20 Weird Coincidences That Are Guaranteed To Give You Chills

One UK couple managed to vacation during three separate terrorist attacks

What’s the worst thing you can imagine happening to you while you’re on vacation? Having all your luggage lost, maybe, or coming down with some exotic sort of stomach bug? One British couple puts all your vacation nightmares to shame.

According to The Telegraph India, it started when Jason and Jenny Cairns-Lawrence were vacationing in New York City on September 11, 2001. You recognize the date, of course, as the day of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. They weren’t among the thousands of casualties, but when it came time to pick their next vacation, they decided to stay a little closer to their Birmingham, England home. They chose London, and on July 7, 2005, they were in the nation’s capital when four suicide bombers killed dozens and injured hundreds of people on the London Underground.

Then, in 2008, they were faced with making a vacation choice again. They headed to Mumbai… and they were staying in the Colaba area when terrorists attacked the city on November 26, killing almost 180 people. In a horrible series of coincidences, the Cairns-Lawrence managed to have front row seats in three of the world’s worst terrorist attacks in recent history, and gave first-hand reports of the fear — and resilience — they saw in each scene. It’s a terrifying, 21st-century reality that no one wants to face, but they did. Three times.

Edwin Booth saves Robert Todd Lincoln

Everyone knows what ultimately happened to Abraham Lincoln. (We’re referring to his assassination by John Wilkes Booth, just to be clear.) But the Lincoln family and the Booth family overlapped in other, strange ways.

About a year before Abraham Lincoln was shot, his son Robert Todd Lincoln was standing on a crowded train platform in Jersey City. According to The New York Times, Robert fell in front of an approaching train and would have died had a man not grabbed him and hauled him to safety. When he turned to look, he recognized the man as actor Edwin Booth. The Times quotes Lincoln as writing, “I expressed my gratitude to him, and in doing so, called him by name.”

Booth, however, didn’t recognize the president’s son. It was only later that he received a letter from a friend who was serving alongside Robert, telling Booth he’d saved the life of the younger Lincoln. That letter came from Colonel Adam Badeau. Of course, Badeau almost wasn’t around to send that letter, as he’d nearly died in the middle of the anti-draft riots that had swept across New York in 1863. The man who saved his life? John Wilkes Booth.

The sinking of the Lawson

Don’t recognize Thomas W. Lawson’s name? You probably shouldn’t, but now you’ll think of him every time Friday the 13th rolls around.

According to LiveScience, Thomas W. Lawson was a British stockbroker, and in 1907 he published a book called Friday the Thirteenth. It’s the story of (surprise) a stockbroker who tries to make the entire market crash on (also surprise) Friday the 13th. It was a big deal at the time. Pretty straightforward, right?

His book was published five years after the construction of a schooner named the Thomas W. Lawson (after a different guy), and the ship spent some time sailing the U.S. coasts. It wasn’t until after she was re-outfitted that she made her first transatlantic voyage. According to Ocean Navigator, she sank on Hellweather Reef (shudder) off England’s Scilly Islands, claiming the lives of 17 people. The date? Friday, December 13, 1907.

Life magazine’s beginning and end

Life is one of the most iconic magazines of the 20th century, and its covers feature plenty of defining moments. There’s a less well-known photo that seems to have defined the life of one man in particular: George Story.

According to David E. Sumner, a journalism professor at Ball State University, the very first issue of Life hit the stands on November 23, 1936. There was a photo of Montana’s Fort Peck Dam on the front, and on the inside, the very first photo was of a baby being cradled in a doctor’s hands. That baby was George Story, and the caption read, “Life begins.”

The story went on to become a journalist, but that’s not the big coincidence here. On April 4, 2000, Life announced it was ceasing publication. With the announcement of the end of Life also came the end of Story’s life — he died only a few days later of heart failure at age 63.

A tornado saves the Capitol from being burned

Schools teach you all kinds of things about the American Revolution, but they seem to sort of gloss over the War of 1812 en route to the Civil War. That’s a shame because something strange happened as the British marched on Washington, D.C., and it’s some serious hand-of-God stuff.

It was August 25, 1814. The British were marching on Washington, President James Madison and wife Dolley were getting ready to leave town, and the fast-approaching soldiers were getting their torches ready. According to The Smithsonian, the day was insanely hot, with temperatures reaching 100 degrees. By the time the British started setting fires, it was even hotter on the streets of the young city. Things were going badly, but that’s when the tornado hit. It formed right in the middle of the city, hitting British troops on their way to Capitol Hill, killing countless men, and tossing cannons aside like toys.

The tornado brought a thunderstorm that lasted for a few hours and put out all the fires the British had started. Not only did the storm halt a lot of the damage that could have been done, but British forces abandoned the city after only 26 hours. Coincidence or a divine hand?

Source: grunge.com

Share your thoughts with us!