18 Insane Historical Coincidences You Could Have Never Predicted

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1. Napoleon and Hitler were born 129 years apart and came into power 129 years apart. They also both declared war on Russia 129 years apart from one another.

2. George Washington inadvertently started the Seven-Years War. Washington was tapped to talk to the French and the natives around the Ohio river. He was given an order by Governor Dinwiddie to “act on the [defensive], but in Case any Attempts are made to obstruct the Works or interrupt our [settlements] by any Persons whatsoever, You are to restrain all such Offenders, & in Case of resistance to make Prisoners of or kill and destroy them.” In doing so, scholars reason that this was an invitation to start war. The French sent out a party numbering about 50 to ask Washington to leave. Washington countered, with a group of 40 men, surrounded the French camp and fired musket rounds. 10 Frenchmen were killed.

3. Morgan Robertson, best known for his short story, Futility, which featured an enormous British passenger liner called the SS Titan — published in 1898, 14 years before the sinking of the Titanic — also wrote “Beyond the Spectrum,” which details the Japanese launching a sneak attack on the United States. That was written 27 years before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

4. Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy both have seven letters in their last name, were over 6′ feet tall and studied law. They were both shot in the head, on a Friday, were seated beside their wives when shot. Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theatre. Kennedy was shot in a Ford product, a Lincoln limousine.

5. Ahmad Shah Massoud was assassinated on September 9, 2001. Massoud created the United Front to combat the Taliban and was the target of multiple assassination attempts. He is connected to 9/11, as he had warned the European Parliament of a major terrorist attack.

6. The Civil War started and ended at Wilmer McLean’s backyard.

7. Frane Selak was the unluckiest luckiest man alive for a time. He cheated death seven times and ended up winning the lottery.

8. President James A. Garfield died on Monday, September 19, 1881. Garfield the cat hates Mondays.

9. Codenames for the beaches of Normandy appeared on a British crossword puzzle in 1944.

10. The Secret Service was created about a month after Lincoln’s assassination. Lincoln died April 15, 1865 and the Secret Service was created in July 5, 1865.

11. The Lone Gunmen was aired in March 2001, which depicted terrorists hijacking an airliner with the intent to crash it into the World Trade Center.

12. Isaac Newton was born the year Galileo died (1642).

13. Archery in both Asia and Western Europe developed independently from each other.

14. India and Pakistan were at a standoff, on the brink of a nuclear war, when a high-energy explosion occurred just above the Mediterranean Sea. Had this exploded above India or Pakistan, there would’ve been nuclear missiles launched at each other.

15. Tamerlane’s grave had this inscription: “Who ever opens my tomb, shall unleash an invader more terrible than I.” In 1941, Soviet archaeologist Mikhail M. Gerasimov opened Tamerlane’s tomb. Two days later, Adolf Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union. Tamerlane was buried with full Islamic ritual in November 1942, days before the Battle Of Stalingrad.

16. Violet Jessop survived three sinkings of the RMS Titanic and the HMHS Britannic and the RMS Olympic.

17. Tsutomu Yamaguchi survived not only one, but two atomic bombs. He was just about to leave Hiroshima when the first hit, wounding him. The second, hit his hometown of Nagasaki, and Yamaguchi was 3km away from the blast site, but this time, was unhurt.

18. Emile Deschamps was served plum pudding by a stranger named Monsieur de Fontgibu. When Deschamps ordered plum pudding 10 years later in a Paris restaurant, he was told that the last of the pudding was served to a man named de Fontgibu — the same man that had served him ten years ago. In 1832, while dining with friends, Deschamps ordered plum pudding and commented that only de Fontgibu was missing to make the setting complete and a senile de Fontgibu walked into the restaurant.