Mar 14, 1995-Celebration of the 50,000th issue. But it turned out to be more than a year premature. The mistake was discovered in 1999 by Aaron Donovan, a 24-year-old news assistant whose job included updating the issue number. (The task is now automated.) Prompted by curiosity, Mr. Donovan figured out that The Times had inadvertently credited itself with 500 issues too many on Feb. 7, 1898, when the number jumped overnight from 14,499 to 15,000. The error went undetected for 101 years.Allan M. Siegal, an assistant managing editor in 1999, decided that New Year’s Day would be the ideal moment to right the wrong and issue a correction. The paper of Dec. 31, 1999, was numbered 51,753. The next day’s paper, Jan. 1, 2000, was designated No. 51,254 — a reversion. Subsequent papers have followed the revised sequencing.