Palindrome Explained: Date Like February 22, 2022, Was Last Seen Over 1000 Years Ago

• Today’s date will go down in history as a rare occurrence that last happened over 1,000 years ago
• 22/02/2022 is both a palindrome and ambigram, and we will experience it only once in our lifetimes
• Briefly News explains the uniqueness of today’s date and highlights some of the sentiments from social media users

Today's date, Wednesday, February 22 (22/02/2022 in dd/mm/year format), is unique and has caused quite a buzz on social media.

The date is scarce as it is both a palindrome and an ambigram, and we will experience it only once in our lifetimes.

Palindrome, ambigram explained

Britannica says that a palindrome is a word, number, sentence, or verse that reads the same backwards or forward.

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22/02/2022: today’s unique date is a palindrome and ambigram, Mzansi discusses its significance

Hence, the date is a palindrome because it can be read from the left to the right and vice versa.

Professor Aziz Inan, electrical engineering at the University of Portland, calculated that palindrome days occur only in the first few centuries of each millennium.

"In the mm-dd-yy format, the first of 36 palindrome days in the current millennium (January 1, 2001, to December 31, 3000) was October 2, 2001 (10-02-2001), and the last such day will be September 22, 2290 (09-22-2290)," he told timeanddate.com

However, today will go down in history by ticking another box- it is also an ambigram.

An ambigram is a word or design that retains meaning even when flipped upside down.

The last date was both an ambigram and a palindrome was over 1,000 years ago.

Social media comments

Here is what social media users had to say:

@_kagichu:

“22.2.22 on a Tuesday! It is twosday!”

@EH_Stonehenge

“Today’s palindrome date is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence for you, but Stonehenge was there for 11/11/1111!”

@RiseFallNickBck

“Happy twosday everyone!”

Freedom Day 2021: South Africa celebrates 27 years of democracy

Speaking of special dates, Briefly News previously reported that South Africa has many public holidays. Still, Freedom Day could arguably be the most important of these. Freedom Day takes place on 27 April each year in honour of the country’s first free elections which were held in 1994.

On 27 April 1994, the country embarked on a brave new chapter in its history. It was the first free and democratically inclusive election. People over 18 years of age of all races were allowed to vote for their choice of leader for the first time.

Under the apartheid-era government, non-white people had little to no voting rights and were not represented in the halls of power.

Source: Briefly News