I tweeted yesterday that next year will be the first year since 1987 with four different digits.

Every year since 1988 has had a digit that appeared at least twice:

1988: multiple 8s
1989-1999: multiple 9s
2000-2010: multiple 0s
2011: multiple 1s
2012: multiple 2s

Next year, 2013, will finally break this pattern.

I was trying to figure out the previous record for a sequence of numbers with repeating digits. I think it was 1099 to 1202. Before that, 988 to 1022.

Meaningless trivia, but I still think it’s cool. Numbers are fun.