Buzz
Life has a strange way of throwing unexpected events our way, especially when it comes to coincidences. Just when you think you've got a grip on what's real, a series of events come along that make you question everything. The universe certainly has a playful side. This list delves into ten unbelievable coincidences that will challenge your sense of reality. Prepare to have your doubts shaken!
10. Mark Twain and the Comet
Mark Twain was captivated by Halley’s Comet throughout his life. He was born on the night of November 30, 1835, during the comet's appearance in the skies over his hometown of Florida, Missouri. Twain always believed that he would meet his end when the comet returned.
He famously said, “I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835; it’s coming again next year [in 1910], and I expect to go out with it. It would be a great disappointment in my life if I don’t. The Almighty has said, no doubt: ‘Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.’”
Twain passed away from a heart attack on April 21, 1910, just one day after Halley’s Comet reached its closest point to Earth and shone at its brightest.
9. The Independence Day Deaths
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, once political rivals who later became friends, both passed away on July 4, 1826—the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Adams had been in relatively good health until a few months before his death when illness struck. He died at his home in Quincy, Massachusetts, around five in the afternoon, at the age of 90. He collapsed in his reading chair, drifting in and out of consciousness for several hours before passing. According to newspaper reports, Adams’s last words were, “Jefferson still lives.”
However, Jefferson actually passed away first, just after noon on the same day, at his home in Monticello. He had been unwell for some time, slipping into a coma on July 3, 1826, after battling a prolonged intestinal illness. He was 83. News of Jefferson’s death reached Virginia shortly before Adams’s passing. Following their deaths, eulogies were delivered nationwide, and tributes were printed in newspapers.
After years of being apart, they began writing to one another again during their retirement years. Their letters covered a wide range of topics, both personal and political, including the growing rift in the nation. “I look back with rapture on those golden days when Virginia and Massachusetts lived and acted together like a band of brothers,” Adams wrote to Jefferson in 1825.
Their deaths on the same day, despite their political differences, have come to symbolize the unity and shared ideals of the early American republic.
8. Breaking the Lincoln Curse
Was Abraham Lincoln cursed? He personally witnessed three assassinations during his presidency. The first was the murder of Elmer Ellsworth, a Union Army colonel, shot by a hotel owner in Alexandria, Virginia, in May 1861. The second was the death of Union Army General James B. McPherson, killed during the Battle of Atlanta in July 1864. The third and most infamous was Lincoln’s own assassination at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865, at the hands of John Wilkes Booth.
But perhaps it was Booth’s own family that could break the curse. Robert Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s son, was saved by Edwin Booth, the brother of John Wilkes Booth, who would later assassinate Abraham Lincoln. This remarkable event occurred on a train platform in Jersey City in 1864, when Robert Todd Lincoln was traveling to Washington, D.C., to meet his father.
Edwin Booth, a renowned actor at the time, witnessed Robert Todd Lincoln fall between the platform and the train. He swiftly pulled him to safety. Robert Todd Lincoln later recalled the incident, saying, “I was indebted to him for my life. It was a debt I could never repay.”
The best part? Booth didn’t even know who he was when he saved him. Pretty remarkable, right?
7. The Bookend Deaths of WWI
Did you know that the first and last soldiers to die in WWI are buried side by side?
John Parr and George Ellison were the first and last British soldiers to die in combat during World War I. They are buried together at the St Symphorien military cemetery in Belgium, just southeast of Mons.
The cemetery is the final resting place of over 500 Commonwealth and German soldiers. The graves of Parr and Ellison are only 15 feet (4.5 meters) apart, facing one another. Private Parr was killed on August 21, 1914, at the age of 16, just 17 days after Britain declared war.
Private Ellison was killed on November 11, 1918, at the age of 40, only 90 minutes before the armistice ceasefire at 11 am. The closeness of their graves is considered a coincidence, as their 'first' and 'last' statuses were unknown at the time of burial. The graves of Parr and Ellison stand as a somber reminder of the immense human cost of the war and the sacrifices made by soldiers on both sides.
6. Flight 666: The Doomed Plane
This is one flight that narrowly avoided some seriously bad luck. Flight 666, operated by Finnair, flew into HEL on Friday, October 13, 2017.
It was a regularly scheduled flight from Copenhagen, Denmark, to Helsinki, Finland. Finnair is a Finnish airline, and the destination airport was Helsinki Airport, which has the IATA code HEL.
Friday the 13th is often regarded as an unlucky day in Western superstition, while the number 666 is frequently linked to the devil or evil in popular culture.
The coincidence of the flight number and date, along with the destination airport’s code, sparked widespread discussion on social media and in the news. Thankfully, the flight took off and landed safely, despite the superstitions surrounding the date and flight number. Finnair later changed the flight number, but you can still travel from SIN to HEL by flying from Singapore to Helsinki.
5. The Ultimate Survivor
Violet Jessop, an Argentine woman of Irish descent, worked as a stewardess and nurse on ocean liners in the early 20th century. She is best known for surviving the sinking of both the RMS Titanic and its sister ship, the HMHS Britannic. Jessop was also aboard the RMS Olympic when it collided with the British warship HMS Hawke in 1911.
Jessop was serving as a stewardess on the Titanic when it struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic on April 14, 1912. She was summoned to the deck to demonstrate how to behave for the non-English speakers who struggled to understand the crew's instructions. She witnessed the crew loading lifeboats before escaping in lifeboat 16.
On November 21, 1916, Jessop was working as a WWI nurse aboard the Britannic, a hospital ship. When the ship struck a mine and began sinking, Jessop grabbed a nearby lifebelt and held on until one of the Britannic’s motorboats rescued her. Jessop sustained a serious head injury, but, true to form, she survived.
4. Twin Strangers Live the Same Life
James Alan Lewis and James Allan Springer were identical twins separated at birth and adopted by different families. They were reunited at age 39 in 1979. Here’s the odd part: they led nearly identical lives despite being raised in different homes.
The twins were born in 1940 and both adopted in Ohio, each given the name James. Both were called Jim. They grew up just 45 miles (72.4 kilometers) apart in Ohio and Minnesota. Jim Lewis knew he had a twin, but Jim Springer’s mother had told him his twin had died at birth.
But the eerie similarities don’t end there.
The Jims both married and divorced women named Linda, and later remarried women named Betty. Both had careers in law enforcement and shared similar habits, such as drinking and smoking. They each had childhood pets named Toy, and both named their firstborn sons James Alan (or Allan).
The story of the twins garnered national attention and was featured in news reports and on television shows. They participated in studies about separated twins, which aimed to explore the influence of genetics and environment on human behavior and development.
3. Bringing the Civil War Full Circle
Wilmer McLean, a Virginia farmer, lived near Manassas during the American Civil War. On July 21, 1861, the First Battle of Bull Run, also known as the First Battle of Manassas, was fought just near McLean’s farm, almost on his doorstep.
McLean’s house served as the headquarters for Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard during the battle. A Union sympathizer, McLean decided to move his family away from the war zone after the battle. He eventually settled in Appomattox Court House, Virginia—only for it to become the site of the war’s end, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865.
The surrender took place in McLean’s parlor, prompting him to famously remark that the Civil War started in his front yard and ended in his front parlor.
2. The Lightning Magnet
The saying goes that lightning never strikes the same place twice—but in the case of Walter Summerford, that’s not true. Summerford, a British officer, was struck by lightning four times over the course of his life, three times while alive and once after his death.
Summerford, a major in the British Army during World War I, was first struck by lightning on a battlefield in Belgium in 1918. The lightning strike left him paralyzed from the waist down. After retiring to Vancouver, he slowly rehabilitated and regained the ability to walk.
However, six years later, he was struck by lightning again while fishing, which paralyzed the right side of his body. Despite this, Summerford survived both strikes and continued to live. But in 1930, while walking in a park in Vancouver, he was struck by lightning a third time, leaving him paralyzed and bedridden until his death two years later.
You’d think Walter Summerford would catch a break after all of that, right? Not quite. His gravestone was also struck by lightning. Some consider him the unluckiest man in the world, but his story stands as a powerful testament to the forces of nature and the strength of human perseverance.
1. Trump Card Prediction
In a Season 11 episode of The Simpsons titled 'Bart to the Future,' which aired on March 19, 2000, the show eerily predicted that Donald Trump would one day become president of the United States and leave the nation in financial ruin. In this episode, Lisa Simpson, Bart's sister, is seen as president inheriting a budget crisis from her predecessor, President Trump. This prediction gained considerable attention after Trump was elected president in 2016, 16 years after the episode aired.
This isn’t the only time The Simpsons seemed to predict future events. The show has earned a reputation for making jokes that later came true, such as the invention of smartwatches, the outbreak of the Ebola virus, and even the discovery of the Higgs boson particle.
