Believe it or not, next Wednesday evening will be an historic moment in time. It is an event which has only ever happened once before, and is something which will never happen again.

As the clock ticks over to 8.02pm on Wednesday, February 20, time will, for sixty seconds only, read in perfect symmetry 2002, 2002, 2002, or to be more precise - 20:02, 20/02, 2002.

The last occasion that time read in such a symmetrical pattern was 1001 years ago ... long before the days of the digital watch and the 24-hour clock - at 10.01am on January 10, 1001.

And because the clock only goes up to 23.59, it is something that will never happen again.