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Reality is stranger than fiction! Join us as we count down the most bizarre twists of fate that'll make your skin crawl. From presidents with parallel lives to premonitions that came true, these eerie coincidences challenge our understanding of randomness. Whether it's cosmic timing or just statistical anomalies, these real-life stories blur the line between chance and destiny in the most unsettling ways.
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00:00:00Despite being less than two miles from Ground Zero, Mr. Yamaguchi somehow survived.
00:00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for spine-chilling twists of fate so bizarre they blur the line between chance and destiny.
00:00:16We had all these things happen. Are they omens? Because is there something bigger? I say no, it's just incredible coincidence.
00:00:26Number 70, The Curse of Tippecanoe.
00:00:28It's important that the people of Tippecanoe County realize that too, that this is sacred ground. It's just not a big picnic area.
00:00:36Presidents and curses don't go well together, and this was the story for the ninth president of the United States, William Henry Harrison.
00:00:43After defeating a confederation of indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region of North America, Harrison supposedly incurred a curse on the office of the president.
00:00:51Supposedly, subsequent presidents, whose dates of being elected to office was in a year divisible by 20, were doomed to die in office.
00:01:00This continued until Ronald Reagan, who survived an assassination attempt.
00:01:04In a passage that combines American politics with superstition and coincidence theory, the curse of Tippecanoe continues to fascinate history buffs and the speculative mind.
00:01:14Would you believe that before Reagan, every president since 1840 who was elected in a year ending in zero died while in office?
00:01:23Number 69, Three Strangers with Interlinked Names.
00:01:27In the 1920s, three strangers encountered each other on a train.
00:01:31All three individuals would find over the course of time and interaction that they shared interconnected surnames.
00:01:37There was one Bingham, one Powell, and one Bingham Powell in the trio.
00:01:42In a world that seldom produces intersections so perfect, the three men found themselves locked in a moment woven by genealogical threads and social proximity.
00:01:51Their chance meeting was orchestrated by pure coincidence, but also illustrated the limits of randomness in our world.
00:01:58While an event may be mathematically unlikely, it does not directly translate to an impossibility, as is the case of Bingham, Powell, and Bingham Powell.
00:02:06Well, I suppose you think it's corny, but my mother gave it to me, so I have to wear it to police, sir.
00:02:11How do you do?
00:02:12I don't talk much.
00:02:13You go ahead and read.
00:02:14Number 68, Two Riders Killed the Same Way.
00:02:17In July 1975, a man named Erskine Lawrence Eben was knocked off his motorcycle and killed in an accident in Hamilton, Bermuda.
00:02:26The man was struck by a taxi while driving on the road and died on the spot of the accident.
00:02:30One year earlier, another individual, also a motorcyclist, died on the same spot, in the same manner.
00:02:38Not only did Eben get hit by the same taxi, carrying the same passenger, he also rode the same motorcycle as the previous victim.
00:02:46The victim was none other than his brother, Neville.
00:02:49And to stretch the tragic coincidence further, both brothers were 17 when they died.
00:02:54Number 67, Childhood Photo Reveals Forgotten First Meeting.
00:02:57Okay, here's Donna and her family. See in the background, that fellow right there?
00:03:01Uh-huh.
00:03:01Well, that's his dad, 30 years ago.
00:03:05Disney World is the most magical place on Earth, or so they say.
00:03:08Alex and Donna, a soon-to-be-married couple in the 2000s, would certainly agree.
00:03:13While looking through old photos to put in their wedding video, the duo would come across a photograph of Donna and her siblings posing at Disney World in 1980.
00:03:22The two were toddlers at the time, and both families were on a Florida vacation.
00:03:25And now look, they're married, and they've got a whole flock of kids of their own.
00:03:28I say creepy, it gave me the chills, but that's pretty cool.
00:03:31A closer look at the background of the image revealed a startling discovery.
00:03:35It was Alex, being pushed in a stroller by his father.
00:03:38Until that moment, neither had been aware of being at Disney World at the same time as kids and in the same photo.
00:03:45Returning to Disney World in 2010, the couple would recreate the photo with their own children.
00:03:50I was happy that he proposed before, so I knew that it was because he loved me.
00:03:55And not because he saw the picture and thought it was just meant to be.
00:03:58It was fate.
00:03:59Number 66.
00:04:01Jesus Saves.
00:04:02Literally.
00:04:03During Minnesota's Twin Cities 10-mile race, runner Tyler Moon decided to wear a t-shirt reading,
00:04:09Jesus Saves.
00:04:10His intent was to spread an uplifting message instead of displaying his name.
00:04:14Midway through the race, Tyler suffered a ventricular tachycardia.
00:04:17This caused his heart to stop.
00:04:20Collapsing onto the ground, Tyler fractured five of his facial bones, suffered a concussion,
00:04:25and also scraped his knee.
00:04:26The real danger was his heart.
00:04:28Amazingly, a nurse named Jesus Bueno happened to be running right behind him.
00:04:33Jesus and a colleague immediately performed CPR for 10 critical minutes, keeping Tyler alive
00:04:39until paramedics arrived.
00:04:40The improbable alignment of shirt, message, and rescuer made this a literal coincidence
00:04:46where Jesus saved.
00:04:47Number 65.
00:04:49Unlucky number.
00:04:50In Bulgaria, the phone number 0888-888-888 is infamous for its alleged association with
00:05:11its owner's death over a roughly five-year period.
00:05:15The original holder died of cancer.
00:05:16Within a couple of years, the next owner, a mob figure, died from gang-related activities.
00:05:22And then a couple of years later, the next owner, also coincidentally an underworld figure,
00:05:28was gunned down.
00:05:29The repeated misfortunes over such a short period of time was reason enough for Bulgarian authorities
00:05:34to discontinue the number.
00:05:36One thing is for certain, this number is one to forget.
00:05:40Number 64.
00:05:41Couple's Parents Almost Married.
00:05:42So, you know, my future mother-in-law is looking through the album, and she sees my dad.
00:05:49And so she asks, you know, oh, oh, what was his name?
00:05:52One of the most important moments in many couples' lives is when their parents meet for
00:05:56the first time.
00:05:57For Stephen and Helen Lee, that meeting turned out to be especially interesting.
00:06:01The engaged couple discovered that Stephen's late father and Helen's mother had almost
00:06:06married in Korea during the 1960s.
00:06:09A specific set of circumstances prevented their union.
00:06:12Decades later, their children's engagement became an echo of history repeating itself
00:06:17in unexpected ways.
00:06:19So, congratulations.
00:06:21We love you.
00:06:23Kinda.
00:06:24Recounted by NPR's This American Life, the story of Stephen and Helen highlights how small
00:06:30decisions and chance encounters in one generation can have massive impacts on the next.
00:06:35She explained that the reason they hadn't married was because her father, Helen's grandfather,
00:06:41had chosen a different husband for her, the man who became Helen's father.
00:06:45All of them ended up living in the U.S., but they quickly lost touch.
00:06:48Number 63.
00:06:49Twins died on the same day.
00:06:51Starting from the womb, twins share just about everything.
00:06:55This leads to a close bond unlike any other.
00:06:57Identical twins Helen May Cook and Clara May Mitchell were inseparable throughout their lives.
00:07:02Born in 1932, their bonds did not waver with time and held strong until old age.
00:07:09Clara would pass from a heart attack at the age of 83, with Helen dying just hours later
00:07:14due to complications from Alzheimer's disease.
00:07:17The passing of the twins seems almost supernatural.
00:07:20Their intertwined ending on the same day offers a glimpse into the emotional and biological
00:07:25synchrony between people of extraordinarily close bonds.
00:07:29We are all equal in death's eyes.
00:07:34Equal?
00:07:35In death's eyes.
00:07:36Number 62.
00:07:37Reunion with a Lifesaver.
00:07:39During a lecture at a New Jersey university, Royce Burton recounted a 1940 incident when,
00:07:45as a Texas ranger, he got lost in a canyon while on duty in the Rio Grande after dark.
00:07:50In his efforts to climb out, Burton lost his balance and nearly fell off a cliff, but was
00:07:55rescued by another Texas ranger.
00:07:57As he was narrating the story, a man named Joe walked into Burton's classroom.
00:08:02Incredibly, it was the same ranger who saved Burton during the incident decades earlier.
00:08:07The moment left Burton and his students at a loss for words, in a striking example of
00:08:12human paths crossing again under the most extraordinary or ordinary of circumstances.
00:08:16Number 61.
00:08:18The Balloon Twins.
00:08:20The story all began one windy afternoon after Laura and her grandfather tried a little experiment.
00:08:26A nine-year-old girl named Laura Buxton in southern England released a balloon as part
00:08:31of a backyard experiment.
00:08:32That balloon traveled over 100 miles and eventually came into the hands of another girl.
00:08:38Nothing out of the ordinary so far, until it was found that this girl was also named Laura
00:08:43Buxton.
00:08:44Once the unbelievable findings set in, Laura number two wrote to Laura number one.
00:08:49The letter contained Laura number two's phone number.
00:08:52But just who was this other Laura Buxton?
00:08:54The similarities didn't end there.
00:08:56Both girls shared the same age, height, hair and eye color, and even pets.
00:09:01In what was an improbable convergence of genetics, environment, and a floating balloon, the Buxton
00:09:07girls astounded local residents in an event that served to illustrate how life often has
00:09:12strange ways of bringing people together.
00:09:14We were completely flabbergasted.
00:09:17It was really weird, and I didn't really know what to think.
00:09:23Number 60.
00:09:24Mother and professor lived in the same house.
00:09:26The teacher asked Amanda what her mother's maiden name was, and Amanda told her.
00:09:31And she just kind of drops her pen, and she goes, you're not going to believe this, but
00:09:35I live in the house where your mother grew up.
00:09:38Sometimes coincidences strike closer to home than you would expect.
00:09:42Amanda Birch's story is one such event.
00:09:45She recounted a bizarre discovery during a class discussion for NPR's Hidden Brain podcast.
00:09:51While talking to her writing professor, she realized that the latter had grown up in the
00:09:55exact same town as her own mother.
00:09:57Things got even stranger when Amanda discovered that the professor now lived in the same house
00:10:02where Amanda's mother had spent her childhood.
00:10:05The discovery left the concerned party speechless and demonstrated how ordinary life could almost
00:10:10feel scripted by fate itself.
00:10:13I think the reason why coincidences seem very meaningful is that you're trying to explain
00:10:18them.
00:10:19Number 59.
00:10:20Turning Points.
00:10:21In June of 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte faced his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.
00:10:38The aftermath was the end of his reign and a reshaping of Europe's political landscape.
00:10:43Five decades later, in July 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg would serve the same role as a
00:10:49turning point in the American Civil War, leading to the unraveling of the Confederacy.
00:10:54What's happening?
00:10:55I can't see what's happening to my boys.
00:10:58What's happening to my boys?
00:11:00Both these battles are separated in time, but share a similarity in the alteration of history
00:11:06that occurred in their wake.
00:11:07One battle reshaped the political landscape of Europe, while the other set the stage for
00:11:12the birth of freedom in the United States of America.
00:11:14Something about summer seems to set the stage for historic reimaginings.
00:11:18Next to a battle lost, the saddest thing is a battle won.
00:11:25Number 58.
00:11:26Lincoln Dreamt His Death.
00:11:28Jerusalem, where David and Solomon walked out.
00:11:32I dream of walking in that ancient city.
00:11:36Days before his assassination, Lincoln reportedly dreamt of his death.
00:11:40According to one of his confidants, Lincoln shared a premonitory dream where he saw a coffin
00:11:45guarded by a soldier.
00:11:47He asked the soldier who was in the casket only for the soldier to reply that it was
00:11:51the president and that he had been killed by an assassin.
00:11:54According to the account, he heard a guard say that the president had been assassinated.
00:11:59Lincoln did not sit on his dream for too long, as he said that it was not his body that he
00:12:11saw in the casket.
00:12:13Ironically, a few days later, he would be shot dead by the now infamous John Wilkes Booth
00:12:18while watching a play at Ford's Theater.
00:12:20Lincoln will die just a few hours from now at 7.22 a.m.
00:12:24Reportedly, in the same bed that his killer, John Wilkes Booth, once took a nap.
00:12:31It's just one more strange detail in the real story behind Lincoln's assassination.
00:12:36Number 57.
00:12:37China Syndrome.
00:12:38All he has to do is open those valves.
00:12:40Right now, he can do pretty much anything he wants.
00:12:43But if he floods the containment with radiation, he may as well take a shovel to this place and
00:12:47bury it.
00:12:48The China Syndrome is a film depicting the aftermath of a nuclear meltdown scenario, opened March
00:12:5316, 1979.
00:12:55Twelve days later, an accident at the Three Mile Nuclear Island Power Plant would occur.
00:13:00Creepily enough, the film's depiction of the nuclear accident mirrored the real-life
00:13:05partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island Plant.
00:13:07Reporters were not permitted inside the facility today, but this is what Reactor No. 2's
00:13:13control room looked like last September when it was still undergoing testing.
00:13:17It went into commercial service only three months ago.
00:13:20There was no actual casual link, but the near-perfect alignment of art and reality shocked the public.
00:13:26Nevertheless, there was good to the creepy coincidence, as the event and the film both significantly
00:13:32influenced the public's perception about nuclear energy and safety.
00:13:36But five frightening days in the spring of 1979 changed forever the face of nuclear power
00:13:42in America.
00:13:44They ended the nation's blind infatuation with the atomic miracle.
00:13:49Number 56.
00:13:50World War I Tree and Soldier.
00:13:52The bonds between father and son are deep and, in the case of one World War I soldier, could
00:14:08be rooted in nature.
00:14:09In the Somme region of France, a British soldier was killed near a tree.
00:14:14The soldier's death at this location was even more symbolic, as the tree was planted by none
00:14:19other than his own father many years ago, when he trained in the same regiment.
00:14:24The connection is a heart-rendering story of how coincidence and lineage can intertwine
00:14:29within the brutality of war.
00:14:31Representing both personal tragedy and the uncanny nature of history, the soldier's resting
00:14:36place is a haunting memory of history repeating itself.
00:14:39Number 55.
00:14:40Robert Lincoln witnesses three assassinations.
00:14:50Robert Todd Lincoln, the son of President Abraham Lincoln, carved out a unique legacy
00:14:54of his own, one that was built on astonishing coincidence.
00:14:58Robert was present at or near three presidential assassinations.
00:15:02This included his fathers, as well as those of James Garfield and William McKinley.
00:15:06When it was his turn to shake McKinley's hand, Shulgash drew his gun under a handkerchief
00:15:11and shot the president in the abdomen.
00:15:14Eight days later, McKinley died.
00:15:17The odds of one individual being present during multiple such tragedies are astronomical.
00:15:22While each incident was separated by several years, fate seemed to deem Robert to also be
00:15:27available upon said dates.
00:15:29To this day, Robert's story demonstrates how a single life can intersect repeatedly with tragic
00:15:35historical events.
00:15:36I have to do this, and I will, or I will feel ashamed of myself for the rest of my life.
00:15:43Whether or not you fought is what's going to matter, and not just to other people, but to myself.
00:15:47Number 54.
00:15:48Ferrari's death and Ozil's birth.
00:15:50He eulogizes on the people for Moderna, their gifts for engineering and for fast driving,
00:15:56without being modest enough to exclude himself.
00:15:59Enzo Ferrari passed away in 1988.
00:16:01A few weeks later, a football icon named Mesut Ozil was born.
00:16:06As Ozil grew up to become a legend on the field, many couldn't help but notice the physical
00:16:11similarities between himself and the deceased Italian legend.
00:16:15Ozil's uncanny resemblance with the legend made many fans claim their likeness to be the
00:16:20result of massive coincidence or the proof of reincarnation.
00:16:24Combining two cultures with perfect timing, the overlap of Ferrari and Ozil, despite being
00:16:29unrelated, has captured the imagination of coincidence enthusiasts worldwide.
00:16:35I'll introduce you to your brother, Dino.
00:16:38I wish you could have known him.
00:16:42He would have taken you with him everywhere.
00:16:45Number 53.
00:16:46Boat finds its way home.
00:16:48You know, none of the technology that I'm carrying today has to carry all their own food,
00:16:51do their own navigation by hand, using sextant, using the stars and all the kind of traditional
00:16:56skills.
00:16:57Sometimes the best way to deal with depression is to challenge yourself by getting something
00:17:01done.
00:17:01That is exactly what BBC presenter Neil Ian McDonald decided to do when he rode 43 miles
00:17:08across a Scottish strait in an effort to raise mental health awareness.
00:17:12But Neil desired even more.
00:17:14He decided to row solo all the way from New York to Scotland.
00:17:17In 2018, Neil was able to make it a quarter of the way across the Atlantic before a storm
00:17:23laid waste to his plans.
00:17:24Rescued by a Dutch cargo ship, Neil abandoned his rowboat, Alba.
00:17:29Astonishingly, 15 months later, Alba washed ashore in South Uist near his mother's childhood
00:17:35home, completing his journey on its own.
00:17:37This is home, Alliance Trust, the good ship Alliance Trust, my ocean rowing boat.
00:17:41So, yeah, just looking forward to actually getting out into the ocean.
00:17:44That's where she belongs.
00:17:45Number 52.
00:17:46Russian Spy.
00:17:47All right, search the mattress, the bed, the floorboards.
00:17:50If you put that in the asterisk chair, take a good look at that desk.
00:17:53On the windowsill there.
00:17:56In a bizarre twist of life-imitating fiction, author Norman Mailer included the character
00:18:01of a Russian spy in his novel Barbary Shore.
00:18:04But as the story unfolded, the character's importance also expanded.
00:18:08Mailer would later learn that a real Russian spy of the name Colonel Rudolf Abel actually
00:18:14lived just one floor above him in his apartment building in New York City.
00:18:18Abel would later be arrested in what was one of the most unsettling coincidences in modern
00:18:23history.
00:18:24Mailer's fictional creation and reality intertwined in a manner that has pushed literary scholars
00:18:29and spy enthusiasts alike to ask if Mailer was indeed already aware of Abel's identity.
00:18:35I'm taking this liberty to write to you after having learned from the newspapers about your
00:18:41most humane attitude towards my beloved husband, Rudolf Abel.
00:18:47Number 51.
00:18:48The Simpsons predict Trump.
00:18:50It's great to be at Trump Tower.
00:18:51It's great to be in a wonderful city, New York.
00:18:54And it's an honor to have everybody here.
00:18:57This is beyond anybody's expectations.
00:18:59The Simpsons has long been famous for being spot on with their predictions for real life
00:19:05events.
00:19:05Among the many they had successfully made, none stands out more than their prediction of
00:19:10Donald Trump's presidency.
00:19:12In 2000, an episode titled Bart to the Future depicted Lisa Simpson as president and made
00:19:17reference to Donald Trump having been president before her.
00:19:21As you know, we've inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump.
00:19:25How bad is it, Secretary Van Houten?
00:19:28We're broke.
00:19:29In what was a warning to America, the episode's writer Dan Greeney said the fictional Trump
00:19:35presidency was a prediction consistent with America's vision going insane.
00:19:40Viewers shrugged it off as a joke, but the reality became undeniable when Trump was elected
00:19:44president in 2016 and later successfully became re-elected for a second term in 2024.
00:19:51We will double our growth and have the strongest economy anywhere in the world.
00:19:56At the same time, we will get along with all other nations willing to get along with us.
00:20:02Number 50.
00:20:03The Story of Shu Weifeng.
00:20:06Despite a seemingly constant influx of bad news filtering into our media diet, it's important
00:20:11to remember the world is filled with unsung heroes.
00:20:14One such hero is Shu Weifeng, a resident of Jiangsu province in China.
00:20:18One day in 2018, Mr. Weifeng happened upon an 8-year-old boy drowning in a river.
00:20:24Despite being 80 at the time and having some pre-existing injuries from a fall, Mr. Weifeng
00:20:30leapt into action.
00:20:31He saved the boy, much to his family's relief.
00:20:34The story would have ended there, but for a truly bizarre bit of random chance.
00:20:38Mr. Weifeng had saved the boy's father from a nearly identical situation 30 years before.
00:20:44Number 49.
00:20:46Till Death Do Us Part.
00:20:48Margaret and John Naylor were an Irish couple living in Dublin at the start of the 20th century.
00:20:53When World War I broke out, John left his family to join the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
00:20:58John fought bravely on the battlefields and in the trenches of France.
00:21:02Unfortunately, John died in a gas attack in Huluuk on April 29th, 1916.
00:21:08Tragically, Margaret would never hear the news.
00:21:10On that same day, back home in Dublin, civil unrest had boiled over in the Easter week rising.
00:21:16In 1916, with the First World War raging, a ragtag group of rebels and revolutionaries
00:21:22saw an opportunity to strike against the British Empire.
00:21:25Irish Republicans rebelling against British rule clashed with British soldiers.
00:21:30Margaret was shot at the crossfire on Ring's End Drawbridge, lying wounded for hours before
00:21:35anyone helped her.
00:21:36After shelling from a Royal Navy battleship, Dublin was in flames.
00:21:39By Saturday, the rising had been crushed.
00:21:43She died in a hospital several days later, orphaning their three children.
00:21:47Number 48.
00:21:48Nebraska Church Explosion
00:21:49Sometimes an event takes place that seems due to divine intervention.
00:21:59One such near catastrophe took place in Beatrice, Nebraska on March 1st, 1950.
00:22:05It was a chilly night, so the Reverend of Westside Baptist Church lit the furnace to warm-up choir
00:22:11practice.
00:22:12He went home for dinner.
00:22:13He was late for the 7.15 practice because his daughter's dress needed to be clean.
00:22:18Every member of the choir had similarly mundane or random reasons to show up late that night.
00:22:24No one was ever really late.
00:22:25There might have been very, very few circumstances, but most often everyone was there all the time.
00:22:31I really can't think of a time that anyone came late.
00:22:34From car trouble, to problems with math homework, to plain old laziness, all 15 church members
00:22:40were late.
00:22:40As it turned out, that tardiness saved their lives.
00:22:44At the time choir practice was supposed to begin, the furnace exploded, collapsing the
00:22:49building.
00:22:50Minutes after the explosion, the choir members began to arrive, each one thinking that the
00:22:55others had perished.
00:22:56Number 47.
00:22:57The My Way Killings
00:22:59The Philippines saw a truly bizarre series of violent incidents between 2000 and 2012.
00:23:10Though they were seemingly unconnected, there was one through line.
00:23:14They were all responses to karaoke performances of Frank Sinatra's song, My Way.
00:23:19Regrets, I've had a few.
00:23:24These incidents often occurred in bars and karaoke clubs, where patrons would sing the
00:23:29song, provoking assaults and murders.
00:23:32The reasons behind the violent reactions are varied.
00:23:35Some were disputes over off-key renditions.
00:23:38One theory is that the song's lyrics lend themselves to perceived arrogance by the singers.
00:23:43My Way
00:23:48Whatever the reason, many karaoke bars in the Philippines removed My Way from their song lists.
00:23:56By the end of the phenomena, at least six people had been killed.
00:24:00Number 46.
00:24:02Left-handed presidents
00:24:03According to studies, nine out of every ten people are right-handed.
00:24:08Archaeological evidence shows that it's been that way for as long as 500,000 years.
00:24:13One would think, then, that subgroups of people would reflect a similar distribution.
00:24:17When it comes to American presidents, though, that assumption would be incorrect.
00:24:22Of the 14 US presidents since the end of the Second World War, six of them, or 42%, have been left-handed.
00:24:30Biologists and psychologists have actually tackled this esoteric topic in academic articles.
00:24:35Theories abound.
00:24:37Some think it has to do with their more dominant right-brain hemispheres.
00:24:40Others think that southpaws develop levels of creativity and divergent thinking ideal for politicians.
00:24:47Parade of talented folks lead credence to the theory.
00:24:49Leonardo da Vinci, for example, was a lefty.
00:24:51So was Mozart, Picasso, Einstein, Madame Curie, Mark Twain, Babe Ruth, and Jimi Hendrix.
00:24:58Whatever the reason, the number of lefty presidents seems too high to be a mere coincidence.
00:25:03Number 45. Thomas Lawson and Friday the 13th
00:25:07Thomas W. Lawson was a stockbroker in London who wrote a novel in 1907, Friday the 13th.
00:25:22It was the tale of another British stockbroker who attempted to crash the market on a Friday the 13th.
00:25:28The book was a smash hit, forever linking that day with bad luck in the stock market.
00:25:32Two years later, a schooner named the Thomas W. Lawson was making her first transatlantic trip.
00:25:39It was named after a different Lawson, but the connection is incredibly eerie.
00:25:44On the night of December 13th, 1907, a Friday, the schooner sailed into a terrible storm.
00:25:51She sank in the wee hours of the morning, the 17 souls aboard lost at sea.
00:25:56The Lawson was the largest sailing ship the world had ever seen.
00:26:00She was en route from Philadelphia to London with a cargo of oil when she hit the western rocks of Scilly in December 1907.
00:26:08Number 44. Battle of the Carmanias
00:26:10During World War I, some private shipping companies saw their vessels commandeered by their respective governments.
00:26:17Many such ships were transatlantic steamers and merchant vessels retrofitted into battleships.
00:26:23Germany requisitioned the vessel Cap Trafalgar, painting her to look like the British merchant's ship, the RMS Carmania.
00:26:31The plan was to use her as a Judas goat, luring Allied vessels into their demise.
00:26:36Unfortunately, on September 14th, 1914, the Cap Trafalgar happened to run into the actual RMS Carmania, ruining the ruse.
00:26:47It was a ferocious battle, the first ever to take place between ocean liners.
00:26:52The real Carmania won out, sinking her doppelganger.
00:26:55Number 43. The Double Survivor
00:26:58September 11th, 2001 was the worst terrorist attack on US soil.
00:27:03We saw a lot of things that day that no one should see.
00:27:07There are many stories from survivors about how fickle twists of fate saved their lives.
00:27:12One such person was a man named Matthew, who came face to face with fate not once, but twice in his life.
00:27:19Matthew was passing the Twin Towers at the time, on his way to a business meeting.
00:27:24Fourteen years later, Matthew was in Paris, enjoying a show at the Bataclan Theatre.
00:27:30Terrorists entered the club, shooting dozens upon dozens of the concertgoers.
00:27:34Matthew was one of those shot, though he survived by slowly crawling to safety.
00:27:39It's hard to gauge the quality of Matthew's luck, having barely survived two separate terrorist attacks.
00:27:46This is an attack not just on Paris, it's an attack not just on the people of France,
00:27:53but this is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share.
00:27:58Number 42. Megalith Construction
00:28:01Could it be that ancient structures throughout the world were designed to function together
00:28:06as part of a massive energy grid?
00:28:09The world is littered with megaliths, stone constructs created by our ancient ancestors.
00:28:15Those who built them would have no connection to one another.
00:28:18Yet, some of their constructs, separated by both distance and time, appear to form straight lines.
00:28:25Starting in the 1920s, amateur historians and archaeologists, as well as occultists,
00:28:31have posited connections between these ancient sites and natural landmarks.
00:28:35These amateur sleuths began to call these pathways, ley lines.
00:28:40Some believe that ley lines mark paths of electromagnetic power that encircle the Earth.
00:28:44Running around the globe, everywhere, are energies that pulsate through the Earth.
00:28:49This particular place is on, we call it, a power spot.
00:28:54Where energies seem to accumulate, come into like a hub, and then flow off into other places.
00:29:01While there is no evidence to prove the existence of ley lines, it's hard to deny the coincidence
00:29:06that many, though certainly not all, megaliths seem to be built along grid-like lines.
00:29:13Number 41. Capitol Hill Saved by a Tornado
00:29:16Can you imagine how you'd feel if the White House went up in flames?
00:29:20That might seem like something that could only happen in a movie, but in 1814, it really did.
00:29:26Though the War of 1812 ostensibly ended in a draw, it also saw the White House get burned
00:29:32by British soldiers. One could argue, though, that the seat of the nascent American Republic,
00:29:38Capitol Hill, was saved by an act of providence. On August 25, 1814, as the Redcoats marched on
00:29:45Washington, the heat was surging to 100 degrees. As the city burned, a cold front clashed with the
00:29:52flames and summer heat. Thunder clashed, rain poured down, and a tornado formed in the middle
00:29:58of the city. The funnel made a beeline towards the British, destroying cannons and battle lines
00:30:04alike. The British abandoned the city, damaging but unable to burn down Capitol Hill.
00:30:10It was a huge embarrassment to the government and to President Madison. The Secretary of War had to resign.
00:30:15Number 40. Flight 666 flew into hell on Friday the 13th.
00:30:24Airports around the world are represented by three-letter codes. The code for Helsinki-Vanta Airport,
00:30:29the primary airport of Finland's capital, is hell. Finavia, the airport's owner, has had fun with the
00:30:36initials. In October of 2017, they had a PR campaign, hashtag life in hell. It was a mixed media campaign
00:30:44with TV and online content. They even had a well-known Chinese actor spend a month living at the airport.
00:30:53Three days after the launch of the campaign, on Friday the 13th, Finnair's regular flight 666 from
00:31:00Copenhagen flew straight to hell. There was no bad luck to be found, but what a way to tempt fate.
00:31:07Number 39. November 9th. The German Day of Fate. Mark Twain once said,
00:31:13History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Germans know that Twain was right. Dating back to 1848,
00:31:20many history-shaping events of German history all occurred on the same day. November 9th is so
00:31:26significant in Germany, they have a name for it. Schicksalstag, or the Day of Fate. On November 9th,
00:31:321918, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated the throne, ending the 500-year reign of Haus Hohenzollern.
00:31:39Just a few years later, Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch ended on November 9th, 1923,
00:31:45launching his political career. In 1938, on November 9th, the SS launched Kristallnacht,
00:31:51a violent pogrom against the nation's Jewry. It's not all dark history, however. November 9th,
00:31:571989 saw the fall of the Berlin Wall. It has been an astonishing day. Hour after hour,
00:32:03all through today, thousands and thousands of West Germans have come to the Wall
00:32:08to see for themselves. Number 38. The graves of the first and last World War I casualties
00:32:14face each other. World War I was the bloodiest war in the history of England. The Battle of Somme,
00:32:19for instance, claimed more British lives than every single post-World War II British battle combined.
00:32:24The nation lost six percent of its total male population to the war. Many of those fallen
00:32:29soldiers rest in St. Symphorian Military Cemetery. However, there is an odd and unplanned coincidence
00:32:35with their graves. The first British casualty of the war was a young man named John Parr. The last
00:32:40was 30-year-old George Edwin Ellison. Parr and Ellison both lie at St. Symphorian, seven yards apart,
00:32:46and facing one another. Private John Parr, the first British soldier killed, is buried here.
00:32:52So is George Ellison, the last shot an hour before the ceasefire took effect.
00:32:57Their graves act as somber bookends to a tragic chapter in their nation's history.
00:33:02Number 37. The Civil War Began and Ended on the Same Man's Property
00:33:07The first shots of the American Civil War rang out at Fort Sumptner, South Carolina. It wasn't a battle,
00:33:13per se. There were only 85 defenders, and the few casualties came from an accident during the
00:33:18surrender. The first pitched battle occurred later, with the First Battle of Bull Run in Manassas,
00:33:22Virginia. It was named for a stream that ran through the farmland of a grocer named Wilmer McClain.
00:33:28The battle was fierce and bloody, revealing to the country just how horrific a protracted war on
00:33:33American soil would become. After the battle, McClain fled his home to find safety. He moved to
00:33:39Appomattox, Virginia. Four years later, Robert E. Lee incidentally surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant
00:33:45in the parlor of McClain's Appomattox home. Number 36. Major Somerford defied the odds,
00:33:51in the worst way imaginable. Walter Somerford, a British major during World War I, was sent home
00:33:58from the front in Belgium in 1918. He wasn't hit by a bullet or a mortar shell. Somerford was struck by
00:34:05lightning. He was temporarily paralyzed from the waist down and sent back home. Six years later,
00:34:10while fishing in a local river, Somerford was struck by lightning for a second time. Again,
00:34:15Somerford had to rehabilitate from temporary paralysis. Fast forward another six years,
00:34:20and the major's luck ran out. He was hit by lightning a third time during a stroll in the park.
00:34:25He struggled for two years in a hospital bed before succumbing. Four years after that, his tombstone was
00:34:31struck by lightning. That's four strikes, one every six years. Did I ever tell you I've been struck by
00:34:38lightning seven times? Once when I was repairing a leak on the roof. Number 35. The Comets hit by a
00:34:48meteor. Meteor shower, take evasive action. What's evasive action? It's when you get out of the way of
00:34:54something. What exactly am I supposed to get out of the way of exactly? I have no idea. All it says is take evasive action.
00:35:01There is a reason why meteors are incredibly valuable. Many meteoroids break up in the atmosphere
00:35:06after hurtling through space for millions or billions of years. According to National Geographic,
00:35:11the chances of getting hit by a meteor are approximately one in 1.6 million. In 2011,
00:35:17one meteoroid fell to Earth and landed on a house in France. Fortunately, nobody was hurt.
00:35:29This sort of event was newsworthy thanks to its unlikelihood alone. However, there is an odd
00:35:34wrinkle to this particular story. The home was owned by the Comet family.
00:35:39Number 34. Anthony Hopkins and the Girl from Petrovka.
00:35:43I'm very fortunate, very lucky. I sometimes pinch myself and think, how did it happen? But I think,
00:35:48well, you know, that's the way it is. It's an opportunity, luck, and goodness knows what it is.
00:35:52Maybe a little bit of talent. In the early 1970s, Anthony Hopkins' career was stalling. He hoped to
00:35:58jumpstart it with an audition for The Girl from Petrovka, an adaptation of an American novel. Hopkins was
00:36:03desperate for a break and wanted to be as prepared as possible. He frantically searched for the novel,
00:36:09but learned it wasn't yet available in the UK. Despondent, he went to the subway and sat on a
00:36:14bench to wait for the train. He noticed a bound manuscript on the bench next to him.
00:36:19The blue and the dim and the dark cloths of night and light and the half-light.
00:36:24One for the exact book he was searching for. He got the part, and a year later met the author
00:36:30on set in Vienna. He then learned that the author had lost that same copy in a stolen car.
00:36:36She calls him a little hamster, feeding him all the crumbs, forcing him to survive.
00:36:42Number 33. The Curse of the Omen.
00:36:45It was an aura of not being welcomed. The devil was really… I really sincerely believe that the
00:36:53devil didn't want the picture to be made. Horror movies like The Exorcist are famous for having
00:36:57productions plagued with creepy tragedies. Few such movies appear to be as cursed as 1976's The Omen.
00:37:05Both before and after the film, the cast and crew began to suffer strange accidents.
00:37:09Star Gregory Peck's son took his own life after Peck took the role.
00:37:18Special effects guru John Richardson oversaw the film's death scenes. On his next gig, he and his
00:37:23girlfriend were in a car crash where she died in a manner similar to one death in The Omen. Both
00:37:29screenwriter David Seltzer and executive producer Mace Neufeld were on airplanes struck by lightning.
00:37:34It's hard to discount the possibility that the film was in fact cursed.
00:37:38He says, if you guys go ahead and make this movie before you are done, you will believe the devil exists.
00:37:46Number 32. Stephen Hawking's Birthday and Death Day.
00:37:50We will discover new structures when look at the universe on smaller and smaller scales.
00:37:56Stephen Hawking was one of the most famous physicists and cosmologists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
00:38:01He built on the work of astronomers and mathematicians going all the way back to Galileo.
00:38:06He deepened our understanding of the Big Bang, black holes, and time. Coincidentally,
00:38:11Hawking was somewhat famously born on the 300th anniversary of Galileo's death. Adding to the creepy and
00:38:17bizarre symmetry, Hawking died on the birthday of Albert Einstein. It was as if the universe was
00:38:23determined to inextricably link three men responsible for our understanding of the cosmos.
00:38:28Does that mean that there is a universe out there where I am smarter than you?
00:38:34Yes, and also a universe where you're funny.
00:38:38Number 31. John Wilkes Booth's brother saved Abraham Lincoln's son.
00:38:43So that moment where the whole future looked like
00:38:48had finally lifted, the clouds had separated, comes crashing down.
00:38:53Robert Todd Lincoln, the only of the president's children to outlive his parents,
00:38:57himself had a long and storied career. Lincoln was at one time the Secretary of War,
00:39:01as well as the US Ambassador to the UK. That may never have happened if it weren't for the
00:39:06intervention of a good Samaritan. This is just a clumsy attempt at discouragement.
00:39:10I've been to army hospitals, I've seen surgeries, I went and visited the malaria barges with mama.
00:39:15Lincoln was in New Jersey, waiting for a train in the middle of a crowd. He slipped and fell onto the
00:39:20platform. Thankfully, an onlooker managed to pull Lincoln back onto the platform in time to avoid the
00:39:25oncoming train. That man was Edwin Booth, brother to the man who would ultimately kill Lincoln's
00:39:31father, John Wilkes Booth. Coincidentally, Lincoln was also present at the assassinations of Presidents
00:39:36Garfield and McKinley. I want to be useful, but now, not afterwards.
00:39:42I ain't wearing them things, Mr. Slade. They never fit right.
00:39:45Number 30. The Beginning and End of Life
00:39:48Should we go buy one of those?
00:39:51Yeah, I was probably gonna…
00:39:52Probably gonna go back later?
00:39:54Yeah, yeah.
00:39:55Life magazine helped define popular American culture in the 20th century. It was ubiquitous,
00:40:00on shelves of every magazine stand, waiting room, and grocery checkout in the country. The first
00:40:05issue of the magazine as we currently know it was published on November 23, 1936. The first interior
00:40:11photo in the magazine's history was a picture of a baby being cradled by his doctor after being
00:40:16delivered. The caption read, Life Begins. That baby was George Story, who himself ultimately grew
00:40:23up to become a journalist. Decades later, on April 4, 2000, Life magazine announced that it would stop
00:40:30publication. Story died of heart failure a few days later.
00:40:34When I was growing up, you looked at Life magazine and that was how you saw the world.
00:40:42Number 29. A Dutch Cyclist and a Plane Crash Dodger
00:40:46Martin de Jong is a former professional cyclist from Holland. His career peaked in 2014, with a
00:40:51first-place win in Stage 4 of the Tour of Thailand. What makes de Jong's life remarkable is not his career,
00:40:57instead he's known for his shockingly good luck. The same year that de Jong won the aforementioned race,
00:41:03two separate Malaysia Airlines flights crashed. One, Flight 370, went missing. The other, Flight 17,
00:41:09was shot down over Ukraine by Russia. De Jong was allegedly planning to be on both flights. In the
00:41:15case of Flight 370, he decided to take a flight earlier in the day. With Flight 17, he ultimately chose
00:41:21a cheaper flight home. Number 28. Bruce and Brandon Lee in Game of Death and The Crow.
00:41:33Despite Bruce Lee's incredible fitness, he died suddenly at the age of 32 due to an allergic
00:41:39reaction to painkillers. Lee was in the middle of a movie production, filming Game of Death. The film was
00:41:45rewritten and partially reshot with a double in order to finish. In one scene, a prop master on a
00:41:51film set explains to a group of extras how to use a prop gun. One of them replaces a blank with a real
00:42:04bullet to try and kill Lee's character. The scenes are eerily reminiscent of the death of Lee's son,
00:42:10Brandon, decades later. While shooting The Crow, Brandon Lee died when a prop gun was misloaded.
00:42:16That film, too, was recut and partially reshot in order to finish.
00:42:28Number 27. Hitler and Napoleon.
00:42:30In all of history, only Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler have come close to conquering all of Europe.
00:42:44What is creepy is that their lives, rises to power, and falls mirror each other incredibly well. Separated
00:42:51by 120 to 130 years, their journeys were strikingly similar. Both were born in a country different
00:43:03from the one that would come to rule. Both seized power in a former superpower weakened by defeat in
00:43:08a previous war. They both utilized shockingly effective new military tactics to quickly conquer
00:43:14their neighbours, leaving England isolated and alone. Each leader was weakened by resistance movements
00:43:19in the territories they conquered. And, ultimately, they were each undone by a poorly conceived invasion
00:43:24of Russia, each defeated by the bitter cold.
00:43:32Number 26. Did Shakespeare help write the King James Bible?
00:43:36By the time King James took the throne of England, his predecessor Queen Elizabeth had successfully
00:43:41established the Church of England as the national faith. Members of the Church asked that a new,
00:43:46standardized English translation of the Bible be commissioned. James jumped on the task, approving
00:43:52a team of 47 scholars to write it. The task was completed in 1611. There is, however, an oddity that
00:43:58has led to a novel conspiracy theory. William Shakespeare was secretly a co-author. The 46th word of Psalm 46
00:44:06is shake, while the 46th from the last word in the Psalm is spear. Shakespeare happened to turn 46 in 1611.
00:44:15Did the playwright secretly put his stamp on the book, but slipped it past the King?
00:44:20Number 25. Johannes Kepler's erroneous interpretation of Galileo led to a major discovery.
00:44:27In 1610, the famous astronomer Galileo Galilei became the first to observe rings around the planet Saturn.
00:44:32Astronomy and astrophysics are disciplines that require patience over generations and centuries. Every
00:44:39scientist in those fields is limited by the technology of their times. They work in the hope that future
00:44:45generations will build on their progress. So it was with Galileo Galilei while observing Saturn's rings.
00:44:51He sent letters out announcing his discovery with this strange message. For whatever bizarre reason,
00:44:58he hid his discovery in an indecipherable anagram. Johannes Kepler was one recipient of those letters.
00:45:04He thought it read, Salve, Umbistineum, Geminatum, Marteum, Proles. That means,
00:45:12Be greeted, double knob, children of Mars. He thought Galileo discovered two moons around Mars. While he
00:45:20misinterpreted the message, he was actually correct. Mars does have two moons, Phobos and Deimos.
00:45:27Number 24. JFK may have predicted his own assassination. What did the bullet sound like?
00:45:37On November 22, 1963, all of the United States came to a standstill with the news that President
00:45:43John F. Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas. Nine years later, two of his closest friends and
00:45:48aides wrote a memoir about JFK titled, Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye. In that book, authors David Powers and
00:45:55Kenneth O'Donnell described the events of that November morning. Jackie Kennedy had seen an
00:46:07anti-JFK ad in a local newspaper that was designed to resemble a funeral notice. It shook her terribly.
00:46:14The President allegedly responded, quote, We're heading into nut country today, but Jackie,
00:46:20if somebody wants to shoot me from a window with a rifle, nobody can stop it, so why worry about it?
00:46:26End quote.
00:46:36Number 23. The Hoover Dam Tragedies
00:46:39The Hoover Dam was one of the greatest American engineering marvels of the 20th century. At the
00:46:44time, it was the largest hydroelectric plant on Earth. Even today, it provides electricity for over
00:46:49one million Americans in three states. Construction took five years, between 1931 and 1936. But plans
00:46:57for the dam began in the early 1920s. It was a massive undertaking, and one that ultimately cost
00:47:03the lives of 112 men. The second death associated with the dam occurred on December 20th, 1922,
00:47:10when surveyor John Gregory Tierney drowned in the Colorado River. The final death occurred exactly
00:47:1613 years later, on December 20th, 1935. The man who died that day was Tierney's son, Patrick.
00:47:24Number 22. Predicting Pearl Harbor
00:47:31Mere weeks leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, a peculiar set of advertisements for a board game
00:47:37ran in the New Yorker that sparked a short-lived conspiracy theory. The ad was for a game called
00:47:43The Deadly Double, and in hindsight, was filled with what seemed to be warnings for the aerial strike.
00:47:49The word warning was written on the promotion itself, and featured an illustration of people
00:47:53playing the dice game in an air raid bunker. Arguably the strangest synchronicity was the numbers
00:47:58on two of those dice being 12 and 7, corresponding to the date of the attack. The theory was investigated,
00:48:06but it was revealed that these ads truly were nothing more than coincidences.
00:48:15Number 21. One man survived both Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
00:48:20I was telling my company supervisor in Nagasaki that one bomb had destroyed all of Hiroshima.
00:48:26He told me I was crazy. Just as he said that…
00:48:31Tutsomu Yamaguchi was a Japanese draftsman for Mitsubishi. In the summer of 1945, he was on an
00:48:37extended business trip to Hiroshima. On August 6th, the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city.
00:48:43Tutsomu Yamaguchi saw the plane fly by and drop the bomb. He was lucky. While he suffered severe burns,
00:48:55he survived in a shelter with colleagues. The next day he returned to his home city,
00:49:00of Nagasaki. Three days after surviving a nuclear bomb, Yamaguchi was at work describing the experience
00:49:07to his boss when the second bomb fell. He was again far enough away from the blast to survive,
00:49:12suffering radiation poisoning with a week-long fever. He died at the age of 93 in 2010.
00:49:19He was in his office with his supervisor and colleagues. And at that moment, the Nagasaki bomb blasted.
00:49:28Many relationships end on a sour note, but they rarely result in the deaths of three people.
00:49:37Legend has it that in the late 19th century, Henry Ziegland broke up with his girlfriend,
00:49:41who killed herself as a result. Her brother hunted Ziegland down and shot him,
00:49:46ending his own life immediately after. Ziegland was not killed by the shot, however. The bullet
00:49:51barely missed him and came to a rest in a nearby tree. Years later, Ziegland attempted to blow up the
00:49:57tree, only to have the blast propel the bullet into his head, killing him.
00:50:02Number 19. The Erdington Murders
00:50:05On May 27th, 1817, the body of a 20-year-old woman named Mary Ashford was found with signs of trauma
00:50:12in the suburb of Erdington in Birmingham, England. The man she'd been out with the previous evening,
00:50:17Abraham Thornton, was deemed the prime suspect. Due to a lack of evidence and a strong alibi,
00:50:22he was ultimately found not guilty, leaving the crime unsolved. Flash forward 157 years to 1974,
00:50:29and Erdington was struck by a nearly identical crime. Another 20-year-old woman was found dead
00:50:34after having gone missing, like Mary Ashford on the Christian holiday Wit Monday. The last person to see
00:50:40her? A man with the same last name, Michael Ian Thornton. He too was found not guilty.
00:50:46Number 18. The Cases of Catherine Eddowes and Mary Kelly
00:50:51On the evening of September 29th in 1888 London, a woman by the name of Catherine Eddowes was taken
00:50:56into custody for being drunk in the streets. The police, however, didn't learn her real identity
00:51:01until after the fact, as she gave them a fake one during her stay in the drunk tank, that of Mary
00:51:06Kelly. If either of those names rings a bell, it's because they both went on to meet the same grisly
00:51:11fate at the hands of Jack the Ripper. Eddowes was killed shortly after being released from custody.
00:51:16She was his second-to-last victim, and one of only two to have her face mutilated.
00:51:21The other was none other than the real Mary Kelly, the Ripper's last known victim.
00:51:25Through DNA, you might be able to satisfy some claims that she's descended or was an ancestor
00:51:32of somebody today. Number 17. The Jim Twins
00:51:36Let's discuss a coincidence that, while nonetheless odd, does have a notably happier ending.
00:51:41Twins James Jim Lewis and James Jim Springer were separated shortly after birth and adopted by
00:51:46different families. They grew up without any contact with one another. When they finally did meet at the
00:51:51age of 39, the similarities between their lives proved downright uncanny.
00:51:56It's like you had something a favorite of yours, and you lost it, and you had to have it,
00:52:02you know? And you finally find it, and it's a good feeling to find that thing. Well, that's
00:52:06what it was with Jim. As children, they both had dogs named Toy, and excelled in math and woodworking.
00:52:11And you like a certain type of woman? Yeah. One we have.
00:52:16As adults, they were both married twice, first to women named Linda, then to women named Betty.
00:52:24When they had sons, they both named them James Allen. They were both smokers,
00:52:29drove Chevys, and even chose to vacation at the same Florida beach.
00:52:40Number 16. The King's Double
00:52:42For protection, many kings used body doubles. Apparently, King Umberto I of Italy came upon
00:52:48his own double by accident. While eating dinner at a small restaurant, Umberto noticed that the
00:52:53restaurant owner was nearly identical in looks to himself. But they soon discovered more
00:52:58similarities. They were both born in the same town on the same day in the same year,
00:53:02they both married a woman named Margarita, and the owner had opened his restaurant on the same day
00:53:07as Umberto was crowned king. Wait, it gets weirder. The day after the pair met, on July 29, 1900,
00:53:13the owner was killed in an accidental shooting. The same day Umberto was assassinated.
00:53:19Number 15. James Dean's Car
00:53:22Actor and icon James Dean died tragically at the tender age of 24.
00:53:27In addition to acting, Dean was passionate about cars to the point that he was contemplating
00:53:37venturing into professional racing. Unfortunately, on September 30, 1955, his dreams were brought to
00:53:43a screeching halt when he got into a fatal accident on his way to a race in his brand new Porsche 550
00:53:47Spyder. As is often the case with celebrity cars, the Spyder and its parts have since changed hands
00:53:53multiple times over. But they seem to bring bad luck to everyone they touch. The car's engine has been
00:53:58involved in a number of subsequent accidents, one fatal, and the drivetrain another. Plus,
00:54:04a building where the car was stored caught fire. Number 14. Two Finnish brothers
00:54:10They say that twins have an incredibly strong bond and often know what the other is thinking,
00:54:14feeling or doing. These two Finnish brothers took that bond to a whole other level in 2002,
00:54:20when both died on the same road in separate accidents within hours of each other. The first
00:54:25brother died when he was hit by a truck while riding his bike. The second brother died two hours
00:54:29later under the exact same circumstances, about one and a half kilometers from the spot where his
00:54:34brother had been killed earlier. Number 13. The Mysterious Monk
00:54:39Frustrated with life and depressed, painter Joseph Eigner attempted to end his life on multiple occasions,
00:54:45once when he was 18 and once when he was 22. But according to Ripley's Believe It or Not,
00:54:50he was stopped both times by the same Capuchin monk. When he was 30, Eigner was sentenced to death for his
00:54:56political activities, but was again saved by the monk, who intervened on his behalf. Eventually,
00:55:02Eigner was successful and killed himself with a pistol when he was 68 years old. The funeral ceremony was
00:55:07conducted by, you guessed it, the exact same Capuchin monk, whose name Eigner had never even learned.
00:55:14Number 12. Falling Baby
00:55:17Raining cats and dogs is one thing, but babies? One day in 1937, Detroit street sweeper Joseph
00:55:24Figlock was hit on the head by a baby who tumbled from a fourth floor window. Fortunately, Figlock broke
00:55:29the baby's fall, and while both were injured, the baby lived. A year later, Figlock was going about his
00:55:34business, sweeping in an alleyway, when another child, this time a two-year-old, fell from the sky.
00:55:40Right on to Figlock. Once again, Figlock unwittingly saved the day. Talk about being in the right place
00:55:45at the right time. Twice. Number 11. A Painting That Predicted Hitler's Evil
00:55:51Before getting involved in politics and becoming one of the greatest monsters in human history,
00:55:55Hitler had aspirations as a painter. Even after abandoning these, however, he remained passionate
00:56:00about the arts, and this painting is said to have been one of his favorites. Painted by Franz von Stuck,
00:56:05an artist Hitler long admired, The Wild Chase is a gloomy and foreboding work that von Stuck just
00:56:11so happened to complete in 1889, the year of Hitler's birth. The painting depicts Wotan,
00:56:17a Germanic god, leading the mythic Wild Hunt followed by an army of the dead. Wotan bears a
00:56:22striking resemblance to Hitler, and many retrospectively see this painting as having
00:56:26predicted his rise to power and bloody legacy. Number 10. The Cannibalized Boy
00:56:32One of the greatest authors of the 19th century, Edgar Allan Poe, wrote a book titled The Narrative
00:56:37of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. The book depicted four shipwreck survivors who eventually killed and
00:56:42ate a boy named Richard Parker. Several years after the publication of Poe's story, a yacht called the
00:56:48Minionette sank and left four survivors stranded at sea. The three older survivors eventually killed
00:56:53and ate the cabin boy, whose name was Richard Parker. Number 9. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams
00:57:01John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were two of the most important players in the founding of the United
00:57:05States. Both played a large role in the creation and signing of the Declaration of Independence,
00:57:09which was eventually approved on July 4, 1776. Although their relationship deteriorated over the years,
00:57:16they eventually reconciled and oddly died on the exact same day. That day, July 4, 1826,
00:57:24exactly 50 years after the signing of the Declaration. Number 8. Aztec prediction of Cortes
00:57:32In the early 16th century, the Aztec empire was at the peak of its prosperity under Monte
00:57:37Cusoma II. In 1519, however, an ancient and deadly prophecy seemingly came true, bringing unimaginable
00:57:44destruction to this awe-inspiring civilization. According to local legend, Quetzalcoatl, described as being
00:57:50bearded and of white skin, would one day return from his travels to once again stake his claim
00:57:56over the Aztec people. The predicted date on the Mayan calendar just so happened to coincide
00:58:00with the year when the Spanish conquistadors arrived, led by the bearded and white-skinned
00:58:05Hernan Cortes. Number 7. The 27 Club The 27 Club refers to a group of famous people,
00:58:12mainly musicians, who have died at the age of 27. It started in the late 1960s when Rolling Stone
00:58:18Brian Jones, Doors frontman Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix all died at this age.
00:58:24Two and a half decades later, Kurt Cobain took his life at 27, and recently, Amy Winehouse died from
00:58:30substance use disorder issues at the age of 27. Winehouse actually stated years earlier that she
00:58:35was worried about dying at 27. All in all, the club has claimed over 60 artists, musicians, and
00:58:41actors since the start of the 20th century. Number 6. Mark Twain and Halley's Comet
00:58:47Mark Twain was born on November 30th, 1835, just two weeks after Halley's Comet was visible on Earth.
00:58:54Twain, who was the author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
00:58:58seemed to strongly associate with this celestial event. In fact, he famously declared,
00:59:02quote, I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go
00:59:08out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet.
00:59:13The Almighty has said no doubt, now here are these two unaccountable freaks. They came in together,
00:59:19they must go out together. He died on April 21st, 1910, one day after the comet had returned.
00:59:26Number 5. Violet Jessup, also known as Miss Unsinkable
00:59:31This Irish-Argentine stewardess had a knack for being at the wrong place at the wrong time,
00:59:36but somehow emerging unscathed. Violet Jessup was working aboard the RMS Olympic when it collided
00:59:42with British warship HMS Hawk in 1911. The Olympic had to limp back to port. However, this was just a
00:59:48taste of things to come. Jessup was also aboard the Titanic when it sank in 1912, and the HMHS Britannic,
00:59:55which sank in 1916 due to a sudden explosion, which was later revealed to have been a mine.
01:00:00This earned Jessup the nickname Miss Unsinkable. We're thinking that with her luck, she was either
01:00:05the best person to stay close to aboard a ship, or maybe a reason to change ships entirely.
01:00:10Number 4. A License Plate That Predicted World War I
01:00:14As most historians agree, the first world war, which would go on to last four years and claim
01:00:19the lives of millions. All began with the death of one man. On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand
01:00:26was killed by Bosnian-Serb-Yugoslav nationalists. War soon followed, drawing in an ever-widening network
01:00:32of allies into what became a global conflict. No one had any clue when or how it would end,
01:00:37with one possible exception, a license plate. When looking for answers, it typically pays to go back to
01:00:43where it all started. Sure enough, the very car in which Franz Ferdinand was murdered contained a
01:00:48prediction. His license plate was A111118, which many retroactively read as Armistice, 11 November 1918.
01:00:59Number 3. Tamerlane's Tomb In June of 1941, Russian anthropologists,
01:01:05led by Mikhail Gerasimov, conducted a dig at the site of the Guryamir. This mausoleum was the final
01:01:10resting place of Tamerlane, a Turko-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire and
01:01:15was thought to be responsible for the death of up to 17 million people as a result of his deadly
01:01:20campaigns. Depending on who you ask, however, he may have upped the body count post-mortem.
01:01:25Inside his casket, the anthropologists reportedly found the inscription,
01:01:29quote, Whomsoever opens my tomb will unleash an invader more terrible than I.
01:01:34They went ahead and opened the tomb anyway, and three days later, Operation Barbarossa began.
01:01:39This Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union was the largest in human history.
01:01:44Number 2. The Titan and the Titanic
01:01:47In 1898, Morgan Robertson published a novella entitled Futility or the Wreck of the Titan.
01:01:53The plot revolved around the HMS Titan, a British luxury liner that hit an iceberg and sank while
01:01:59crossing the northern Atlantic. Of course, in 1912, the Titanic sank in a similar fashion.
01:02:05And that's where things get bizarre.
01:02:06You can be blase about some things for us, but not about Titanic.
01:02:10It's over 100 feet longer than Mort Tanya.
01:02:12Both ships were considered unsinkable. Both hit an iceberg in the month of April,
01:02:16approximately 400 miles from Newfoundland. Both were approximately 800 feet long,
01:02:21and both resulted in the deaths of over 2,000 people. The lack of life jackets and lifeboats was also a
01:02:27serious problem for both ships. Tragically so for the real-life Titanic.
01:02:38Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
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01:02:52Number one, JFK and Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln and JFK were elected to Congress 100 years apart
01:03:01in 1846 and 1946 respectively. They then both became president 14 years later in 1860 and 1960.
01:03:08President Kennedy and Governor John Colony have been cut down by assassins bullets in downtown Dallas.
01:03:13Both were killed by fatal gunshot wounds to the head and succeeded by men named Johnson,
01:03:18who, wouldn't you know it, just so happened to be born 100 years apart. Add to that some other
01:03:23coincidences like them dying on Friday, their family names containing seven letters and the fact that
01:03:27they were both famous for their civil rights efforts, and you've got two presidents cut from an eerily
01:03:32similar cloth. When he says, communism is repugnant to the freedom and dignity of man, is that not Lincoln
01:03:40saying, as I would not be a slave, I would not be a master? Of all the billions of videos out there,
01:03:47you just happened to watch this one. Is it a coincidence? Do you know of any other strange
01:03:51coincidences in history? Let us know in the comments below.
01:03:55Is it possible that there are no coincidences?
01:04:00What else do you think is proof that sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction? Let us know
01:04:06in the comments below.
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