Creepiest Coincidences in History

In 1985, a bone chilling pattern began to emerge in several reports of British housefires. When the smoke had cleared and the house or what was left of it lay charred and ashen, there was often one sole survivor: a creepy old painting of a crying boy. Let's get to the bottom of that spooky mystery and uncover some of histories creepiest coincidences.

Married Couple Photo Coincidence

Back in 2011, Mr. Ye and Ms. Xeu met for the first time and fell in love in Chengdu, China. But 7 years later in 2018, they were digging through old family photos when they found something that left them both speechless! It was a photo of Ms. Xue, which was taken back in 2000 at the May Fourth Square in the seaside city of Qingdao.

Ms. Xue’s mother had taken the pretty photo of her against a large red sculpture, but little did she know she also captured her future husband in the image as well!

On that exact same day, in that exact same moment, Mr. Ye was posing for his own photograph by the sculpture! 11 years later, they would fall in love in a totally different city over 1,600 kilometers away. Turns out love knows no bounds or odds for that matter!

Chris Benoit Coincidence

Chris Benoit was once one of the most recognizable faces in the world of wrestling. But in 2007, he ended his own life, as well as those of his wife and son at his home in Lafayette, Georgia. The shocking event shook the sporting world to its core, but something even creepier was about to drop jaws even further.

14 hours before the bodies were discovered, Benoit’s Wikipedia page was updated to say he'd been having difficulties "stemming from the death of his wife Nancy." The edit was made from an anonymous IP Address in Stamford, Connecticut. Worryingly, that was the same city where Benoit’s employers, the WWE, had their headquarters!

The edit was reversed just under 20 minutes later, as no reliable source for the information was provided. But when the bodies were eventually discovered, the terrifying coincidence couldn’t be ignored. Had someone known what Benoit was planning to do? Or had he been set up to take the blame for this seriously heinous crime?

A few hours later, the anonymous wiki user posted an apology on the WikiNews site insisting it was all a terrible coincidence. They’d heard rumors relating to a ‘family emergency’ of Benoit’s and had jumped to the most disturbing conclusion. And with that, we should all remember never to blindly trust Wikipedia again!

Vampires At A Blood Bank

Ancient tales about vampires have always revolved around the fanged freaks sucking their victims dry. But as the times have changed, it seems like one modern day vampire has figured out that blood services can work as the vampiric equivalent of a 7/11!

Just take a look at the number plate of the car outside an Australian blood service center in the image below. Of course, that happened in Australia, where vampires are the least of your worries!

The Lunar Prophecy & The Fall Of Constantinople

Constantinople, which is now known as Istanbul, was once the proud capital city of the Byzantine empire. It stood gloriously for over 1,100 years with huge, unbreachable walls that reached 40 ft high and stretched a mile around the city’s perimeter.

But in 1453, the fortress city was impossibly conquered by the invading Ottoman empire. It was such a powerful move that it’s repercussions marked the end of the Middle Ages! As startling as the historic take over sounds, it was nothing in comparison to the prophecy that foretold its demise.

Translated from a long standing ancient Greek prophecy, it was predicted that “Constantinople would always endure provided that the moon, in its full circle, did not give a sign in the sky.” Surprisingly, on May 22, 1453, a lunar eclipse partially blocked out the moon during the invasion!

In fact, the moon had been central to Byzantine culture for over 1,123 years. So, that must have felt like more than just a terrifying coincidence for those trapped behind the city walls!

Joan Of Arc & The Merlin Prophecy

1420 was not a great year for the kingdom of France. Queen Isabeau had just signed the Treaty of Troye, granting French succession to English royalty. It cost her a lot of popularity, so much so that a prophecy began circulating which read, “what had been lost by a woman would be saved by a woman”.

And that woman would turn out to be none other than Joan of Arc! That fate-fulfilling femme took to the battlefield and led France to victory, reversing almost a century of French defeats from the English in just one year! As fictional as that may sound, it gets even stranger.

Historians claim the prophecy came from Merlin, the wizard from Arthurian legend. While it’s debated whether or not that so called wizard ever existed, his supposed prophecies were recorded in manuscripts around 1140.

Before you start wondering what kind of magic mushrooms those historians have been growing on their books, archives show that the prophecy is repeatedly mentioned in Joan of Arc’s trial.

So, to summarize; by total coincidence, a made up English magician is credited with prophesizing that all of France would be saved by a lady, almost 300 years before it happened.

The JFK Prediction

It seems like there are more conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination of President John F Kennedy than there are tin-foil hats to go around. That said, there is one coincidence that can’t be disputed, because it came from the lips of Kennedy himself.

After arriving in Dallas on November 22nd, 1963, the Kennedys opened the Dallas Morning News to find a full page, anti-Kennedy advert. Bordered in black, it ominously resembled a funeral notice.

It rattled the First Lady, Jackie Kennedy, so much that JFK tried to calm her with what would later become a prophetic phrase: “We're entering nut country today. But, Jackie, if somebody wants to shoot me from a window with a rifle, nobody can stop it, so why worry about it?"

He didn’t know how right he was. At 12:30 pm, as the presidential car turned off the main street, the President took a bullet to the neck and head. He was driven straight to a nearby hospital, but as he had tragically foretold, there was nothing that could be done.

The Payphone Coincidence

One day back in 1992, AA repairman Jason Pegler was walking home from work in Dover. Suddenly, a payphone on the side of the road began ringing. He hesitantly answered the call, only to find his colleague Sue Hamilton on the other end. Without skipping a beat, she apologized for bothering him and asked if he knew how to work the office fax machine.

Utterly baffled by the situation, Jason struggled to explain what had happened when Sue looked down and realized she hadn’t rung his phone number, she’d rung his staff number! By incalculable luck, the number coincided with that of the payphone Jason was walking past!

Although the story has turned up online throughout the years, there’s no concrete proof that props up its legitimacy. It seems like in some cases those stories get told and re-told until they become nothing but urban myths. What do you make of the payphone coincidence: real, or phony?

The Hope Diamond Mystery

At 45.52 carats, the blue tinged Hope Diamond is about the size of a walnut, and its value is estimated at a bank-busting $250 million. But the number on the price tag isn’t the only thing its previous owners have paid for it! It has a twisted history associated with the ruin and doom of its many owners, with some even claiming that it’s cursed!

Legend has it that after being unearthed in India, it was stolen from a temple by a Hindu priest who was sentenced to a long and painful demise. It was then shipped to a French merchant who was mauled to death by a pack of wild dogs, but not before he sold the sadistic stone on to King Louis the 14th of France! It remained in the royal family until the French revolution saw its owners, Louis the 16th and Marie Antoinette, brutally beheaded in 1793!

By 1839, it was in the possession of Henry Phillip Hope, from whom it gets its name, but the supposed curse claimed another victim and he died that same year. It was passed down through his family to Lord Francis Hope, but his addiction to gambling and high spending forced him to sell the diamond on.

Its next owner, Evalyn McLean, bought the stone for $180,000 in 1911 and claimed she didn’t care about the rumors of bad luck the gem could bring. But over the years, the curse was credited for taking the lives of her son, daughter, and husband as well!

After her own death, the gem was sold to settle huge debts in her estate. Finally, in 1958, the jeopardous gem was given to the Smithsonian institute, ending the supposed curse for good.

The Curse Of Bruce Lee

Aside from being one of the most badass humans alive, Bruce Lee was a martial arts instructor, director, actor, and all-round high kicking legend. But at just 32 years old, Bruce suffered from a cerebral oedema during the making of his final film ‘Game of Death’ and died shortly after.

What nobody knew at the time was that that fateful film would also link to the death of his son, Brandon Lee, just 20 years later. The film is famous among martial arts fans and contains a scene with a stuntman showing actors how to use prop guns.

Fake Bruce Lee - Game of Death fight scene by Pineal Gland

Following in his father’s footsteps, Brandon stepped into the world of acting and took a leading role in the film The Crow. During a shootout scene, Lee was struck by the fragment of a dummy bullet that had been lodged in the barrel!

As the blank was fired, it propelled the real bullet into his side. The wound was fatal, but it could have been avoided if they’d followed the advice in his father’s final film. Even in death, you should always listen to your parents!

The Twin Tragedy Of Hamilton

On July 18, 1975, tragedy in the form of a taxi struck 17 year old Erskine Ebbin as he was riding his moped down a road in Hamilton, Bermuda. The impact sadly killed the young man, but some spooky circumstances came to light shortly after the accident.

Almost exactly a year before, Erskine’s brother Neville had been riding down the same road on the same moped when he too was struck and killed by a car. But not just any car, both brothers had collided with the very same taxi, driven by the same man, and according to the boy’s father it was even carrying the very same passenger!

You’re probably thinking that that has to be made up, because the odds of that scenario repeating itself seem impossible at best! Well, seeing as the little island of Bermuda only had a small population of about 12,000 back then, the improbability of such an event happening isn’t as big as you might think. But to add a cherry to the top of that incredibly coincidence filled treat, the boys were also both 17! Is that just coincidence, or a glitch in the matrix?

Tsutomu Yamaguchi: The Man Who Survived Two Atomic Bombs

Tsutomu Yamaguchi might just be the luckiest man to ever walk the Earth. On August 6th, 1945 Yamaguchi was on a business trip to Hiroshima. If you ever paid attention in history class, then you’ll know that’s when and where America dropped the first atom bomb on Japan.

It killed between 60,000-80,000 people in the blink of an eye, but Yamaguchi miraculously survived! He wasn’t unscathed though; His upper body was badly burned from the intensity of the blast, yet he managed to return home a few days later. But his home was in Nagasaki.

On August 9th, just three days after Hiroshima, America dropped another atomic bomb on Japan, in the city of Nagasaki. It wiped a further 40,000 people off the face of the earth instantly, but despite the odds Yamaguchi survived once again! He’s one of the only people to have ever survived two atomic bomb blasts and lived to tell the hideously coincidental tale.

Blind Boy Finds A Four Leaf Clover

The odds of you finding a four leaf clover are approximately 1 in 10,000. So, what do you think the odds are of finding one when you can’t even see? As impossible as it sounds, reddit user Uncledude’s blind son shows that the odds were definitely in his favor.

He was born with bilateral microphthalmia, a condition that affects the development of the eyes. About 3% of America’s 74.1 million children suffering from some form of blindness. And that means the odds of a blind child finding a four leaf clover in America is roughly 1 in 247 billion! That’s what you call blind luck.

Jefferson & Adams Died On The Same July 4th

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were both involved in the drafting of one of the most important documents in American history the Declaration of Independence. Those two founding fathers were some of the most prominent statesmen of America’s revolutionary generation.

By signing the declaration on July 4th, 1776, they announced the separation of 13 North American British Colonies from Great Britain, and the U S of A was born!

But exactly 50 years after the declaration was signed, on July 4th, 1826, Adams passed away. The final words he ever uttered were “Thomas Jefferson still survives”, but he was wrong! Just five hours earlier, Jefferson had also passed away! As well as being an incredible coincidence, those might just be the most patriotic deaths in history.

The Blue Eyes Of American Presidents

Of the 45 Presidents that have led the United States up till now, can you take a guess at how many have had brown eyes? Seeing as approximately 45% of Americans have brown eyes, you’d expect it to be something like 20 or even 15 at least, right?

In fact, only 6 presidents have taken baby browns into the oval office. As strange as it sounds, about 70% of them have had blue eyes! And as far as an explanation goes, psychological experiments indicate that we actually perceive brown eyed people to be more trustworthy than their blue-eyed counterparts!

But it’s not the only unbelievable presidential coincidence. 8 of all the presidents have also been left handed! But since the end of World War II almost half of the 13 US presidents have been left handed, despite statistics showing that just 10% of the American population are lefty led! In 2019, scientists from Oxford University found a genetic link to left handedness that may gift lefties with better verbal skills as a result. That’s a pretty important presidential skill!

Lucky Car Coincidence

It’s safe to say that the owner of the car in the image below might just be the luckiest driver in the world.

During the terrifying conditions of Hurricane Dujuan back in 2016, parts of Taiwan were at the mercy of horrifically high winds reaching 135 miles per hour. They were so powerful that they managed to uproot a huge tree, but thankfully the bend at its top meant that even when it fell, it avoided crushing the car parked beneath it!

Immortal Putin Theory

Vladimir Putin is many things: an avid outdoors man, a martial arts fan, a motorcycle fanatic, and he manages to fit all of that in between running a country and hacking into countless others! Where does he find the time? It turns out he might just be immortal!

Pictures of Russian soldiers from 1920 and 1941 have surfaced looking surprisingly like the leader of Mother Russia.

Just take a look at the painting below of 19th century Greek General Thanassoulas Valtinos. Look familiar?

And what about this from 15th Century Dutch Painter Jan Van Eyck? The resemblance is ghostlike, although that might just be the skin tone! So, either Putin just has "one of those faces" or he’s an immortal miscreant who’s been popping up over the centuries!

A II II 18: Franz Ferdinand's Prophetic Car Plate

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand didn’t just trigger a war, it was also bizarrely linked to its end! Heir to the Austro-Hungarian Throne, the archduke was visiting Bosnia to oversee military exercises when his car was attacked by Serbian nationalists.

Seven of those young men had bombs strapped to their bodies and loaded revolvers, but their extensive plan of attack failed, and the archduke got away safely. But his fate couldn’t be avoided.

The driver took a wrong turn and placed them in the path of Gavrilo Princip, another Serbian nationalist who had been waiting on the wrong road after popping out to grab a sandwich for lunch! The misplaced assassin realized his unbelievable fortune, and fired two perfectly lethal shots, killing the archduke, and pushing the continent into the first world war.

But unbeknownst at the time, there was hope hidden on the number plate of the car. It read as ‘A III 118’. When written as a date, 11/11/18, it refers to Armistice day, the date the war officially ended!

The Curse Of The Crying Boy

The 1980s was characterized by plenty of questionable aesthetics, but one of the lesser known fashionable faux-pas of the era was the "Crying Boy" portrait. Originally painted by Giovanni Bragolin, those portraits of dejected looking urchins were mass printed and widely available from the 1950s to the 1970s.

But in September 1985, British tabloid The Sun began reporting on a creepy coincidence that swept the nation. Housefires that reduced many homes to ashes had only one survivor, the crying boy paintings. Amidst the ashes, it was reported that the portraits were completely unscathed, some weren’t even blackened by the smoke!

That led to widespread speculation that the paintings were jinxed and actually caused the fires, even though most had normal causes, like cigarettes and deep fat fryers. But the coincidence whipped the public up into a frenzy, and many people sent their own cursed prints off to be destroyed in mass bonfires!

After the air was cleared of the ensuing hysteria, comedic investigator Steve Punt took a more scientific approach to the coincidental curse. In an experiment, he tried to burn one of the printed paintings, and concluded that the prints actually used a varnish that contained a fire retardant.

He also theorized that in many cases the string holding the painting up had burned first, dropping it face down and protecting it from most of the fire damage. As obvious as it may sound, The Sun probably thought that a rational headline wouldn't sell many copies!

If you were amazed at these creepy coincidences, you might want to read about bizarre historical coincidences. Thanks for reading!