One night changes lives of two insanely lucky people - two tickets finally matched the winning numbers in Tuesday night's highly-anticipated $636 million Mega Millions Jackpot, the second-largest prize in U.S. history.

Mega Millions tickets are sold in 43 states, except Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming, as well as the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They go on sale for $1 each, though buyers choose to pay an additional $1 for the Megaplier option, which could multiply lesser, non-jackpot winning prizes.

The winning numbers were 8, 14, 17, 20 and 39, with a Megaball of 7. According to lottery officials, one winning ticket was sold at a Gateway Newsstand in the lobby of an office building near Buckhead area in Atlanta, Georgia, while the other was sold at Jenny's Gift Shop located at San Jose strip mall in California. Twenty ticket holders will win $1 million after matching all the numbers except the Megaball.

Strong sales boosted the jackpot to $636 million from the previous estimate of $586 million; the jackpot was so large in part because Mega Millions became tougher to win. The prize rises with each miss, and no one had won it since the pool of available numbers was increased.

The chance of winning got worse in late October, when Mega Millions increased the drawing's pool of numbers. The odds of hitting the jackpot, which were 1 in 176 million, are now 1 in 259 million.

"Winning the Mega Millions is akin to getting struck by lightning at the same time you're being eaten by a shark," said Todd Northrop, founder of Lotterypost.com.