Baby born at 20:02 on 02/02/2020 makes history

A baby born at 20:02 on the 02/02/20 has made history.

The remarkable birth of Charlee Rose Masters took place at St Joseph East Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. It made the history books because it took place on a global palindrome day. In short, this means that his birthday is the same forwards and backward.

To put how unusual this is into context, the date of Charlee's birth is the first global palindrome day in 909 years. The last one took place on November 11, 1111 - long before even Shakespeare's time.

In an equally remarkable first, is the moment a deaf baby heard for the first time: 

However, needless to say, his mom, Laken Masters was completely oblivious to how unusual her son's birth was until after the event.

In an interview with Good Morning America, she revealed that her contractions began on Saturday afternoon. But she had expected her baby to make an appearance on a Monday or a Tuesday.

She said: "I didn't really think about [the date] and then all the nurses that were in the room said, 'Oh, this is so cool… it's better than a New Year's baby.'"

The first person to realize that the baby could be born at 20:02 was Laken's mom, Dee Dee Calvert.

Laken said: "I don't know the conversation that was going on in the room. I don't remember anybody else talking about anything. I just remember my mom, Dee Dee, saying take a picture of the clock."

Laken was in good company when she gave birth and was accompanied by her family, best friend and a group of nurses.

According to Nancy Shirey, a midwife at the hospital, who has worked there for over 20 years: "First-time moms usually have to push for a couple [of] hours, but [Laken] only pushed for about 20 minutes."

Charlee's namesake comes from her late great-grandfather and late great-aunt. She was born healthy and happy.

Congratulations to Charlee's family!