Life is a constant cycle of repeats. History will always find a way to circle back and try again. It's the purest definition of insanity; trying the same thing over and expecting different results. Or many times without trying history will repeat in eerie ways. Coincidence is a strange thing. Is it divine intervention? Possibly. There are unexplainable events that happen that mimic prior moments. Those are the times we have to believe life has a plan. Right?
Redditor u/SealingBat wanted us to be aware of some history by asking... What has been the most incredible coincidence in history?
Twins....
What about the twin brothers back in the 70's. One was hit and killed on a moped by a taxi driver. Almost a year to the day later, the other brother was hit and killed on the same moped by the same driver carrying the same passenger. That's some coincidental stuff. ihasfip
Wrong Number....
A mate's dad, a lawyer, once dialed the number of a client, a doctor. A woman answered, sounded a little confused, but said that yes, Dr [name] was there. When the doctor came on the line he sounded a little confused too but they discussed the case. At the end of the call, the doctor said, "By the way, how did you get this number?" -"You gave it to me!" said my mate's dad. "No I didn't ... I'm on a house call." The lawyer reads back the number ... they realize he had misdialed. shallowblue
Follow the balloon...
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When I was in 4th grade the entire class released helium balloons with our information and some instructions to write a letter to the school ..."Where did you find the balloon?" - "What did you think when you found it?" etc..
Days later the class started getting them back, some from a mile or two away, some the next town over. As time went on the letters started coming from farther/cooler places.
It was about 2 months in and mine still hadn't returned. Finally it did... I was so pumped that it may have been from another country or something crazy.. it landed in the yard directly behind the school. The old man who found it basically took the letter as opportunity to complain about the noise and garbage the school brings to his property. I was so disappointed. AdeleBeckham
Writer's Premonition...
In 2011, Mikey Welsh, former Weezer bassist, tweeted "Dreamt I died in Chicago next weekend (heart attack in my sleep) Need to write my will today."
He died the next weekend in his hotel room in Chicago. Heart attack in his sleep. WhipCityUrchin
To be fair, it was a heart attack induced by a heroin overdose. Dondervuist
No more Italiano...
There's a whole thing with the king of Italy meeting his doppelgänger. They had a ton of life experiences that were identical (family names, birthday, home locations). They got murdered the same day. Victor Emmanuel II, for anyone that wants to look it up. PoorEdgarDerby
Mother Nature is Ornery...
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Pirates stopping just a single ship containing 1 kg standard weight intended for Thomas Jefferson may very well be the ultimate reason that the US does not use the metric system.
The coincidence is simply bad weather. Had weather been fairer for that ship, it would not have gotten blown off course into the Caribbean, and therefore not stopped by pirates and likely would have made it to the US. goat-worshiper
BOOM!!!
West End Baptist Church Incident :
"Between 1920 and 1950, Martha Paul was the stern choir director at West End Baptist Church in Beatrice, Nebraska. She demanded punctuality in her choir members; they all had to be at church at 7:25pm for practice. In the past, they had arrived on time with very few exceptions. However, on the night of March 1, 1950, they all were delayed for various reasons as they readied to leave for practice."
Marilyn Ruth Klempl, the pastor's daughter, spilled food on her dress and her mother needed to iron a new one. Herbert Kipf was trying to get a letter in the mail on time. He planned to be a few minutes late, deciding that he could drop it off on the way to practice. Lucille Jones was too busy listening to a radio program and was late along with Dorothy Wood, whom she was supposed to pick up.
Royena Estes and her sister, Sadie, were late because their car wouldn't start. Joyce Black, who lived across the street from the church, was ready but too tired to get up. LaDonna Vandergrift was having trouble with a geometry problem. Mrs. Leonard Schuster would've ordinarily arrived at 7:20 with her daughter, Susan. But on this particular evening, she had to go to her mother's house to help her get ready for a missionary meeting.
Because his wife was away, Harvey Ahl was taking care of his two sons. He was going to take them to practice with him but somehow he got wound up talking. When he looked at his watch, he saw that he was already late. Marilyn Paul, the pianist, had planned to arrive half an hour early. However, she fell asleep after dinner, and when her mother awakened her at 7:15, she only had time to tidy up and start out.
Martha Paul, the choir director and Marilyn's mother, was simply late because Marilyn was. She had tried unsuccessfully to awaken her earlier. At 4:30pm, Walter Klempl, the pastor, turned on the heat to warm the church and departed. Instead, it filled with gas and exploded at 7:27pm, two minutes after practice was supposed to begin. However, since none of the members had arrived, not a single one was harmed in the explosion in what was deemed an incredible coincidence or an extreme miracle.
From: This source summerset
Strike and Kill!
After his sister's suicide, a man vowed revenge on Harry Ziegland, the suitor who had broken his sister's heart, prompting her to take her life. The brother shot at Ziegland, who fell to the ground. Believing his task done, the brother shot and killed himself with the same gun. However, the bullet meant for Ziegland did not strike him. Instead, it lodged itself into a nearby tree. Three years later, Ziegland was working to clear that same location and used dynamite to remove the tree. The explosion sent the bullet flying -- striking and killing Ziegland NuttyWizard
Disaster!!
In 1898, Morgan Robertson wrote a fiction novel called "Futility."
It features a large, luxurious ocean liner named "Titan" which strikes an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sinks, claiming a large majority of her passengers.
14 years later, the Titanic strikes an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sinks after hitting an iceberg, a large majority of her passengers dying in the frigid waters.
The similarities are uncanny:
- Both ships were ~800 feet long
- Both ships displaced roughly ~45,000 tons
- Both ships had 3 screws
- Both ships did not have enough lifeboats for all passengers and crew
- Both ships struck an iceberg and sank in the month of April
- Both ships struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic, both were 400 nautical miles from Newfoundland
- Both ships struck the iceberg on their starboard side
It's incredible. thewaiting28
The BBC is always one up on us....
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The Dennis the Menace coincidence. Two cartoon characters, one in the UK, the other in the USA. Both released in print format in March 1951. Neither creator knew of the other's existence, neither character was plagiarized from the other.
https://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2012/04/the-curious-tale-of-dennis-the-menace
Seeing Doubles....
In 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.
- Both men were born on the same day, of the same year, (March 14th, 1844).
- Both men had been born in the same town.
- Both men married a woman with same name, Margherita.
- The restauranteur opened his restaurant on the same day that King Umberto was crowned King of Italy.
- 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. unnamed887
Baron & Don redux...
There's two books about a boy named Baron Trump (Trump's son is Barron Trump) who is aristocratically wealthy and lives in Castle Trump written in 1889 and 1893. He embarks on adventures which begin in Russia and are guided by "the master of all masters," a man named "Don." The same author Ingersoll Lockwood also wrote a book in 1900 called The Last President in which New York City is riven by protests following the shock victory of a populist candidate in the 1896 presidential election who brings on the downfall of the American republic.
It's You!
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Not in history, but for me personally.
I was at a conference in New Mexico one year, and there was a guy named Raleigh who spoke one morning. He was from New York, and at the time I wanted to live there, so I was hoping to speak to Raleigh so I could establish a contact (I didn't know anyone in NYC yet, so I figured any connection could potentially help me). I didn't get the chance to talk to him, and kind of forgot about it...
...until a year later. I was in Chicago for the summer and I met a woman from Virginia. When I mentioned to her that I wanted to live in NYC, she was like, "Oh, I have a friend in New York. I'll get you his contact info. Raleigh's a great guy."
It was the same f**king guy! TheAmazingJazzy
Intertwined and Cyclic histories.
Not the most incredible coincidence in THE WHOLE history, but in my particular history. When I was about 17 I met a girl in college and started dating her. Her grand-grandparents were from the same region as my grand-grandparents. One day she mentioned that she was (shamefully) from a family whose ancestors owned slaves. I happened to know that I am actually descendent of slaves. By now you can guess where this is going. We found some paperwork that her family kept in an old box and eventually found out that her family used to literally OWN mine. Fordent
I'm switching to a Caffeine Free life...
How Freud, Tito, Hitler, Trotsky, and Stalin at one point lived within a mile of one another in 1913. They even all frequented the same coffee shop. ziggymister
Makes you wonder what was in that coffee? inbsl
Holy crap I've been to that coffee shop. As have many others, but I did not expect this at all when clicking that link. wichtel-goes-kerbal
When it's your time, it's your time!
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand is up there. Basically he narrowly avoided assassination during the day's parade (wrong word but you get what I mean), later on the way to visit people injured during the first attempt, his driver makes the wrong turn and the car breaks down in front of a cafe which just so happens to be where Gavrilo Princip is sitting, who proceeds to assassinate Franz.
Details are shaky on this one because I haven't recapped since high school but you get the gist. Squeagley
Beware the Storm!
The Mongols failed to conquer Japan only because a typhoon came and killed them. Oh and then it happened again. They stopped trying after that because the gods clearly didn't want it. O_Zeca
And this is where the word "kamikaze," divine wind, originates. tribaL216
They came over and died in a tornado. Then they tried again and they fought a little then died in a tornado. Raptr117
Thank you Larry!
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A Los Angeles man was being charged with the murder of a 14 year old girl, but in his defense, he was at a Dodgers game at the time of the murder, he had the tickets as evidence, however the judge and D.A. ruled out tickets as evidence, because they were unable to prove that he actually attended the game. Coincidentally Larry David and crew were shooting an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm the same day at the Dodgers stadium, and the man ended up being caught on film and when the episode aired, you were able to see him one of the frames, all charges against him were then dropped. jazzrootsherbs
A Googlewhack?
Do you know what a Googlewhack is? It's when you search for two words in Google and get only one result.
About 15 years ago, British comedian Dave Gorman was playing around on his computer looking for Googlewhacks, and he found one.
The website he found was run by a Welsh fellow named Marcus. Dave and Marcus met and became friends. Then one day Marcus decided to try his hand at finding Googlewhacks. He found one.
The website that Marcus found was run by a man who lived on France. It was a man the comedian Dave Gorman actually knew and was already friends with. That man's name was also Dave Gorman. jimmy_rigger
Coincidence you say? Mhmm...
Two Russian cathedral enthusiasts visited the Salisbury Cathedral, UK (famous for its 123m spire) the same weekend a former Russian spy was poisoned in Salisbury. nolep
A Russian journalist who criticized Russian President Putin coincidentally ingested a fatal dose of polonium.
Also, one of Putin's political opponents was randomly gunned down by bikers with semi automatic weapons. Putin vows to capture the real killers, though, so we can all rest easy. I_love_napalm
Well, that Cathedral is WORLD FAMOUS. I mean, people travel from ALL OVER THE WORLD just to see it. losernameismine
History is so interesting. No? Do you believe in coincidence? What is your life experiences with a hint of the deja vú?
The old wives' tales.
They are the stories of legend.
I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.
Where did they originate?
WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!
You don't hear about them as much anymore.
It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.
But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.
Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:
"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"
"Wait an hour to swim after eating."
What a crock!
So many summer hours wasted.
I want revenge for that one.
Say Nothing
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"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."
LonelyMail5115
"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."
I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA
Say Something
"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."
Severe_Airport1426
"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."
crappycurtains
"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."
AlbinoShavedGorilla
Body Temps
"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."
chriseo22
"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."
"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."
apocalypticradish
Arms Down
"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."
Fatmouse84
10 Years Actually
Unimpressed Uh Huh GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine
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"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."
"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."
Gecko-911
I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.
This tale is haunting.
High/Low
Hungry Debra Messing GIF by Will & Grace
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"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."
LeastFormal9366
"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."
IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI
The Cursed
"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."
"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."
SmoreOfBabylon
Stay In
"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."
"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."
worldbound0514
Dreams and Facts
"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."
"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."
mattshonestreddit
"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."
Darthdemented
Cracked
Getting Ready Episode 2 GIF by The Office
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"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."
Choice-Grapefruit-44
"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."
MacyTmcterry
I love my knuckles.
Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.
