HISTORICAL COINCIDENCES THAT ARE ALMOST HARD TO BELIEVE
Added on: 1st Nov 2015
THE START OF WORLD WAR I
We all know that the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand started the war,
but did you know that the actual assassination attempt failed? The bomb
blew up the car behind his. When his car took a different route, however,
they ended up driving right by one of the assassins who had stopped
to buy a sandwich.
FAILED MONGOL INVASION OF JAPAN
Although they could have invaded twice, they were turned back by
a typhoon both times.
LEWIS AND CLARK GET THEIR HORSES
Their guide, Sacagawea, was interpreting for them in order for them to
procure horses. The local Indians, however, didn’t trust them.
In the middle of the talks though, she realized that the chief was her
long lost brother (she had been kidnapped by a neighbouring tribe as a child)
and broke down crying. Lewis and Clark got their horses.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND JOHN F. KENNEDY
Although the original Lincoln/Kennedy email that people found in their
spam folder contained numerous false facts there were a few that are
still true and indisputably interesting. Lincoln was elected to congress
in 1846, Kennedy in 1946. Lincoln became president in 1860,
Kennedy in 1960 (though sworn in 1961). And both were eventually
shot in the head on a Friday.
ANDREW JACKSON'S LUCK
Unlike Lincoln and Kennedy, Andrew Jackson was a bit luckier.
When an unemployed painter named Richard Lawrence tried to shoot
Jackson, his gun wouldn’t fire. The 67 year old president began to beat
his would-be assassin with a cane during which the assassin pulled out
another gun. This gun also misfired and the disgruntled painter
was dragged away.
A BYSTANDER'S BAD LUCK
On the topic of presidential assassinations, Abraham Lincoln’s son
Robert Todd Lincoln was by his father’s side as he passed away.
He then went on to witness the assassination of President James Garfield.
20 years later, in 1901, President William McKinley invited him to the
Pan-American exposition in New York and on that day President McKinley
was also assassinated. Robert decided to decline any presidential
invitations from that day forth.
WAVE VS PARTICLE
In 1906 JJ Thompson won the Nobel Prize in Physics for proving that
the electron was a particle. In 1937 his son, George Thompson,
won the Nobel Prize for proving that it was a wave.
THE PAPERBOY AND THE SPY
Russian spies used to use hollow coins to pass messages to each other
in the US and one of these coins made it into circulation. One day a
paperboy dropped the coin and it split open revealing its coded contents.
The code baffled the FBI and CIA until a Russian spy defected to the US
and interpreted the note. It was a welcome message from Moscow
and it was intended for him.
THE ANNE HATHAWAYS
Anne Hathaway’s (the actress) husband bears a strong resemblance to
William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare had a wife named
Anne Hathaway.
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