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Slingshot
09-09-2009, 02:17 PM
In the 19th century, the famous horror writer, Egdar Allan Poe, wrote a book called 'The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym'. It was about four survivors of a shipwreck who were in an open boat for many days before they decided to kill and eat the cabin boy whose name was Richard Parker. Nearly half a century later, in 1884, the yawl, Mignonette, foundered, with only four survivors, who were in an open boat for many days. Eventully the three senior members of the crew, killed and ate the cabin boy. The name of the cabin boy was Richard Parker.


Henry Ziegland thought he had dodged fate. In 1883, he broke off a relationship with his girlfriend who, out of distress, committed suicide. The girl's brother was so enraged that he hunted down Ziegland and shot him. The brother, believing he had killed Ziegland, then turned his gun on himself and took his own life. But Ziegland had not been killed. The bullet, in fact, had only grazed his face and then lodged in a tree. Ziegland surely thought himself a lucky man. Some years later, however, Ziegland decided to cut down the large tree, which still had the bullet in it. The task seemed so formidable that he decided to blow it up with a few sticks of dynamite. The explosion propelled the bullet into Ziegland's head, killing him. (Source: Ripley's Believe It or Not!)


In 1953, television reporter Irv Kupcinet was in London to cover the coronation of Ellizabeth II. In one of the drawers in his room at the Savoy he found found some items that, by their identification, belonged to a man named Harry Hannin. Coincidentally, Harry Hannin - a basketball star with the famed Harlem Globetrotters - was a good friend of Kupcinet's. But the story has yet another twist. Just two days later, and before he could tell Hannin of his lucky discovery, Kupcinet received a letter from Hannin. In the letter, Hannin told Kucinet that while staying at the Hotel Meurice in Paris, he found in a drawer a tie - with Kupcinet's name on it! (Source: Mysteries of the Unexplained)


Here's some more: http://www.dailycognition.com/index.php/2007/05/03/20-most-amazing-coincidences.html

gosensgo101
09-09-2009, 03:40 PM
I love these kinds of things.

Coach Owens
09-09-2009, 04:30 PM
In 1898, American author Morgan Robertson wrote a book called Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan. The events of the book, and the book's ship, bear some striking similarities to the Titanic (which, at the time, hadn't yet been designed) and its disaster. For one, both were the largest ship in the world, the Titan coming in at 800 feet, 80 feet short of the Titanic. They weighed nearly the same (the Titan at 45,000 GRT and the Titanic at 46,328). Both were considered "unsinkable", but both sank in the Atlantic Ocean on an April night by hitting an iceberg. The speed of the Titan was 25 knots, while the speed of the Titanic was 23 knots. The Titan carried 24 lifeboats while the Titanic carried 20. Both had the same top passenger capacity and had nearly the same capacity when they sank. More than half of the passengers on both boats died.