A Year of Anniversaries

The human mind is so effective at spotting patterns that I suspect this must have been a significant aspect of the evolution of our intelligence.

Unfortunately we are good at spotting patterns even when these are of no significance whatever, or which are due to coincidence, which can occasionally lead us to think we have detected relationships which are not actually there. I have the greatest sympathy with all those parents whose children developed autism shortly after they had the MMR vaccine, but I believe the connection which many of them have drawn between the vaccine and their children's illness to be an example.

An example of a coincidence which is utterly meaningless but so fascinating I am unable to resist commenting on it is how many significant anniversaries fall in the year 2015.

This month alone sees the 200th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo and the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta. Operation Dynamo, the evacuation from Dunkirk, began 75 years ago last month and finished 75 years ago on Thursday. (Today is also the 71st anniversary of D-Day.)

This year also sees the 70th anniversaries of the end of World War II - VE day last month, the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and VJ day in August.

From World War One, this year sees the 100th anniversaries of the Gallipoli disaster, the sinking of the Lusitania, and the Armenian Genocide. (And yes, it's about time Turkey faced up to what the Ottoman regime did and accepted that it was a genocide.)

This year also sees the 300th anniversaries of the 1715 Jacobite uprising, the penultimate major rebellion in this country, of the last total eclipse of the sun in Britain for 900 years, and of the death of Louis XIV of France, the "Sun King."

I have been reminded on Facebook by one of my old University friends, John Richards, that this October is also the 600th anniversary of the battle of Agincourt.

The coincidence of so many anniversaries is quite fascinating and, as far as I can see, of no deeper significance whatsoever. Part of it is because there are so many significant events in our history and so many time intervals we arbitrarily deem significant (we're doubling up on WWII by noting both 70th and 75th anniversaries, for instance.) But being, like most humans, an incorrigible pattern-spotter, I am unable to resist noting it.

Comments

Jim said…
one you missed

Yesterday was the fortieth anniversary of the 1975 referendum on our membership of the EEC (styled as the "Common Market").

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