Claim: E-mail lists interesting coincidences between the years 1981 and 2005.
Example:[Collected via e-mail, 2005]
Interesting Year 1981
1. Prince Charles got married
2. Liverpool crowned soccer Champions of Europe
3. Australia lost the Ashes tournament.
4. Pope Died
Year 2005
1. Prince Charles got married
2. Liverpool crowned soccer Champions of Europe
3. Australia lost the Ashes tournament
4. Pope Died
In the future, if Prince Charles decides to remarry ... please warn the Pope!!
Origins: It would be difficult even for the most enthusiatic coincidence buffs to read anything of significance into these brief lists comparing events from the years 1981 and 2005, but since curious readers have been asking us about this item, we'll give it a rundown here:
Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer were wed on 29 July 1981. After the couple divorced in 1996 (and Diana was killed in an automobile accident the following year), Prince Charles married again, this time to Camilla Parker Bowles, on 9 April 2005.
Liverpool's soccer (i.e., football) team won the European Cup in both 1981 and 2005 (as well as in 1977, 1978, and 1984).
Australia lost the Ashes tournament in both 1981 and 2005. (This item is something of an inside joke to cricket fans, since The Ashes is a biennial cricket series waged between England and Australia.)
Pope Paul VI died on 6 August 1978, and John Paul I also passed away just a month after being selected as his successor. However, although the next pope appointed that year, John Paul II, was wounded in an assassination attempt in 1981, he survived the shooting and remained the pontiff for another 24 years, until his death in 2005. No pope died in 1981, as claimed above.