Childhood BookWhile American novelist Anne Parrish was browsing bookstores in Paris in the 1920s, she came upon a book that was one of her childhood favorites – Jack Frost and Other Stories. She picked up the old book and showed it to her husband, telling him of the book she fondly remembered as a child. Her husband took the book, opened it, and on the flyleaf found the inscription: “Anne Parrish, 209 N. Weber Street, Colorado Springs.” It was Anne’s very own book.
Poker LuckIn 1858, Robert Fallon was shot dead, an act of vengeance by those with whom he was playing poker. Fallon, they claimed, had won the $600 pot through cheating. With Fallon’s seat empty and none of the other players willing to take the now-unlucky $600, they found a new player to take Fallon’s place and staked him with the dead man’s $600. By the time the police had arrived to investigate the killing, the new player had turned the $600 into $2,200 in winnings. The police demanded the original $600 to pass on to Fallon’s next of kin – only to discover that the new player turned out to be Fallon’s son, who had not seen his father in seven years!
Twin DeathsOn 2002, Seventy-year-old twin brothers have died within hours of one another after separate accidents on the same road in northern Finland. The first of the twins died when he was hit by a lorry while riding his bike in Raahe, 600 kilometres north of the capital, Helsinki. He died just 1.5km from the spot where his brother was killed. “This is simply a historic coincidence. Although the road is a busy one, accidents don’t occur every day,” police officer Marja-Leena Huhtala told Reuters. “It made my hair stand on end when I heard the two were brothers, and identical twins at that. It came to mind that perhaps someone from upstairs had a say in this,” she said.
Poe CoincidenceIn the 19th century, the famous horror writer, Egdar Allan Poe, wrote a book called ‘The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym’. It was about four survivors of a shipwreck who were in an open boat for many days before they decided to kill and eat the cabin boy whose name was Richard Parker. Some years later, in 1884, the yawl, Mignonette, foundered, with only four survivors, who were in an open boat for many days. Eventully the three senior members of the crew, killed and ate the cabin boy. The name of the cabin boy was Richard Parker.
Royal CoincidenceIn Monza, Italy, King Umberto I, went to a small restaurant for dinner, accompanied by his aide-de-camp, General Emilio Ponzia- Vaglia. When the owner took King Umberto’s order, the King noticed that he and the restaurant owner were virtual doubles, in face and in build. Both men began discussing the striking resemblances between each other and found many more similarities.
1. Both men were born on the same day, of the same year, (March 14th, 1844).
2. Both men had been born in the same town.
3. Both men married a woman with same name, Margherita.
4. The restauranteur opened his restaurant on the same day that King Umberto was crowned King of Italy.
5. On the 29th July 1900, King Umberto was informed that the restauranteur had died that day in a mysterious shooting accident, and as he expressed his regret, he was then assassinated by an anarchist in the crowd.
Falling BabyIn 1930s Detroit, a man named Joseph Figlock was to become an amazing figure in a young (and, apparently, incredibly careless) mother’s life. 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 Figlock and the baby were unharmed. A year later, the selfsame baby fell from the selfsame window, again falling onto Mr. Figlock as he was passing beneath. Once again, both of them survived the event.
Mystery MonkIn 19th century Austria, a near-famous painter named Joseph Aigner attempted suicide on several occasions. During his first attempt to hang himself at the age of 18, Aigner was interrupted by a mysterious Capuchin monk. And again at age 22, he was prevented from hanging himself by the very same monk. Eight years later, he was sentenced to the gallows for his political activities. But again, his life was saved by the intervention of the same monk. At age 68, Joseph Aigner finally succeeded in suicide, using a pistol to shoot himself. Not surprisingly, his funeral ceremony was conducted by the very same Capuchin monk – a man whose name Aiger never even knew.
Photographic CoincidenceA German mother who photographed her infant son in 1914 left the film to be developed at a store in Strasbourg. In those days some film plates were sold individually. World War I broke out and unable to return to Strasbourg, the woman gave up the picture for lost. Two years later she bought a film plate in Frankfurt, over 100 miles away, to take a picture of her newborn daughter. When developed the film turned out to be a double exposure, with the picture of her daughter superimposed on the earlier picture of her son. Through some incredible twist of fate, her original film, never developed, had been mislabeled as unused, and had eventually been resold to her.
Book FindIn 1973, actor Anthony Hopkins agreed to appear in “The Girl From Petrovka”, based on a novel by George Feifer. Unable to find a copy of the book anywhere in London, Hopkins was surprised to discover one lying on a bench in a train station. It turned out to be George Feifer’s own annotated (personal) copy, which Feifer had lent to a friend, and which had been stolen from his friend’s car.
TwinsThe twin brothers, Jim Lewis and Jim Springer, were separated at birth, adopted by different families. Unknown to each other, both families named the boys James. Both James grew up not knowing of the other, yet both sought law-enforcement training, both had abilities in mechanical drawing and carpentry, and each had married women named Linda. Both had sons, one of whom was 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 which they named Toy.
Revenge KillingIn 1883, Henry Ziegland broke off a relationship with his girlfriend who, out of distress, committed suicide. The girl’s enraged brother hunted down Ziegland and shot him. Believing he had killed Ziegland, the brother then took his own life. In fact, however, Ziegland had not been killed. The bullet had only grazed his face, lodging into a tree. It was a narrow escape. Years later, Ziegland decided to cut down the same tree, which still had the bullet in it. The huge tree seemed so formidable that he decided to blow it up with dynamite. The explosion propelled the bullet into Ziegland’s head, killing him.
Golden ScarabFrom The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche: “A young woman I was treating had, at a critical moment, a dream in which she was given a golden scarab. While she was telling me this dream I sat with my back to the closed window. Suddenly I heard a noise behind me, like a gentle tapping. I turned round and saw a flying insect knocking against the window-pane from outside. I opened the window and caught the creature in the air as it flew in. It was the nearest analogy to the golden scarab that one finds in our latitudes, a scarabaeid beetle, the common rose-chafer (Cetonia aurata) which contrary to its usual habits had evidently felt an urge to get into a dark room at this particular moment. I must admit that nothing like it ever happened to me before or since, and that the dream of the patient has remained unique in my experience.” – Carl Jung
TaxiIn 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 even carrying the very same passenger!
Hotel DiscoveryIn 1953, television reporter Irv Kupcinet was in London to cover the coronation of Ellizabeth II. In one of the drawers in his room at the Savoy he found found some items that, by their identification, belonged to a man named Harry Hannin. Coincidentally, Harry Hannin – a basketball star with the famed Harlem Globetrotters – 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 Kucinet that while staying at the Hotel Meurice in Paris, he found in a drawer a tie – with Kupcinet’s name on it.
Historical CoincidenceThe lives of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, two of America’s founders. Jefferson crafted the Declaration of Independence, showing drafts of it to Adams, who (with Benjamin Franklin) helped to edit and hone it.The document was approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. Surprisingly, both Jefferson and Adams died on the same day, July 4, 1826 – exactly 50 years from the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Emergency Landing In 1979, Das Besteran, a German Magazine, held a writing competition. Readers had to send in unusual stories based on real life occurrences. Walter Kellner from Munich won with his story about flying a Cessna 41 between Sardinia and Sicily. In his story he had engine trouble, landed in the water, and was later rescued. An Austrian man, also named Waltner Kellner, wrote to the paper and told them that the winner of the prize had plagiarized the story because virtually the same thing had happened to him. The magazine checked out both stories and found that they were both true, despite being nearly identical.
Lucky NumberIn the 1930s in New York, a commuter train dove off an open drawbridge into Newark Bay killing 30 passengers. The newspaper published photographs of the incident and the number ‘932′ could be seen clearly on the side of one of the coaches. A large number of people selected that number for the Manhattan numbers game and the number came up! Thousands of people won.
Bad LightningIn 1899 a man was killed by a bolt of lightning as he stood in his backyard in Taranto, Italy. Thirty years later, his son was killed in the very same spot by another bolt of lightning. On October 8, 1949, Rolla Primarda, the second victim’s son (and grandson of the first victim) was also killed in the same spot by yet another bolt of lightning.
PatricideJean Marie Dubarry, a Frenchman, was executed on February 13, 1746 for the murder of his father. 100 years, to the day, another Frenchman also named Jean Marie Dubarry was executed… also for the murder of his father.
Coincidental MurderOn the 26th November, 1911, three men were hanged at Greenberry Hill in London after being convicted of the murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey. The killers names were Robert Green, Henry Berry and Lawrence Hill (Green, Berry, and Hill).
Plum Pudding
19th century poet, Emile Deschamps, once said that when he was a schoolboy, he shared a table at a restaurant with M. de Fortgibu, who had recently returned from England with a taste for plum puddings, which were unavailable in France at that time. He insisted that Deschamps sample one.
Ten years later Deschamps passed a restaurant and saw that it was serving plum pudding, so Deschamps went in and ordered a slice, to be told that it was reserved for another customer. Deschamps went over to the customer to beg his favour and it turned out to be M. de Fortgibu, both men being astonished at meeting again after so long a time over the same dish.
Many years passed by, and Deschamps was invited to a dinner party which featured plum pudding. At the party Deschamps was telling his hosts about the extraordinary encounter with Fortgibu, the hosts joking about the possibility of the old man turning up when suddenly, there was Fortgibu again, who had also been invited to the party.
Deschamps said, “Three times in my life I have eaten plum pudding, and three times I have seen M. Fortgibu. My hair stood up on my head!”
Dueling Luck – or notHenri Trange fought five duels in Marseilles, France, between the years of 1861 and 1878. The first four of his opponents died before any shots were fired. Just before any shots were fired in the fifth duel, Trange himself dropped dead.
Mysterious Murder LinkBarbara Forrest (Born 1954) and Mary Ashford (Born 1797) were both the victims of murder 157 years apart yet both instances have remarkable similarities. They were both found murdered on the same day, 27th May, in the same town, both in 1817 and 1974 the 26th of May was Whit Monday, they had both been raped before they were murdered, they were both found within 400 yards of each other, they were both murdered at about the same time of day, there were attempts to hide both bodies, both girls had visited a friend on the evening of Whit Monday, both changed into a new dress that night, and both went to a dance.
The man accused of each murder had the same name – Thornton, and both men were acquitted of murder, both girls have very similar facial features and 10 days before, 17th May 1974, Barbara Forrest said to a friend, “This is going to be my unlucky month. I just know it. Don’t ask me why.”
Lucky for SomeOregon’s Columbian newspaper announced the winning Pick 4 lottery numbers for June 28, 2000 in advance. The newspaper had intended to print the previous set of winning numbers but erroneously printed those for the state of Virginia, namely 6-8-5-5. In the next Oregon lottery, those same numbers were drawn.
Rest in PeaceIn Texas, USA, in 1899, Canadian actor Charles Francis Coghlan became ill and died whilst he was in Galveston. Because it was too far to return his remains to his home on Prince Edward Island, 3500 miles away, he was instead buried in a lead coffin inside a granite vault.
A year after his death, in September 1900, a hurricane hit Galveston, flooding the graveyard, shattering Charles Coghlan’s granite vault and carrying away his lead coffin out into the Gulf of Mexico.
In October 1908, eight years after the hurricane, fishermen on Prince Edward Island spotted a weathered box floating near the shore. It was the coffin of Charles Coghlan, which had finally returned home. He was buried in the nearby church where he had been christened as a baby.
The Golden MatchboxIn the 1890s, the Prince of Wales gave a gift of a golden matchbox to a friend and fellow fox hunter Edward Southern. On a hunt one day, Southern fell from his horse and the matchbox broke from the chain and was lost. Southern had a duplicate made which he left to his son, Sam, upon his death. While traveling in Australia, Sam gave the matchbox to a friend: Mr Labertouche. When he returned to England, Sam discovered that a farmer had found the original matchbox (twenty years after it was lost) when he was ploughing in his field. Sam wrote to his brother who was traveling in America to tell him the good news. His brother read the letter aloud to his traveling companion on the train. By a stroke of bizarre luck, his friend was carrying the duplicate matchbox which had been given to him by Mr Labertouche.
Lightning ShockThe chances of being struck by lightning are very slim; the chances of being struck by lightning twice (on different days) is seemingly impossible; so what are the odds of being struck by lightning seven times? With our world record holder, Roy Sullivan, the events happened as follows:
1942 – Sullivan was hit for the first time when he was in a lookout tower. The lightning bolt struck him in a leg and he lost a nail on his big toe.
1969 – The second bolt hit him in his truck when he was driving on a mountain road. It knocked him unconscious and burned his eyebrows.
1970 – The third strike burned his left shoulder while in his front yard.
1972 – The next hit happened in a ranger station. The strike set his hair on fire. After that, he began to carry a pitcher of water with him.
1973 – A lightning bolt hit Sullivan on the head, blasted him out of his car, and again set his hair on fire.
1974 – Sullivan was struck by the sixth bolt in a campground, injuring his ankle.
1977 – The seventh and final lightning bolt hit him when he was fishing. Sullivan was hospitalized for burns in his chest and stomach.
His “lightning hats” are on display in New York’s and South Carolina’ s Guinness World Exhibit Hall.
Rail CrossingIn 1991, Cristina Vernoni, aged 19, was killed at an unguarded railway crossing in Reggio Emilia, Northern Italy. Four years later, her 57 year old father was driving to work on his regular route which took him over the same railway crossing when his car was struck by a train. It was dragged for several dozen yards before the train finally stopped. Even more coincidentally, the driver of the train, Domenico Serafino, was the very same driver who had killed Vernoni’s daughter four years earlier. Investigators said that the death was entirely accidental – ruling out suicide.
Menacing CoincidenceIn 1951 in the month of March, Dennis the Menace was born… twice. With only three days apart (but an identical debut day), both Hank Ketcham (US) and David Law (UK) created their first comics containing a character with an identical name. The two men were unaware of each others cartoons but when the coincidence was made known to them, they agreed to simply both continue writing their strips without interfering with the other. Even more coincidental was the fact that both Dennis the Menace characters wore striped jerseys (as is evident in the comparison picture above).
Mr Robertson…On October 15, 1952, Robert Paterson tried to board an Amtrak train from Phoenix to Los Angeles. The conductor told him that Robert Paterson was already onboard. After a quick check, they discovered that both men had tickets. The men were similar height, weight and appearance.
On the way to LA, the train made an emergency stop in Barstow to pick up another passenger: Robert Paterson. The third Mr. Paterson was also similar in appearance to the first two. The train now had three men with the same name and appearance, all headed for LA.
Once they train arrived in Los Angeles, the three Robert Patersons disembarked and went their separate ways. The baggage was unloaded and the train was prepared for the return trip to Phoenix. As the new passengers were boarding, the conductor couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw a familiar name on the passenger list: a fourth Robert Paterson.
The Spy Next DoorWhen Norman Mailer began his novel Barbary Shore, there was no plan to have a Russian spy as a character. As he worked on it, he introduced a Russian spy in the U.S. as a minor character. As the work progressed, the spy became the dominant character in the novel. After the novel was completed, the U.S. Immigration Service arrested a man who lived just one floor above Mailer in the same apartment building. He was Colonel Rudolf Abel, alleged to be the top Russian spy working in the U.S. at that time.
D-Day InvasionSolutions to the popular crossword puzzle in the Daily Telegraph gave a nasty headache to security officers who were responsible for guarding the secrets of the planned invasion of Europe by the allies in June 1944. Members of MI5, Britain’s counter-espionage service who used to wile away their spare moments in this pastime, noticed that some of the clues appeared to give away vital code names invented to cloak the mightiest seaborne attack of all time. The answer to the clue ‘one of the U.S.’ turned out to be, for instance, UTAH, and another, OMAHA – beaches on which the American armies were to land. Another answer was MULBERRY, the floating harbors that would accommodate and supply ships. NEPTUNE was the naval support. Most suspicious of all, there was a clue about ’some big-wig’ which produced the answer OVERLORD, the codeword invented to describe the entire operation. MI5 was in a flap.
Was the Telegraph crossword being used to tip off the Germans? Two officers were sent to Leatherhead, in Surrey, to find out. There they interviewed the compiler of the puzzles, Leonard Dawe, a 54-year old teacher. Why, they demanded, had he chosen those five words for his solutions? Why not? replied Dawe, somewhat indignant. Was there any law against choosing whatever words he liked? Dawe’s patient honesty convinced MI5 that he had no knowledge of the coming D-Day invasion strategy. His crossword solutions were just another of life’s astonishing coincidences.
Louis XVI Bad LuckWhen King Louis XVI of France was a child, he was warned by an astrologer to always be on his guard on the 21st day of each month. Louis ws so terrified by this that he never did business on this day. Unfortunately Louis was not always on his guard. On June 21st 1791, following the French revolution, Louis and his queen were arrested in Varennes, whist trying to escape France. On September 21st 1791, France abolished the institution of Royalty and proclaimed itself a republic. Finally on January 21st 1793, King Louis XVI was executed by guillotine.
Lincoln Booth CoincidenceIn an interesting coincidence, Edwin Booth saved Abraham Lincoln’s son, Robert, from serious injury or even death. The incident occurred on a train platform in Jersey City, New Jersey. The exact date of the incident is uncertain, but it is believed to have taken place in late 1864 or early 1865, shortly before Edwin’s brother, John Wilkes Booth, assassinated President Lincoln. Robert Lincoln recalled the incident in a 1909 letter to Richard Watson Gilder, editor of The Century Magazine.
“The incident occurred while a group of passengers were late at night purchasing their sleeping car places from the conductor who stood on the station platform at the entrance of the car. The platform was about the height of the car floor, and there was of course a narrow space between the platform and the car body. There was some crowding, and I happened to be pressed by it against the car body while waiting my turn. In this situation the train began to move, and by the motion I was twisted off my feet, and had dropped somewhat, with feet downward, into the open space, and was personally helpless, when my coat collar was vigorously seized and I was quickly pulled up and out to a secure footing on the platform. Upon turning to thank my rescuer I saw it was Edwin Booth, whose face was of course well known to me, and I expressed my gratitude to him, and in doing so, called him by name.”
Booth did not know the identity of the man whose life he had saved until some months later, when he received a letter from a friend, Colonel Adam Badeau, who was an officer on the staff of General Ulysses S. Grant. Badeau had heard the story from Robert Lincoln, who had since joined the Union Army and was also serving on Grant’s staff. In the letter, Badeau gave his compliments to Booth for the heroic deed. The fact that he had saved the life of Abraham Lincoln’s son was said to have been of some comfort to Edwin Booth following his brother’s assassination of the president.
Titanic CoincidenceIn 1898 Morgan Robertson released ‘Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan’. A floating palace sailed from Southampton, England in April, 1898 on a voyage across the Atlantic. She was the biggest and most luxurious liner ever built. The liner was meant to be unsinkable. She was destined for America. But the ship never reached her destination, her hull was ripped open by an iceberg and she sank causing a heavy loss of life as there wasn’t enough lifeboats for the passengers (24 lifeboats for 3000 passengers). The ship was called Titan.
In 1912, a large luxury liner that was built to be unsinkable sailed from Southampton, England to America. She was on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic. The ship struck an iceberg which ripped apart the hull, and the ship sank. There were only 24 lifeboats for the entire ship (about 2200 people), and many people died. This ship was called the Titanic.
