COINCIDENCE?

Webster's Dictionary describes the word coincidence as, 'a meeting of events in time.'  Do you believe in coincidences?

I guess the old axiom which says, 'what was meant to be, will be,' would pretty much apply to this category of thought.

The fact that coincidence is often stranger than fiction, offers each of us the chance to enjoy a really good - coincidence.  Here are some unusual, well documented, coincidences which have tickled my thoughts:

An assassin named Claude Volbonne murdered Baron Rodemire de Tarazone of France, in 1872.  Twenty-one years earlier the Baron's father had also been murdered - by a Claude Volbonne.  The two assassins were not even related.  Coincidence?

Franz Richter, a 19 year old volunteer in the Austrian Transportation Corps in WWI, was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia.

In the same hospital was another 19 year old patient named Franz Richter, also suffering from pneumonia.  Both men had been born in Silesia but they were not related.  Coincidence?

Three Englishmen traveling by train in Peru in the 1920's, found themselves to be the only occupants of their passenger car.

They discovered after introductions that, one's first name was Bingham, the second had a first name of Powell, the third man's full name was Bingham Powell.  Coincidence?

A man riding a moped was killed by a taxi in Bermuda in 1975, exactly one year after his brother had been killed, on the same spot, by the same taxi driver, carrying the same passenger, and riding the same moped.  Coincidence?

An ornate clock belonging to King Louis XIV of France, stopped at the precise moment of his death, 7:45 a.m. on September 1, 1715, and has never run since.  Coincidence?

Of course, the astonishing parallels surrounding the assassinations of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John Kennedy, continue to perplex us to this very day. For example:

a. Lincoln was elected president in 1860. Exactly 100 years later, in 1960, Kennedy was elected president.

b. Both presidents were deeply involved in civil rights for Negroes.

c. Both men were assassinated on a Friday, both in the presence of their wives.

d. Each wife had lost a son while living at the White House.

e. Both men were killed by a bullet that entered the head from behind.

f. Lincoln was killed in Ford's Theater.  Kennedy met his death while riding in a Lincoln made by the Ford Motor Company.

g. Both men were succeeded by vice-presidents named Johnson who were both southern Democrats and both former senators.

h. Andrew Johnson was born in 1808.  Lyndon Johnson was born in 1908, 100 years later.

i. The first name of Lincoln's private secretary was John, the last name of Kennedy's private secretary was Lincoln.

j. John Wilkes Booth was born in 1839.  Lee Harvey Oswald was born in 1939, 100 years later.

k. Both assassins were southerners who held extremist views.

l. Both assassins were murdered before they could be brought to trial.

m. Booth shot Lincoln in a theater and fled to a barn.  Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and fled to a theater.

n. Lincoln and Kennedy each has seven letters.

o. Andrew Johnson and Lyndon Johnson each have 13 letters.

p. John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald each have 15 letters.

In addition, the first public proposal that Lincoln be selected as Republican candidate for President, also endorsed a John Kennedy for vice president. (John P. Kennedy-a former secretary of the navy).
Coincidence?  You be the judge!