Alex Carson
Coincidences
Coincidences happen every day. Some people don’t believe in them and are sure that there is something sinister behind the cause. Most people just laugh them off, but some coincidences are so shocking that they seem more happenstance. History is full of coincidences. Here are 20 coincidences from history that are too eerie to be true.
The Titanic
Morgan Robertson wrote a book called, The Wreck of Titan: Or, Futility. His book is basically a play-by-play of the infamous sinking of the Titanic in 1912. This doesn’t sound too crazy until you find out that Robertson’s book was written 14 years before the Titanic sank. Some of the details were so similar to the real sinking that it makes you wonder if Robertson is some sort of time traveler.
Cheating Death, Twice
Cheating death once is great. Lastly, Cheating death twice in the same year is downright amazing. A Dutch cyclist named Maarten de Jonge was booked to fly on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 but changed flights at the last minute. That flight disappeared, never to be seen again. Later that year, he booked a flight on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. To save a bit of money, he switched flights. That plane was shot down over the Ukraine. The fact that he didn’t get on either plane is incredible.
The Wizard Of Oz
Frank Baum is the original author of the Oz novels. His books were so good that Hollywood decided to turn one into a movie. When they were preparing to film The Wizard of Oz, the prop department went to a thrift store in search of a jacket for Frank Morgan’s character, Professor Marvel. They found the perfect jacket and they bought it. When they brought it to the set to give it to Frank, they discovered a name stitched in the pocket, L. Frank Baum. The jacket once belonged to the man who wrote the books. What are the odds? The fact that the costume department found the actual writer’s jacket is incredible.
James Dean’s Car
James Dean had a car that he nicknamed, Little Bastard. Dean was driving the car when he was in an accident, and he was killed. After he died, some pretty strange things happened. As a mechanic was trying to tow the car, his legs were crushed. When they got it to the garage, the garage caught on fire. Later, a race car driver bought the car, installed his own engine, and he was killed as well. It is believed that the car was cursed. Where the car is today is a mystery, but many people are sure that it is haunted.
Richard Parker
Edgar Allen Poe wrote a book in 1838 called, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. In one part of the book, a shipwrecked crew kills and eats a cabin boy named Richard Parker. Over 40 years after the book was released, a crew aboard the mignonette did the same thing to their cabin boy after the vessel sank. What makes this such a coincidence is that the boy’s name was also Richard Parker.The name Richard Parker is not a very lucky one whether this was a coincidence or not.
The Simpsons
Somehow, the cartoon series, The Simpsons can predict the future. Not only did they predict the presidency of Donald Trump, but they also predicted Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, the invention of the SmartWatch, and Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl halftime performance. How do they do it? There are even stories that the writers somehow predicted the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Separated At Birth
Jim Lewis and Jim Springer are twins who were separated at birth. Not only did the men get the same first name, they both married women named Betty, but they both also worked security jobs, and they gave their sons similar names. One was James Alan and the other, James Allan. All this happened, and the two men had never met. Some people believe that the similarities in the men’s lives were because they were twins, and they had some type of twin ESP. Others believe that it was just a very strange coincidence.
Violet Jessop
Violet Jessop has a knack for being on ships at the very worst times. She worked as a stewardess on the RMS Titanic, and fortunately, she survived. Later, she worked as a stewardess on the HMHS Britannic, which also sunk. Again, she survived.
Father and Son
In 1858, a man named Robert Fallon was shot dead for cheating at poker. The men had to replace him, so they brought in a younger man who ended up winning big. Nobody knew it at the time, but the man that replaced Fallon was his estranged son.
Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy
The coincidences between these two presidents are incredible. They were both shot and killed on a Friday by a man with three names. They were both succeeded by Johnsons, and they each had a secretary bearing the others name. Crazy!
Anne Parrish’s Book
Anne Parrish was in Paris browsing in a book store. She saw a copy of Jack Frost and Other Stories. It was her favorite book as a child, so she picked it up. When she opened the cover, she saw her name and her childhood address. It was once her book!
World War I
What started World War I was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The assassination brought on a creepy premonition. Ferdinand and his wife were shot in a car with a license plate, “A III-118. The armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, or 11/11/18.
Joseph Figlock
Joseph Figlock was sweeping an alleyway in 1937 when a baby fell from a 4th story window right on top of him. The baby and Joseph were injured, but they both survived. A year later, Joseph was sweeping another alleyway when another child fell on him from the 4th floor. What are the odds of this happening twice?
Laura Buxton
In 2001, a 10-year-old girl named Laura Buxton released a red balloon from her yard. On the balloon she wrote, “Please return to Laura Buxton.” The balloon traveled 140 miles and landed in the yard of another girl named Laura Buxton, who was also 10-years-old.
Mark Twain
Mark Twain wrote that because he was born on the day of Halley’s Comet’s passing in 1835, that he would die the next time it returns. He died in 1910, 75-years later when the comet returned.
The Hoover Dam Deaths
On December 20, 1921, J.G. Tierney was helping build the Hoover am, and he died. He was the first casualty. Fourteen years later to the day, the project suffered its final casualty. The man’s name was Patrick Tierney, and he was J.G.’s son.
Coincidences From History: Plane Crash
A few nights before Heio Neto boarded his defender plane; he had a dream that it crashed. His premonition came true, and the plane crashed. He was the only survivor.
Coincidences From History: Beheaded
On February 13, 1746, a man named Jean Marie Dubarry was beheaded for killing his father. Exactly 100 years later, another man by the same name was executed for the same crime. There is no information as if the two men were related, but what are the odds that this could happen twice, exactly 100 years apart.
Coincidences From History: Moped Deaths
A 17-year-old boy named Neville Ebbin was riding his moped in Hamilton, Bermuda when he was hit by a cab and killed. A year later, his younger brother, Erskine was riding his dead brother’s moped, with the same passenger on the back on the same street. He was hit and killed by the same cab that killed his brother. Was it the moped that was cursed, the passenger, the street, the cab, the family, or is it just a really strange coincidence?
Coincidences From History: The Twin Towers
September 11, 2011, was one of the most devastating days in United States history. Before 9 am, two commercial airplanes were flown by terrorists into the Twin Towers in New York City. Around the same time, another plane crashed into the Capitol Building. There was a fourth plane, and the authorities believe that it was heading for the White House.
The passengers took control of the plane from the terrorists, and crashed it into a field, keeping the White House safe. On June 23, 2000, over a year before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a video game called Deus Ex was released. The creator of the game forgot to include the Twin Towers in the New York skyline in the game. The creator justified the mistake by saying that the Twin Towers were destroyed during a terrorist attack within the game. Nobody ever expected the same thing to really happen in real life over a year later.
