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Ah, computers. What can’t they tell us?



A computer-programmer from Cambridge, William Tunstall-Pedoe, fed a computer program called True Knowledge over 300 million facts about people, places and events that have made the news since 1900. Using algorithms and the information provided, the computer calculated the most boring day ever–a day where no major significant events took place.

(Speaking of computers, check out TIME’s 2010 Tech Buyer Guide. Sorry, True Knowledge didn’t make the cut.)

So what was this uber-boring day? April 11, 1954. Tunstall-Pedoe reports that nothing of note happened on this day (except a Belgium general election, the birth of a Turkish academic and the death of a footballer).

While this knowledge will most likely never be useful for any practical purposes, it is interesting to know. Unless you happened to have been born on that day. Then it probably just stings a little. (via the Telegraph)