30 of the Craziest Coincidences Throughout History

‘During the construction of the Hoover Dam in Nevada, the first and last deaths of workers were a father and son’
30 of the Craziest Coincidences Throughout History
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Budding conspiracy theorists, do I have a collection of facts for you. If the uncertainty of true randomness makes your head hurt to think about, so you’d rather insert aliens or weather machines? Every single one of the examples below is ripe for a tale to be attached.

Redditors shared some of the craziest coincidences in history, and if you’re predisposed to tinfoil headwear, you’re about to be eating good. Never mind the fact that we’re talking a couple dozen over the course of, well, the entire span of humanity. 

Jot these down to fire off the next time you find yourself passing a bong, followed by a sinister, whispered “makes you think, man.”

S 11y ago Pizarro's conquest of the Incan empire. Не happened to launch his campaign right after an incredibly bloody civil war, right after smallpox had worked it's way down and decimated the Incan population, marched hundreds of miles through Incan territory while they looked at him stupidly, and captured the emperor who inexplicably left himself defenseless. If any of those things don't happen the entire history of the new world is different.
Frost640 11y ago http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet Jessop She survived the sinking of the Titanic and it's sister ship the Britannic. As well as being on- board the Olympic (the other sister ship) when it crashed into it's escort cruiser.
PGXHC 11y ago Hitler could have died multiple times. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Tandey), was shot and wounded by a gunner as well. In a political rally before the Nazi party took power, the man standing beside Hitler was shot. Не survived a number of assassination attempts including the most famous Operation Valkyrie where Hitler was merely in the wrong place. So yeah, history could have been greatly changed by a few people, or if Hitler had moved a couple of inches in a different direction.
alan_gonzalez04 . 11y ago Not a historian, but a high school student. Napolean Bonaparte declared to invade Russia on June 22, 1812. While Hitler invaded Russia on June 22, 1941 and you know how that ended.
Wzup 11y ago John of Plano Carpini (Giovanni da Pian del Carpine) was sent by Pope Innocent IV to make contact with the Mongols (Tartars) that were sweeping west. It just so happened that when he reached Russia, and made contact with Batu (a grandson, possibly illegitimate, of Genghis Khan) a Kurultai for Güyük was going on. The Kurultai was the coronation ceremony of a new Khan. John was rushed 3000 miles to the royal camp Sira Orda in order to witness the ceremony. John gives the oldest account of the Mongols, and attempted to chronicle their existence. If he
11y ago When Cortes landed in Mexico he was greated as a god. It had be prophocied for a long time before hand that the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl would return from his quest on the Atlantic in that year. It also helped that Cortes fit the description of this Quetzalcoatl. Tall pale and with a big beard. Не took advantage of this and tried to prove his godlines to them so that he could be taken to meet Moctezuma. Being a ship captain he and his crew were familiar with astronomy. They knew there was going to be a
ronm4c 11y ago John P. O'Neil was an FBI agent who specialized in terrorism, he investigated the WTC bombing back in 1993. Не also worked on the US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, as well as the bombing of the USS Cole. Не was focused on Al-Queada and Osama Bin Laden back in the late 1990's and was steps away from identifying 2 of the 9/11 hijackers. Unfortunately a few procedural slip ups and a few too many toes stepped on, and he was essentially forced into retirement early 2001. In august 2001 he started his new job as
keilwerthdog 11y ago Edited 11y ago before the battle of Antietam (US civil war) a few union troops lit up some cigars they had found discarded in a confederate camp. a sergeant was about to discard the wrapper when he noticed some writing on it- The paper was Confederate marching orders, written in the hand of Robert Lee's adjutant General. the paper was passed up the ranks, to Gen. McClellan, who had been completely mystified by Lee's troop movements until that moment. McClellan still wasn't able to defeat the rebels there, but without the found plans, the rebels most certainly
Enchilada McMustang 11y ago Shakespeare and Cervantes died one day away April 22 and April 23 1616. If you consider that these 2 are widely considered the most important writers of all time, statistically it is a huge coincidence.
EetrOBrainz 11y ago The coincidence involved in the Sun and the Moon being almost -exactly- the same size... to a ridiculous tolerance... is astounding. Beyond astounding, really. It's pretty much impossible. ... Consider that the sun is a significantly greater distance away from the moon, yet they are similarly proportioned enough to make an eclipse possible.
Somesortofthing 11y ago The entire life of Timothy Dexter. A man who was completely uneducated, he managed to make a fortune by making a series of horrible business decisions that, due to luck, turned out to be extremely profitable. The man made the stupidest decisions possible (including a number suggested by hated enemies) and every one of them came out as a profit.
aspirations27 11y ago Not sure if this is considered history, but Dream Theater released a live album on September 11th, 2001 with an image of the World Trade Center on fire. It was quickly pulled off the shelves, but a bunch of people still managed to get copies.
CapitanoMal . 11y ago Not a historian just a junkie, but during the construction of the Hoover Dam in Nevada, the first and last deaths of workers were a father and son.
ksiyoto . 11y ago The great Chicago Fire the Peshtigo Fire, the Great Michigan Fire and the Port Huron Fire happened on the same night. More people died in Peshtigo, but we never hear about it.
TheMobHasSpoken 11y ago This is a fairly minor one, but it's interesting: the first issue of Life Magazine featured a picture of a newborn baby named (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George Story), with the caption Life Begins underneath. When the magazine was publishing its last issue, 63 years later, they decided to put George Story on the cover with the caption Life Ends. Не died of a heart attack the same week the issue hit the stands.
BarbarianSpaceOpera 11y ago Edited 11y ago Not really historic but something that we wouldn't be able to have modern society without. The fact that concrete and steel (two of the most commonly used and available construction materials) both have almost exactly the same thermal expansion characteristics. Without this very awesome coincidence most modern feats of civil engineering would not be possible because the concrete and rebar would expand at different rates when warmed by the sun and the heat given off by the concrete as it cures. This would cause the structure to slowly break itself apart from the inside
VPoro 11y ago The story of Tsutomu Yamaguchi ( ( http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu Yamag uchi). Не was a guy living in Nagasaki and was on a three month work trip to Hiroshima. On the day the bomb fell, he was already ready to leave the town, but forgot his travel stamp and went back to get it - and got caught by the atomic bomb explosion. Miraculously, he survived, and returned home the next day. Не then reported back to work at his hometown Nagasaki, and got caught in a second atomic bomb explosion and survived that too...
Equinoqs . 11y ago In the year 1910, in the state of Ohio, there were only 2 registered automobiles...and they hit each other.
11y ago Also, it's kind of crazy how often famous people found themselves involved in important moments in history even before they were famous. Off the top of my head, I can think of Johnny Cash being the first American to know of Stalin's death as he was a radio officer in Germany at the time.
way fairer 11y ago J.J. Thomson won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1906) for showing that the electron is a particle. His son, George Paget Thomson, won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1937) for showing that the electron is a wave.
11y ago Edited 11y ago The founder of the Timurid dynasty and Mongol warlord Emir Timur's burial site was found by the Soviet Union in 1941. In his tomb, it was stated that Who ever opens my tomb, shall unleash an invader more terrible than I. What happened that exact day? Adolf Hitler declared war on the Soviet Union. This coincidence terrified the Soviets so much that they ended up reburying him and in accordance to Islamic tradition even (remember: the Soviet Union was majority Christian and Atheist; this was prior to the implication of State Atheism). Soon after,
. 11y ago Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on the same day, which just happened to be July 4, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Americans at the time interpreted this as a sign from God.
Francetto 11y ago In German history, the 9th November it's the most iconic day: 1918: proclamation of the German republic during the November revolution 1923: Hitler Ludendorff putsch - non successful try of the Nazis to gain the power in Germany. One of the most (in)famous events in the Weimar republic 1938: Reichskristallnacht: the most organized pogroms in the whole German Reich on one single day. Thousands of synagogues, shops, companies, etc have been destroyed 1989: fall of the Berlin wall
Ghost_Brain . 11y ago e Edited 11y ago Mark Twain was born when Halley's comet came past, and died when it came by again. 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.-Mark Twain quote.
MorteDaSopra 0 11y ago Edited 11y ago In Monza, Italy, King Umberto I, went to a small restaurant for dinner, accompanied by his aide- de-camp, General Emilio Ponzia-Vaglia. When the owner took King Umberto's order, the King noticed that he and the restaurant owner were virtual doubles, in face and in build. Both men began discussing the striking resemblances between each other and found many more similarities. Both men were born on the same day, of the same year, (March 14th, 1844). Both men had been born in the same town. Both men married a woman with same name, Margherita.
. 11y ago Edited 11y ago I'm not a historian but this one has always stuck with me. Lewis and Clark were using Sacagawea as an interpreter with the native people as they traveled west. Before they crossed the Rocky Mountains they had to secure horses for their journey across in order to survive. The local Indian tribe didn't trust Lewis and Clark and believed they might be a war party. As Sacagawea was interpreting and talking with the Indian chief and getting no where .... she suddenly realizes that the chief is actually her long lost brother and
titaniccyanide C 11y ago Russian spies used hollow coins to communicate in the US during the Cold War. A spy accidentally used one of the coins as currency and gave it to a paper boy who saw a coded message when it split open after he dropped it. After turning it in to authorities, there were many failed attempts to crack the code, which remained sound until a Russian spy defected and decoded the message, which turned out to be a Welcome to America, this is how our operations work message from Russia, meant for the same guy that decoded
pjabrony . 11y ago Twice in seven years, the Mongols would have almost certainly conquered Japan, but each time the invading fleet was turned back by a typhoon.
. 11y ago Edited 11y ago In 1835 an unemployed house painter named Richard Lawrence tried to assassinate then President of the USA Andrew Jackson. Не produced a pistol and fired at Jackson, but the gun did not go off. A scuffle ensued, with the 67 year old Jackson beating the offender with his walking cane. Lawrence then pulled out a second pistol and fired, but this gun also did not go off and bystanders wrestled him to the ground. Both guns were later test fired successfully on the first try and appeared to be in fine working condition.
InvestingCorn 11y ago Robert Todd Lincoln, the son of Abraham Lincoln, was obviously with his father when he passed away. But he also, coincidentally enough, was an eyewitness to the assassination of President James. A Garfield in 1881. Не was Garfield's Secretary of War. 20 years later, in 1901, Robert Todd Lincoln was at the Pan- American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, at the invitation of then President William McKinley. And guess what? William McKinley was assassinated that day. After this event, Robert Todd Lincoln turned down any future invitations by Presidents to events, fearing that his association lead to

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