Many historical moments were a lot closer than people realize. Sure, a few of them were years, perhaps even decades apart, but there are a few coincidences between them that are simply too weird to ignore. Perhaps there’s something else going on in the universe. Here are ten historical coincidences that’ll surprise even the most experienced of historians.
1. Lincoln’s son was near three assassinations
Being present near one assassination is shocking enough. But being close to two? Even three? Now that’s strange. Robert Todd Lincoln, son of the famous President, was near three presidential shootings. He was at the White House near Ford’s Theatre when his father was shot in 1865. Then, a few years later, he was present at the station where President Garfield was shot in 1881. He was also arriving at the Pan-American Exposition grounds by train when McKinley was shot nearby in 1901.
2. An engineer survived both atomic bombs
Tsutomu Yamaguchi had the bad luck of being present at not just one atomic bomb detonation, but two. He was in Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, when the first bomb was dropped, and he suffered a few injuries. However, Yamaguchi decided to return to work in Nagasaki. The second bomb was dropped on August 9th, while Yamaguchi was there. Ironically, the second blast happened while he was describing what happened during the Hiroshima blast to his supervisor.
3. Two shipwreck survivors had the same name
The Menai Strait is the site of hundreds of shipwreck tragedies. But by far the strangest ones were the two separate wrecks that occurred in 1785 & 1820. Both of these included a single survivor, a man named Hugh Williams, although each Hugh was a completely different person. By pure coincidence, the survivors had the same names. Just what are the chances of that happening?
4. Two founders died on Independence Day
Every American knows how important July 4th is. Yet not everyone knows the weird coincidences of this date, as it’s the same date that Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson passed. They were the second & third presidents of America, and they both died on July 4th, 1826, within hours of each other. But there’s even more to this story. Both men had an important role to play in the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the day they passed marked exactly 50 years since it was signed.
5. The first and last British WWI soldiers are a few steps apart
There’s a cemetery just outside Mons, Belgium, that includes two British soldiers with a rather unusual story. One of them is John Parr, a soldier who was the first British casualty of the war in 1914. The other is George Edwin Ellison, who was killed a mere 90 minutes before the end of the war in 1918, making him the last British soldier to be killed during it. By sheer coincidence, their graves “face” each other across a small path.
6. Anthony Hopkins finds a lost book
During preparation for the film The Girl from Petrovka, actor Anthony Hopkins decided he would try to read the book that it was based on. But he couldn’t find a single copy. He then found a copy of the book he was looking for on a subway seat, and he took it home. The book’s author, George Feifer, mentioned to Hopkins when they were filming that he had lost his original annotated copy of the book many years ago. It was then that Hopkins realized he actually had Feifer’s version of the book.
7. Anne Parish bought her own childhood book
That’s not all for weird book coincidences. American writer Anne Parrish was in Paris looking through a secondhand book stall when she found a children’s book. It was a book that she remembered reading when she was much younger, so she bought it on impulse. Her husband later opened the book and found her old address written inside. Somehow, she had managed to buy the exact same copy of the book that she had had when she was a child. It had found its way from Colorado to a Parisian street vendor.
8. Roy Sullivan gets hit by lightning
Roy Sullivan was a ranger who defeated the odds in the weirdest way. He was a ranger in Shenandoah National Park, and he was struck by lightning, but not once. Not twice, or even three times. Sullivan was struck by lightning seven times between 1942 & 1977, and he survived every single one. He did receive burns and some other injuries, but he returned to work soon after each strike. The odds of that happening are roughly 1 in 10 to the power of twenty-eight. In other words, 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
9. Franz Ferdinand’s car plate said the armistice date
Most historians agree that Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination was the catalyst for World War I. However, what’s quite unusual about his death is the car he was in when he was shot. It had the plate “A III 118.” Why is that strange? It’s because the numbers seem to match the armistice date, 11.11.18. You could even argue that the “A” at the start stands for “Armistice.” It wasn’t something people realized until long after the war was over, and it was also completely unplanned.
10. A Detroit man is hit by two falling babies
Joseph Figlock was a street worker in Detroit who was cleaning an alley one day. A baby then fell from a window & landed on him. Luckily, both survived. But a year later, another baby fell from a completely different window and managed to land right on Figlock again. They also survived the incident unharmed. Figlock didn’t give many interviews about the incidents, and it’s only from TIME magazine’s reporting at the time that we know about them.
History certainly is messy. But it seems that even through all this mess, there are some dates, names & places that manage to match up with each other in some rather unusual ways. It’s enough to make even the biggest skeptic feel a little creeped out.
