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Cover Story: Amazing co-incidences throughout history
Has it ever happened that you were talking about some long ago friends and they chose that precise moment to call upon you after a very long time? Or maybe when you were wondering what would it be like when something particular happened and it really did.
Co-incidences, defined as “remarkable occurrences of similar events at the same time by chance”, have been experienced by a lot of us. Some are minor, enjoyed by people and some major, which fascinate us and are sometimes distressing. History is full of amazing and sometimes bizarre coincidences that give us pause and keep us scratching our heads in wonder. Is it a play of fate or chance or does God sometimes just amuse Himself by shocking us?
Following are some of the major co-incidences experienced by people, which made history.
Twin boys, twin lives
The stories of identical twins’ strange likeness are often astonishing, but perhaps not more so than those between the lives of the identical twins born in Ohio. The twin Springer boys were separated at birth, being adopted by different families. Unknown to each other, both families named the boys James. And here the coincidences just began. Both James grew up not even knowing of the other, yet both sought law-enforcement training, both had abilities in mechanical drawing and carpentry, and each had a married woman named Linda. They both had sons whom one named James Alan and the other named James Allan.
The twin brothers also divorced their wives and married other women — both named Betty. And they both owned dogs, named Toy. Forty years after their childhood separation, the two men were reunited to share their amazingly similar lives.
More twins to come
Another sadder story involves twins, John and Arthur Mowforth, who lived about 80 miles apart in Great Britain. On the evening of May 22, 1975, both fell severely ill from chest pains. The families of both men were completely unaware of the other’s illness. Both men were rushed to separate hospitals at approximately the same time. And both died of heart attacks shortly after arrival.
Killer taxi
Eerie occurrences have been noticed between brothers as well. This is the story of co-incidental deaths of two brothers. In 1975, while riding a moped in Bermuda, a man was accidentally struck and killed by a taxi. One year later, this man’s bother was killed in the very same way. In fact, he was riding the very same moped. And to stretch the odds even further, he was struck by the very same taxi driven by the same driver — and was even carrying the very same passenger!
Killer coat
Another co-incidence involving brothers is between Jabez and Daniel Spicer of Massachusetts, USA. Jabez Spicer was killed by two bullets in the attack on the federal arsenal at Springfield in 1787. At the time he was wearing the coat his brother Daniel was wearing when he, too, was killed by two bullets in 1784. The bullets that killed Jabez passed through the holes made by the bullets that had killed his brother!
The Kennedy-Lincoln link
The list of co-incidences between the lives of the two famous presidents, J. F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln is never-ending. Weird theories surround these similarities. Following are some of these amazing similarities:
* Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.
* Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
* John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.
* The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters.
* Mrs Lincoln advised Mr Lincoln not to go to the theatre and Mrs Kennedy advised Mr Kennedy not to go to Dallas.
* The successors of both were named Johnson.
* Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.
* Both successors left the presidency in disgrace without running for reelection.
* Abraham Lincoln died in 1865.
Andrew Johnson died in 1875.
* John F. Kennedy died in 1963;
* Lyndon Johnson died in 1973.
* Both presidents were shot on a Friday.
* Both presidents were shot in the head.
* Both presidents were shot while seated next to their wives. * Both assassins were known by three names, the names of both contain fifteen letters.
* Both Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.
* Both assassins’ name add up to a total of 15.
* Both ran from the theatre and were caught in a ware house.
Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theatre.
Strangers on a train
Amazing flukes do not necessarily involve people related to each other. In the 1920s, three Englishmen were travelling separately by train through Peru. At the time of their introduction, they were the only three men in the railroad car. Their introductions were more surprising than they could have imagined. One man’s last name was Bingham, and the second man’s last name was Powell. The third man announced that his last name was Bingham-Powell. None were related in any way.
Tragedy of the royal and the humble
A much more remarkable story involves the unlikely pairing of a king and the owner of a small restaurant. In 1900, King Umberto I of Italy arrived in the town of Monza, a few miles outside Milan.
He came to know a restaurateur, at whose place he was dining, who was an exact look-alike of the king! Speaking to him, the monarch discovered that both were born on the same date and at the same hour. Both had married a woman called Margherita and both had a son called Vittorio. Moreover, always for pure chance, the man had opened his restaurant the same day Umberto ascended the throne.
The king was amused with all of these coincidences and, leaving his “twin”, he said that he would like to meet him again. But this was not possible. The next day, cleaning up his gun, the restaurateur died of an accidental shot. The news obviously reached the police who communicated it to the monarch.
King Umberto was much shocked by the incident and asked, between an engagement and the other, to be taken to the restaurant to present his condolences to the widow. But even that was not possible. At 10:25pm on July 29, 1900, while he journeyed the roads of Monza in an open coach, king Umberto was shot dead from the blow of the gun of the anarchist Gaetano Bresci.
Loyal clock
On an ever more eerier note, an ornate clock belonging to King Louis XIV of France stopped at the precise time of his death, 7:45am on September 1, 1715 and has never run since.
It’s raining babies
In Detroit some time in the 1930s, a young (if incredibly careless) mother must have been eternally grateful to a man named Joseph Figlock. As Figlock was walking down the street, the mother’s baby fell from a high window onto Figlock. The baby’s fall was broken and both man and baby were unharmed. A stroke of luck on its own, but a year later, the very same baby fell from the very same window onto poor, unsuspecting Joseph Figlock as he was again passing beneath. And again, they both survived the event!
Slow Bullet
Sometimes nature plays such an act that you are left with your mouth hanging open. Henry Ziegland thought he had dodged fate. In 1883, he broke off a relationship with his girlfriend who, out of distress, committed suicide. The girl’s brother was so enraged that he hunted down Ziegland and shot him. The brother, believing he had killed Ziegland, then turned his gun on himself and took his own life. But Ziegland had not been killed. The bullet, in fact, had only grazed his face and then lodged in a tree. Ziegland surely thought himself a lucky man.
Some years later, however, Ziegland decided to cut down the large tree, which still had the bullet in it. The task seemed so formidable that he decided to blow it up with a few sticks of dynamite. The explosion propelled the bullet into Ziegland’s head, killing him.
Buddy finds
A lighter-hearted story goes like this; in 1953, television reporter Irv Kupcinet was in London to cover the coronation of Elizabeth II. In one of the drawers in his room at the Savoy he found some items that, by their identification, belonged to a man named Harry Hannin. Coincidentally, Harry Hannin — a basketball star — was a good friend of Kupcinet’s. But the story has yet another twist. Just two days later, and before he could tell Hannin of his lucky discovery, Kupcinet received a letter from Hannin. In the letter, Hannin told Kupcinet that while staying at the Hotel Meurice in Paris, he found in a drawer a tie — with Kupcinet’s name on it!
And now at the end, keep your ears and eyes open for small coincidences, you’ll soon notice them happening all around you. Hey, who knows? Maybe you’ll be a witness to a historical one soon! It may even suit you to fill a diary with them and keep it for an interesting read.
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