History sure likes to write some crazy plot twists that sound too strange to be true.
The Jim Twins
In 1979, Jim twins, James Springer and James Lewis were reunited when they were 39 years old. After being separated at birth and adopted by different families they had many coincidental similarities in their lives.
Both had been given the name James by their adoptive parents and both married women named Linda. Their jobs, the cars they drove, and many other facets of their lives showed remarkable resemblances.
Their unique reunion was later documented as part of the celebrated Minnesota study on twins separated at birth.
Futility and Titanic
In 1898 author Morgan Robertson wrote a novella called Futility. The book was about a fictional luxury liner called the Titan.
The ship was massive, fast, and virtually unsinkable but had been poorly equipped with lifeboats. In the novel the Titan hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank. The real Titanic suffered a very similar fate 14 years later.
Survivor of two atomic bombs
Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 when it was hit by an atomic bomb. He made it through that attack and returned to his hometown of Nagasaki.
Three days later, he was there when that city was bombed as well.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi received official recognition from the Japanese government as one of the few to survive both atomic attacks, and he passed away in 2010.
Violet Jessop’s three disasters
Violet Jessop served on three White Star Line ships that famously suffered catastrophes. In 1911 she was on the Olympic when she collided with HMS Hawke.
The following year she was on Titanic’s crew when it hit an iceberg and sank. Four years later she was aboard Britannic when it hit a mine in the Aegean Sea and sank.
Jessop survived each of these accidents. She was one of the Titanic’s passengers who escaped in Lifeboat 16.
The first U.S. motor-vehicle death
A taxicab struck Henry Hale Bliss as he was stepping off a New York City streetcar on September 13, 1899. He died the next day from his injuries.
Bliss has been considered to be the first documented person killed by an automobile in the United States. Cars were just starting to appear on U.S. roads when this tragedy struck.
The Hoover dam father and son
On December 20, 1922, surveyor J. G. Tierney drowned in the Colorado River while working on pre-construction surveys for Hoover Dam. On December 20, 1935 his son Patrick Tierney also died in an accident while working on Hoover Dam.
The matching dates are startling: father and son died exactly 13 years apart, on the same date.
Two presidents die together
Former presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died within hours of each other on July 4, 1826.
The coincidence grew even more remarkable when it was understood that the date also happened to be the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence’s adoption, a document they both played a role in drafting.
Jefferson died at his home in Virginia, while Adams died at his home in Massachusetts. Each president was unaware that the other had died on that particular day.
First and last British soldiers
Private John Parr was killed near Mons, Belgium in August 1914 and is remembered as the first British soldier to be killed during World War One. On November 11, 1918 Private George Ellison was killed approximately 90 minutes before the Armistice was to take place.
Both soldiers are buried at St Symphorien Military Cemetery where their graves are opposite one another only a few yards away. The decision for them to be buried so close to each other was coincidental and was not done to commemorate them as the first and last British Soldiers killed.
The reality of their accomplishments was not realized until after their deaths.
Lincoln’s son and Booth’s brother
Around 1863 or 1864, Robert Todd Lincoln, son of President Lincoln, had a terrifyingly close call, almost falling into the gap between a moving train and the platform at a Jersey City station.
A man who happened to be standing nearby reached out, caught him by his coat, and pulled him to safety. His rescuer was Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth, assassin of Abraham Lincoln in 1865.
Mark Twain and Halley’s Comet
Samuel Clemens, known to millions as Mark Twain, was born in 1835. Halley’s Comet was visible from Earth that year.
Twain later recalled being told at his birth that he would “come in with Halley’s Comet,” and fully expected to “go out with it, too.” Halley’s Comet returned in 1910, and Twain died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910, one day after Halley’s Comet reached perihelion.
The closeness of these events lent his earlier prediction an almost supernatural feel.
Franz Ferdinand’s license plate
The license plate on Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination car in Sarajevo in 1914 was reportedly A III 118.
Once World War I wrapped up on November 11, 1918, some folks pointed out that the license plate could also be seen as “A 11-11-18.”
This bears a striking resemblance to the Armistice date. Even though the license plate is a documented historical fact, the subsequent interpretation of its meaning arose later, making it a remarkable coincidence rather than a foretelling.
Three U.S. presidents and July 4th
Things got even weirder regarding Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. It’s quite the coincidence that James Monroe, the fifth president, also died on July 4th, 1831, five years subsequent to the passing of Jefferson and Adams on that same day.
So, it turned out that three of the initial five U.S. presidents met their end on July 4th. Jefferson’s and Adams’ deaths were on the 50th anniversary of Independence. Monroe died five years later.
The two Dennis the menaces
In March 1951, there appeared two unrelated comic strip characters named Dennis the Menace on either side of the Atlantic.
Hank Ketcham’s Dennis the Menace first appeared in US newspapers on March 12, 1951. Meanwhile, David Law’s Dennis the Menace also popped up in The Beano, around that same time.
Interestingly, the British issue bore a March 17 date yet went on sale March 12, raising the possibility of an identical release date. That said, one Dennis was not a copy of the other in any way.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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