Strange coincidences!

Darksaga87

What are the chances?

In July 1975, newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic reported the death of 17-year-old Erskine Lawrence Ebbin, a young man who had been struck by a taxi while driving a moped in Hamilton, Bermuda. While unfortunate, his death wasn’t terribly notable—except for the fact that the previous year his brother was killed at the same intersection. And he, too, happened to be driving a moped—the same moped.

But mopeds are dangerous vehicles, right? And this was otherwise a terrible coincidence, right? Wrong. That’s not even the half of it. It turns out that it was the same taxi, with the same driver—and carrying the same passenger—that killed his brother Neville the previous year.


http://www.twortw.com/2010/10/13/rare-coincidences-are-very-common-on-the-road/

saintsaltynuts

Reminds me of the start of the film Magnolia.Its freaky alright but sh1t happens.

CMpunked

I have a few others to add:

On February 13, 1746, a Frenchman, Jean Marie Dubarry, was executed for the murder of his father. Precisely 100 years later, on February 13, 1846, another Frenchman, also named Jean Marie Dubarry, was executed - for the murder of his father.


The British actor Anthony Hopkins [who shot to fame as Hannibal Lecter] was delighted to hear that he had landed a leading role in a film based on the book The Girl From Petrovka by George Feifer. A few days after signing the contract, Hopkins travelled to London to buy a copy of the book. He tried several bookshops, but there wasn't one to be had. Waiting at Leicester Square underground for his train home, he noticed a book apparently discarded on a bench. Incredibly, it was The Girl From Petrovka. That in itself would have been coincidence enough but in fact it was merely the beginning of an extraordinary chain of events. Two years later, in the middle of filming in Vienna, Hopkins was visited by George Feifer, the author. Feifer mentioned that he did not have a copy of his own book. He had lent the last one - containing his own annotations - to a friend who had lost it somewhere in London. With mounting astonishment, Hopkins handed Feifer the book he had found. 'Is this the one?' he asked, 'with the notes scribbled in the margins?' It was the same book!


In 1838, future horror-god Edgar Allan Poe released a book called The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, his only full novel. The book was such a bomb that Poe eventually agreed with his critics that it was "a very silly book" (yet still good enough to inspire heavyweights like Jules Verne and Herman Melville to write Moby Dick and An Antarctic Mystery--yes, Poe was a badass).
Poe did a Blair Witch thing with his novel, which claimed to be based on true events. This turned out to be a half-truth: The real life events simply had not happened yet.
One scene in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket visits a whaling ship lost at sea, taking with it all but four crewmen. Out of food, the men drew lots to see who would be eaten, the unfortunate decision landing on a young cabin boy named Richard Parker.
Forty-six years later, there was an actual disaster at sea involving the Mignonette. It became famous due to the legal consequences of some gruesome events on board, specifically the way the men drew lots and decided to eat their cabin boy...

...who was named Richard Parker.

dannydiamond

Nothing strange about coincidences, simply a mathematical certainty that these 'strange' tails will keep on cropping up.

The vast majority you'll find through google will be pure fairytales aswell.

I'm sorry, I'll wear this tshirt for a week as punishment.:P

mlumley

I was in Aldi Clonmel last week. As I was packing my stuf I thought, "Some one is going to ask me how is my photography going". I thought my reply would be"I have given up for now". I got home and a woman was parked outside my house and came up to me and said,"Hows your photography going?". Without thinkig I replied"I have given up for now". Didnt realise till I got indoors.Spookey.:eek:

p to the e

I remember being blown away when I read this. Excerpt taken from: http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/historical/a/lincoln_kennedy.htm

This is very interesting:

Have a history teacher explain this ---- If he or she can...

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.

Both wives lost a child while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.

Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by Southerners.

Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.
Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Ford.'
Kennedy was shot in a car called 'Lincoln.'

Booth ran from the theater and was caught in a warehouse.
Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater.

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

And here's the kicker:

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.

Penn

My favourite:


Michael Dick of the UK had not seen his long-lost daughter Liza for 10 years. Why were they estranged? Your guess is as good as ours. All we know is that Michael went nuts looking for her.

Where it Gets Weird:
After fruitlessly combing the deserts of Sudbury for her, Michael turned to the Suffolk Free Press for help. The newspaper to write a story on the Dick family's predicament and even decided to include a picture of the family to make Liza feel homesick.

So, the family gathered out in the street, and the newspaper photographer snapped their picture. Sure enough, running the picture of the family farm did the trick! Michael Dick and his family were reunited with Liza just a few hours after the paper hit the streets.

Thanks to the tireless work of brave newsies.

Where it Gets Even Weirder:
After taking a good look at the newspaper photo, Liza realized something ...


"Hey, that's me!"

Liza, the long-lost girl whom the man in the above photo had not seen in 10 years, just happened to be walking past in the background when the photo was snapped.

She didn't know they were there, and she didn't know a photo was being taken. After a decade apart, at the moment her family posed for a photo for a newspaper story about how she was missing, she just happened to be standing within 100 feet of them.

She described the experience as "very strange" and said, "Perhaps it was fate." Yeah, call it what you want. We'll leave it at "weird as ****."


It and the Taxi Driver story were on a Cracked.com article

Darksaga87

p to the e wrote: »

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with IN Marilyn Monroe.
[/I]

Fixed that for you.

Mark Hamill

p to the e wrote: »

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

...

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.
[/I]

Most of these are misleading (some aren't really meaningful coincidences and some require colourful definitions to be considered true) or just plain wrong.

kaizersoze

Both my parents were married the same day.....the same day!:eek:

El Guapo!

kaizersoze wrote: »

Both my parents were married the same day.....the same day!:eek:

Mind = Blown :eek:

Spore

CMpunked wrote: »

I have a few others to add:

[...]

...who was named Richard Parker.

http://www.cracked.com/article_18421_6-insane-coincidences-you-wont-believe-actually-happened.html