it reads the same whether you are in America, Europe, Asia or Africa because the month and day are the same number.

The last time something this rare happened was 11/11/1111 – 909 years ago.

After Sunday’s palindrome, we’ll have to wait 101 years for 12/12/2121 – and the next one isn’t until 03/03/3030.

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