Our everyday lives are filled with tiny coincidences that make us stop for a moment and wonder
if there is more going on in the universe than we know about.
Throughout history, there have been similar small coincidences but there are also coincidences
so great that they are almost unbelievable.
5 - July 4th July 4th 1776 is one of the most important
days in American history, whilst the declaration was officially agreed upon on July 1st, it
was accepted by Congress on July 4th and signed months later.
Despite this, July 4th is widely accepted as the date of American Independence and each
year, millions of people gather to celebrate the occasion.
What you’ll never guess is that July 4th is one of the deadliest days for U.S presidents
and behind the celebrations lies an eerie set of coincidences.
On July 4th 1826 America was set to celebrate its 50th birthday and 50th year of being independent.
The streets were abuzz with families lined up, waiting for the celebrations to begin.
Regardless of where people sat on the political spectrum, they put their differences aside
for one day to celebrate their independence and prosperity going forward as a nation.
That was until news spread that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams had both passed away.
The American public was in disbelief, how could two founding fathers pass away on the
same day and on July 4th of all days.
Jefferson and Adams had both been unwell and their passing was expected, but not on the
same day and surely not on the 50th anniversary.
People quickly began pondering whether the two men had planned to hold on until July
4th before passing.
A eulogy was written for Jefferson that read, “The body had wasted away, but the energies
of a powerful mind, struggling with expiring nature, kept the vital spark alive till the
meridian sun shone on our 50th anniversary, then content to pass, the illustrious Jefferson
gave to the world his last declaration.”
This eulogy cemented the idea that willpower had kept both men alive and once they had
lived to see the 50th anniversary, they gave in to the inevitable.
Conspiracy theories quickly began popping up and people claimed that someone had purposely
gotten rid of Jefferson and Adams on July 4th.
Other people wondered whether two founding fathers passing away on the same day was more
than a mere coincidence but nothing further ever came of these theories.
On July 4th 1831, James Monroe the fifth President also passed away following a bout of illness.
Newspapers were quick to jump on the connection to Jefferson and Adams and sparked further
debates about the eerie coincidence surrounding July 4th and presidents of the United States.
The Town Herald of Maryland wrote, “This have three of our revolutionary presidents
departed this life on the anniversary of our independence; presenting the most remarkable
tissue of coincidences that have marked the history of nations.”
4 - Walter Summerford The case of Walter Summerford is perhaps one
of the weirdest stories in history.
Summerford served as a British Army Officer in World War I, he saw numerous battles, defeats
and other horrors but it wouldn’t be his wartime experience that would put him in the
history books.
In 1918 Summerford was stationed in Belgium with his men, in their minds, they were gearing
up to avoid the enemy and make it across the vast openness to their target.
Summerford jumped onto his horse and rode into battle, as soldiers around him were struck
down, something very different happened to Summerford.
As he was riding his horse, a bolt of lightning struck him, throwing him off his horse and
onto the ground.
Luckily, Summerford survived but became wheelchair-bound after the incident had left him paralysed.
They say that lightning never strikes twice but Summerford was about to find out that
this was a lie.
In 1924, many years after World War I, Summerford had moved to Canada in hopes of starting afresh.
He took to outdoor sports and even set about making a family of his own.
One day he was sitting underneath a tree, peacefully fishing when another bolt of lightning
hit.
It didn’t hit him directly but struck the tree and the current was absorbed through
his body.
As previously mentioned, Summerford had lost the use of his legs following the first lightning
strike, but the second time around, the lightning strike almost appeared to help him.
Just days after the second lightning strike, Summerford stunned doctors and was able to
walk again.
It has never been determined whether this is just a bizarre coincidence or whether the
lightning strike really did help him.
Lightning would strike Summerford for a third and final time in 1930 when he was on his
daily walk around a local park.
As the skies filled with dark clouds and the sound of thunder echoed through the air, Summerford
knew what was about to happen.
Knowing that third time's a charm, Summerford ran as fast as he could but was once again
struck down by lightning.
This time he wasn’t so lucky and the incident left him fully paralysed.
Two years later he passed away as a result of his condition.
Even after his passing, Summerford couldn’t escape lightning.
He had been buried in the Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver, British Columbia and his family
tended to his grave and headstone regularly.
In 1936, 4 years after his passing, his headstone was struck by lightning, causing it to fragment
into many pieces.
Summerford’s family lived the rest of their days believing that he had been cursed.
3 - Robert Todd Lincoln & Edwin Booth Robert Todd Lincoln, the eldest child of Abraham
and Mary Lincoln was the only child to reach adulthood and his parents, especially his
mother, kept a tight grip on him to ensure that he was safe.
At 17 years old Robert enrolled himself at Harvard University much to his parent's delight.
Shortly after starting university, the American Civil War broke out and Robert was keen to
enlist and join the cause.
Unfortunately for Robert, his mother, Mary, wasn't on the same page and forbade him from
signing up.
This was a source of great embarrassment for Abraham but, not wanting to push matters further,
allowed his son to continue with his studies.
Robert continued to attend Harvard University despite the Civil War raging across the U.S.
One day, Robert decided that it was time to take a break from his studies and hopped on
a train back to Washington.
What happened next is one of the most eerie coincidences in modern history and is often
an overlooked story when talking about the Booth family.
Robert had departed the train at Jersey City but found that the platform was teeming with
passengers.
In a bizarre twist of fate, Edwin Booth, the older brother of John Wilkes Booth just so
happened to be at the Jersey City train station too.
Little did these two men know that their lives and families would become infamously entangled
for all of the wrong reasons.
In a 1909 letter Robert described the incident and how Edwin Booth saved his life, a funny
coincidence considering that years later Edwin’s older brother, John would go on to take the
life of Robert’s father, Abraham Lincoln.
On the night that Abraham Lincoln passed, Robert was supposed to attend Ford’s Theatre
to watch ‘Our American Cousin’ with his parents, Abraham and Mary but declined the
offer at the last minute.
Little did he know that this would be the night that his father would come face to face
with John Wilkes Booth, the younger brother of the man who had saved him months earlier.
2 - Jim Twins In 1940 two twin boys were put up for adoption
and were subsequently adopted by two separate families.
The first boy, James ‘Jim’ Lewis went to live with the Lewis’ in Lima, Ohio.
By all accounts, Jim Lewis had a happy childhood, he had a dog called Toy and excelled at maths
and carpentry.
Jim Lewis’ first marriage was to a woman called Linda but sadly the marriage didn’t
last.
Following their divorce, Jim Lewis married a woman named Betty and had a son who he named
James Alan Lewis.
When Jim Lewis’ wasn’t working hard as a security guard, he spent his time with his
family and took them on several vacations to Florida.
Friends and family recall that Jim Lewis drove a Chevrolet and chain-smoked heavily.
Jim Lewis knew that he had a twin brother out there but didn’t know how to track him
down.
His adoptive parents had little information about his brother so he decided to reach out
to the courts of Ohio.
Jim Lewis searched through birth and adoption records and in 1977 he found his twin brother,
James ‘Jim’ Springer.
Two years later in 1979 the twin brothers agreed to meet up and reconnect.
The reunion was a tearful one and as the brothers got to know each other they discovered that
they shared more than DNA.
The second boy, James ‘Jim’ Springer had been adopted by the Springer family who lived
in Ohio, just 40 miles away from where Jim Lewis had grown up.
The more they chatted the crazier the coincidences became, both brothers were affectionately
nicknamed Jim after their birth parents had named them James.
They had both married a woman named Linda, whom they had divorced.
They had both remarried to a woman named Betty and had named their sons James Alan.
Both twins had a childhood dog named ‘Toy’, they both excelled at maths and carpentry
and both were heavy smokers and drove a Chevrolet.
According to the Minnesota Centre for Twin and Family Research, both Jim’s also had
an adopted brother named Larry, both had law enforcement training/background.
This report also details how at 18 years old, the twins mysteriously developed tension headaches,
gained the same amount of weight during the period and both stand at 6’0” and 180lbs.
In a bizarre twist, the two Jims even took their respective families to the same Florida
beach for their summer holidays, completely unaware that their twin brother could be standing
just metres from them.
When this story hit the headlines, scientists were baffled and set up a study to see if
they could understand this phenomenon.
These two twins had been raised separately but had somehow inadvertently lived the same
lives.
1 - The Wreck of the Titan The sinking of the Titanic is the most well
known maritime disaster in human history, countless books, documentaries and films have
been made about the event and even 100 years on, people are still talking about that fateful
day.
What most people don’t know is that there are two books that were written before 1912
that eerily predicted the sinking of the Titanic.
The most notable book is “The Wreck of the Titan: Or Futility” written by Morgan Robertson
in 1898.
Robertson’s book follows the story of a ship named ‘Titan’ that is touted as being
“unsinkable” and boats being the largest ship of its kind at the time.
Robertson also includes another key detail and that is that the Titan is carrying very
few lifeboats, a detail that later emerged during the sinking of the Titanic.
Much like the Titanic, the Titan hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic, setting in motion a
chaotic chain of events that leads to the ship sinking.
There are other bizarre similarities between the Titanic and the Titan, the Titanic was
882 feet long and the Titan was described as being 800 feet long.
The Titan travelled at 25 knots when it hit the iceberg and the Titanic was travelling
at 22.5 knots.
Both ships could also hold 3000 passengers and as previously mentioned, neither ship
had enough lifeboats for everyone on board.
They were both British ships and both incidents, both real and fictional happened around midnight
off the coast of Newfoundland.
In 1912 when the news of the Titanic broke, everyone began calling Robertson psychic which
made some people wary of him.
Robertson hit back at these claims by saying “I know what I’m writing about, that’s
all”.
He also claimed to have spent years researching shipbuilding which helped him write his book.