Have you ever been humming a song in your head, only to have it appear on the radio
or next on shuffle?
Or perhaps you were just thinking about someone and then you receive a text from them.
Coincidences happen daily, but some coincidences are almost unbelievable.
5 - Mark Twain Born on November 30th 1835, shortly after
the appearance of Halley’s Comet Mark Twain (whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
made an eerie prediction about his demise and is the centre of one of the world’s
strangest coincidences.
Twain is known around the world for his literary works such as ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
and ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’.
These books have become literary classics and almost every American has at some point
read or heard of these books.
In 1909 Twain said “I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835.
It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it.
It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don’t go out with Halley’s
Comet.
The Almighty has said, no doubt ‘Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came
in together, they must go out together.”
Halley’s Comet only appears every 76 years and Twain showed a great deal of insight into
his own mortality.
That’s exactly what happened, Halley’s Comet was due to pass by Earth on April 20th
1910.
Observers waited anxiously to catch a glimpse of the Comet whilst Twain waited patiently
for his prophecy to come true.
On April 21st 1910 the news of Mark Twain’s passing broke, newspapers began reporting
that Twain had passed away in Redding, Connecticut of a heart attack.
It turns out that Twain’s predictions had come true, just as he had been born just after
Halley’s Comet appeared in 1835, he also passed just after it had appeared again in
1910.
This isn’t the first time that Halley’s Comet was at the centre of a major historical
event.
In 1066, William the Conqueror spotted the Comet and interpreted it as a good luck sign
for his pending invasion.
4 - Comette Family In 2011 the Comette family of Paris, France
were upset when they returned home after a holiday to find that their roof was leaking.
A leaking roof is certainly the last thing you want to come home to after a relaxing
week away, but upon discovering what had caused the leak, the Comette family were a little
less disappointed.
After returning home and realising that there was a leak, 32-year-old Martine Comette called
someone out to come and fix it.
As the roofer was up in the loft, inspecting the roof, he noticed that a tile had been
smashed and whatever had smashed it had come from the sky.
He told the Comette family “It would have had to be superman to break a tile in this
way.”
It was then that he discovered a small black rock nestled deep in the roof’s insulation.
The rock only weighed 88g and was about the size of an egg, the Comette family were curious
to know exactly what it was and how it could have smashed their roof tile.
So, they called in the assistance of mineral expert Alain Carion who informed the Comette
family that the ‘rock’ they had discovered was in fact a meteorite.
The Comette family had been hit by a piece of interstellar debris, an extraordinary coincidence
given their name.
Carion went on to explain that the meteorite had come from the belt of asteroids that sit
between Mars and Jupiter and its sale value was €1,000 per gram.
The Comette family declined Carion’s offer to sell the piece saying “A piece of the
history of space of which we know nothing, but which is fascinating, has fallen on us.
It’s like a fairytale, and less likely than winning the lottery we’re told.”
3 - Aimee Maiden and Nick Wheeler In the weeks leading up to their wedding,
Aimee Maiden and Nick Wheeler were flicking through old photographs and reminiscing about
‘the good old times.
Nick and Aimee had met when they were both teenagers after Nick and his family moved
from Kent to Cornwall so that Nick could attend Sixth Form there.
It was at this Sixth Form that Aimee and Nick met and hit it off instantly, staying together
throughout their teenage years and into their 20s before deciding to settle down together.
Little did Nick and Aimee know that this wasn’t the first time that they had met.
Whilst looking through old photographs, Aimee and Nick both cried out in disbelief.
The photograph showed Nick who was just 6 years old at the time sitting inside a sand
sculpture whilst 5-year-old Aimee can be seen sitting behind him with her family.
The two were completely oblivious to each other at the time, but little did they know
that years later, they would meet and end up getting married.
The photograph was taken 11 years before the couple met as Nick was only holidaying in
Cornwall.
Nick and Aimee’s families were in utter shock, they had no idea that all of those
years ago, they were sitting next to the extended family that their children would bring together
through marriage.
Aimee told the Metro online “It’s an unbelievable conindicene and it just confirms that I have
found my soulmate.
What makes it even more significant was that, although I was brought up in Mousehole, Nick
and his family didn’t even live in Cornwall at the time.
He and his family were down on holiday from Kent and didn’t move permanently to Newlyn
until a year later.”
In the weeks after discovering the bizarre coincidence, Nick and Aimee tied the knot
at Gulval Church in Mousehole, Cornwall, just a small walk from where the photo had been
taken all of those years ago.
The couple now lives happily together and have the photograph framed in their house,
it’s certainly going to be a good story to tell their children one day!
2 - WWI Soliders Between 1914 and 1918 Europe and much of the
rest of the world were engaged in a conflict that would see the death of millions of soldiers
and irreparable damage to towns and cities across Europe.
Over the span of 4 years, 750,000 British soldiers lost their lives with thousands of
other soldiers coming home with physical injuries and shell shock (know today as PTSD).
During and after the war, these men and their families banded together to help each other
get through the difficult times that they were facing.
In a bizarre coincidence, the first and last British soldiers to lose their lives as a
result of WWI are buried directly across from each other.
John Parr from Finchley, North London was the first British casualty of the first world
war on August 21st 1914.
Finchley was shot whilst he was riding a bicycle ahead of his battalion to help map out the
British advance on German occupying troops on the Belgian city of Mons.
A cemetery, called the St Symphorien Cemetery was soon created with both German and British
troops being buried there after Belgian landowners wanted to pay their respects to the fallen
soldiers on both sides.
Those who have visited the cemetery describe it as eerie but are taken aback by the beauty
of the pine trees, Japanese maples and red roses that litter the grounds.
Finchley was laid to rest in the St Symphorien cemetery and 4 years later, George Edwin Ellison,
from Leeds who was the last British fatality of WWI was buried right across from him.
Ellison was killed a mere 90 minutes before the armistice was announced on November 11th
1918.
Ellison’s battalion was attempting one last advance as they knew that peace was on the
horizon and anticipated that there would be little push back from the German troops.
Sadly, Ellison found himself in the crossfire and did not live to see the end of World War
I.
Ellison would be buried directly across from Finchley in 1920 after his body was transferred
from a field grave to the St Symphorien cemetery.
At first, nobody made the connection between the two plots but historians soon cottoned
on and it became one of the most bizarre coincidences in British military history.
In 2018 a plaque was placed in Leeds City Station to honour the memory of Ellison and
tell his and Finchley’s story.
The full account of what happened to Ellison remains unknown as the records were destroyed
during the war.
What we do know is that in 1912 he married Hannah Maria Burgan and went on to have a
son, James Cornelius Ellison.
Ellison and Finchley likely didn’t know each other, but in a bizarre coincidence,
they were buried just metres apart from each other and their lives became intertwined.
1 - Flight 666 On Friday the 13th 2017, brave passengers
at Copenhagen Airport boarded flight 666 headed for Helsinki whose airport abbreviation is
HEL.
Departing at 13:20, Flight 666 took the to the skies for the last time before it changed
from Flight 666 to Flight 954.
People around the world held their breath, waiting to see what happened to the flight
named after the number of the beast.
666 is commonly associated as ‘The Devil’s number’ in many religions, however, it has
become widely used in pop culture too.
Many people use 666 when referring to the number of the beast, however, the religious
text of Revelation 13:18 uses the number 616.
The difference in numbers can be explained by the different spellings of Emperor Nero
or Neron’s name and the numbers are used as a code.
Despite which number you chose to use, the meaning behind it holds significance for a
lot of people.
Friday the 13th is a day steeped with superstition, it is often regarded as an unlucky day and
even an evil day.
Whilst others view Friday the 13th as ‘cool’.
The superstition surrounding Friday the 13th has never been confirmed but many believe
it goes back to biblical times when Jesus was at the last supper and the 13th guest,
Judas, betrayed him.
Would you be brave enough to get on a flight called Flight 666 on Friday the 13th?
The passengers braced themselves for take off and thankfully, nothing bad happened.
The crew of Flight 666 landed at Helsinki Airport and passengers departed into gate
26.
Many have been quick to point out that gate 26 is 13+13, was this done on purpose or was
this yet another spooky coincidence?
Despite all of the sinister numbers and patterns around them, passengers had a pleasant flight
and an easy departure through Helsinki airport and onto their destination, without a little
red devil appearing before them!
On October 13th 2017 Finnair tweeted “In 11 years, we’ve flown AY666 to HEL 21 times
on Friday the 13th.
Farewell to Finnair AY666 but remember, we still have a flight from SIN to HEL.”
Those aboard flight 666 told journalists that they chose the Friday the 13th flight as it
was significantly cheaper than other flights to the same destination, most likely due to
superstitious people not wanting to tempt fate.
Thankfully for everyone on board, Flight 666 landed in sunny Helsinki and not into the
flaming pits
of hell.