So today, 22 February 2022 is a palindrome date, which as you can imagine, is quite rare.

As a total fail when it comes to mathematics, I need help when it comes to thinking about palindrome dates. But as we all know, Google has answers for everything, so sticking with the way we record dates, common for European nations, there are 29 Palindrome Days in the current century. The first was 10 February 2001 (10/02/2001). The last is a leap day, 29 February 2092 (29/02/2092) and will be the last Palindrome Day of the 21st century.

Palindrome Days tend to occur only in the first few centuries of each millennium

Such conversations as Palindrome Days and “name a palindrome word”, sound like topics for television quizzes or family fights, or perhaps even number crazy maths teachers such as my sister-in-law, who gets very annoyed when people say ‘nought’ instead of ‘zero’. Barb loves a good mathematical Palindrome.

As does Aziz S. Inan, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Portland. Coming from the US, his calculations centre on the mm/dd/yyyy format, and he has worked out that Palindrome Days tend to occur only in the first few centuries of each millennium. The last palindromic date in the second millennium (years 1001 to 2000) in this format was August 31, 1380 or 08/31/1380.

According to Dr. Inan, in the mm/dd/yyyy 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).

It could be your civic duty to keep all palindromes (numbers, dates or words) on your radar, include your Mum and Dad, and if arguing such fun facts at home, ensure a level playing field for all. LOL! (Abbreviations can be considered palindromes.)