Sometimes, real life feels like something from a movie, thanks to all those bizarre plot twists. But nope, it’s very much real. Here are some strange historical coincidences that seem impossible. These are the moments in history that sound like myths, yet somehow actually happened. Some things in life are just way too weird to ignore.
The Two Identical Strangers
We’ve all met someone who looks like someone we know, but imagine seeing two people who look like twins, but aren’t related at all. That’s what happened at Leavenworth Prison in the early 1900s. Both men were new inmates named William West, and they looked almost identical. So much so that staff began fingerprinting their inmates because photos just weren’t cutting it anymore, which is why the practice became standard in the U.S. prison system.
The Hoover Dam Deaths
J.G. Tierney died surveying the Hoover Dam site in 1922, and he was the first death caused by the construction of the Dam. Years later, after construction was almost complete, the last man to die was Patrick Tierney. Yep, it was his son. Out of all the workers, it’s strange how the timeline began and ended with one family’s tragedy, especially since over a hundred people died building the dam. The pair were working on opposite ends of the project too, with the father on the river survey, and the son doing electrical work.
The Twins Living the Same Life
Two babies, both named James, were adopted by different families in Ohio, and they didn’t know each other growing up. However, both became cops, married women named Linda, divorced, and then later married women named Betty. They also both named their sons James Allan, and they each had a dog named Toy. Eventually, the pair finally met at 39 and were just as confused as everyone else.
The Bullet That Waited 20 Years
In the 1880s, a man named Henry Ziegland dodged death when a bullet aimed at him hit a tree instead. The original shooter had killed himself, thinking Ziegland was dead, but that wasn’t all. Twenty years later, Ziegland blew up that same tree with dynamite in an attempt to clear the land, and the old bullet flew out and killed him. Did the tree have a grudge against him or something?
The Car Plate That Matched the War
When he was assassinated in 1914, Franz Ferdinand was riding in a car that had a license plate which read A III 118. It’s not that weird…until you realize the war that started following Ferdinand’s death, World War 1, ended on 11/11/18. You could even read the “A” as standing for “Armistice.” The car itself was a Graf & Stift double phaeton, and weirdly enough, it was later used by a high-ranking Nazi officer, crashing during a parade. Maybe the car was cursed from the start.
The Falling Baby That Was Caught Twice
Joseph Figlock was just out walking in Detroit when a baby fell from a window and landed on him. A year later, the same thing happened again, and when we say “same,” we mean the same. It was the same guy, the same baby, and the same window. What are the odds? The kid was fine both times, and local newspapers started calling Figlock a “baby magnet.” They even joked that he should purposely walk around under windows, just in case another baby fell out.
The Book That Predicted the Titanic
In 1898, a novel called Futility was released, and it told the story of a huge, unsinkable ship called the Titan, which crashes into an iceberg in the North Atlantic. Sound familiar? Fourteen years later, the Titanic went down in the same way in the same month. It had a similar passenger count and also didn’t have enough lifeboats. The ship even had almost the exact same size & specs, with the only major difference being that the name had two fewer letters.
The Poe Story That Became Real
Speaking of coincidental writing, Edgar Allan Poe once wrote about a shipwreck where desperate survivors eat a young sailor named Richard Parker. It sounds like just a scary piece of fiction until you realize that decades later, the events played out almost exactly the same in real life. A ship sank and stranded a crew, who resorted to cannibalism to survive. But by far the creepiest detail of all was that the unlucky cabin boy on the real ship was also named Richard Parker. You can’t make this stuff up.
Mark Twain and Halley’s Comet
Mark Twain was born in 1835 when Halley’s Comet traveled across the sky, and he told his loved ones that he’d die when it came back. Ironically, in 1910, the comet reappeared, and Twain died of a heart attack the day after it was at its brightest. It’s weird because this comet only shows up about every 75 years, so the timing was creepily accurate. As Twain said, he “came in with Halley’s Comet” and “expect[ed] to go out with it.”
The Assassin’s Brother
Abraham Lincoln’s son, Robert, was standing on a train platform when he slipped between the car and the platform. Thankfully, a man reached out and pulled him to safety. But weirdly, that man was Edwin Booth, the brother of John Wilkes Booth, the guy who killed Robert’s father. Robert recognized him later because Edwin was a famous actor at the time, and while they never really spoke about it again, Robert reportedly told friends the connection scared him.
The Woman Who Survived Three Sinking Ships
Violet Jessop had the greatest case of sea luck, or sea unluckiness, depending on how you look at it. She was working on the Olympic when it hit another ship in 1911. Then, a year later, she was on the Titanic when it hit the iceberg. In 1916, she boarded the Britannic…which also sank after hitting a mine, but somehow, she made it through all three disasters. Jessop kept working on ships like it was no big deal, and she even worked as a nurse during wartime, later writing a memoir.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi Survived Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Surviving one atomic bomb in another city sounds horrifying enough, but what are the odds that you’ll be hit by another when you’re going home? Well, that’s what happened to Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who was in Hiroshima for business when the first bomb dropped. He lived and returned to Nagasaki, where, three days later, America dropped another bomb. He was hospitalized for weeks, but somehow recovered, and he lived into his 90s.
The Man Who Survived Death Three Times
But that’s not all for survival stories. Joseph Samuel was another man who refused to die, and he was a convicted thief who, in 1803, was sentenced to be hanged. But the rope snapped, so the executioner tried again, only for the rope to break again. The executioner tied the rope around Samuel’s neck for a third time, but it broke once more, leading authorities to let him go, calling it an act of God. They later inspected the rope and couldn’t find any evidence that it had been cut.
The Civil War Began and Ended at One Guy’s Homes
Wilmer McLean wanted nothing to do with war, but a stroke of bad luck meant that his farm was where the first big Civil War battle broke out. To get away from it all, he moved to Appomattox to get some peace. Four years later, the war ended in his living room, as General Lee surrendered there, meaning that the guy literally couldn’t escape the war. Soldiers even took his furniture as souvenirs.
Stephen Hawking’s Pi-Day
Scientist Stephen Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, which was the same date Galileo died 300 years earlier. Then he passed away on March 14, 2018, Albert Einstein’s birthday, and also Pi Day. Three famous scientists, all tied together through odd dates, and while nobody planned it, the math nerds definitely noticed. You don’t expect history and calendars to sync like that, but they did.
James Dean’s Porsche Troubles
In 1955, James Dean’s Porsche 550 Spyder crashed and killed the famous actor, but that was just the start of things. After the wrecked car was hauled around the country, bad stuff kept happening, like a mechanic getting crushed by the car, and another man buying the car before crashing and dying. Parts of it kept injuring people, and eventually, it just disappeared. No one really knows what happened to the remaining pieces. But one thing’s for sure, and that’s that this car had a lot of dark coincidences connected to it.
The Lincoln-Kennedy Connections
President Lincoln and President Kennedy were born a century apart, yet had some weird things connecting them. They were elected in years ending in 60, and shot on a Friday, with both Presidents having successors named Johnson who were Southerners. Both assassins were known by three names, and both assassins were killed before the trial in the same month that they assassinated their respective Presidents. How spooky is that?
The Choir Saved Because They Were Late
On March 1, 1950, in Nebraska, the West Side Baptist church exploded just before choir practice. However, nobody died. The entire choir was normally punctual, but that night, every single person showed up late for random reasons, like car trouble or oversleeping. Some of them had no reason, and they were just late. That fluke timing saved 15 lives, as the church was destroyed in the explosion, but it was completely empty.
Twin Brothers Killed On Same Road Two Hours Apart
In Finland in 2002, two 70-year-old twin brothers were riding their bikes on the same road, although they didn’t live together, nor did they plan anything. However, each one was separately hit and killed by a truck less than two hours apart and just a mile from each other. The drivers weren’t related either, and it was just a horrific coincidence, which may have been due to the light snow and low visibility.
Plum Pudding Reunion
Back in 1805, a man named Monsieur Fontgibu offered a French teenager named Émile Deschamps plum pudding for the first time. Ten years later, Émile ordered the same dessert at a different place, but was told the last one had been served to a customer in the restaurant…it was Fontgibu. Then, nearly 30 years later, Émile ordered the pudding at a restaurant and made a joke to his friends about Fontgibu not being there. Fontgibu later walked into the restaurant out of nowhere after getting the wrong address. What a weird coincidence.
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