More favorites from our “freaky” file.
CROSSED PATHS
The year was 1863. A Harvard student was on his way home to visit his parents when he accidentally fell in between two railroad cars at the station in Jersey City, New Jersey. Luckily, the student was rescued…by an actor. What’s the coincidence? The student was Robert Lincoln, heading home to see his father, Abraham Lincoln. The actor was Edwin Booth, whose brother, John Wilkes Booth, would assassinate President Lincoln two years later.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
In 1664, 1785, and 1820, three large ships sank at sea. Each time, only one man survived. Three different shipwrecks. Three different survivors. But they all had one thing in common: they were all named Hugh Williams.
TAXI!
In 1974 a man in Bermuda was riding his moped when he was accidentally killed by a taxi. Exactly one year later, his brother was killed while riding the same moped, on the same street, by the same taxi driver… carrying the same passenger.
The word malaria comes from the Italian mala aria, meaning “bad air.”
When King Louis XIV of France died, so did his royal clock. They both stopped ticking at the same moment—7:45 a.m. on September 1, 1715. Neither has run since.
LOOK OUT BELOW!
Joseph Figlock was walking down the street one day in Detroit, when a baby fell out a window and landed on him. A year later, the same baby fell out of the same window and landed on Joseph again. Luckily, neither of them was seriously hurt—either time.
OH, BROTHER
In March 2002, identical twin brothers, age 71, were killed in Finland in identical bicycle accidents along the same road—two hours apart.
LUCKY NUMBER 7
Anthony S. Clancy of Dublin, Ireland, was born on July 7, 1907. It was the 7th day of the week on the 7th day of the 7th month of the 7th year of the century. Not only that, he was the 7th child of 7 brothers. On his 27th birthday he bet 7 shillings on the 7th horse in the 7th race. The odds of winning were 7 to 1. The horse, 7th Heaven, did not win. It finished—you guessed it—7th!
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“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will land among the stars.”
—Les Brown
The 1972 Apollo 17 mission holds the record for the longest stay on the moon: three days, two hours.