When you think of cursed productions, horror movies usually dominate the conversation. Yet the streaming platform Shudder even dedicated an entire series to the notion of “cursed” films, proving the phenomenon stretches far beyond the genre. In this roundup we’ll explore ten eerie coincidences that bind real‑world misfortunes to both silver‑screen and small‑screen creations, proving that the uncanny can pop up in any corner of entertainment.

From the very first flick ever captured on a single camera to modern blockbusters that seemed to predict disaster, each story below reveals a strange overlap between on‑screen drama and off‑screen reality. Grab some popcorn, keep the lights on, and prepare to be both spooked and fascinated.

10 Roundhay Garden

Our journey begins at the literal birth of motion pictures. In 1888, inventor Louis Le Prince recorded a two‑second clip in his in‑laws’ front yard in Leeds, England. The brief sequence—later called Roundhay Garden—features his mother‑in‑law Sarah Whitely and his son Adolphe strolling and dancing. While the footage itself is a technical marvel, the lives of those captured took a dark turn shortly thereafter.

Within ten days, Sarah Whitely succumbed after collapsing from the heat during the shoot. Two years later, Le Prince vanished mysteriously from a train while traveling to arrange a New York screening—an event that would have marked the first public showing of his invention. Then, eleven years after that, Adolphe met an untimely death while hunting, sparking speculation that Edison may have eliminated a rival. No conclusive proof has ever surfaced, but the chain of tragedy feels eerily cinematic.

9 The Tall Target

Imagine a plot where a police sergeant named John Kennedy must save President Abraham Lincoln from an assassination attempt. That’s the premise of Anthony Mann’s 1951 thriller The Tall Target, starring Dick Powell. The film predates John F. Kennedy’s rise to national prominence, making the name choice seem oddly prescient.

The storyline loosely mirrors the real‑life Baltimore Plot of 1861, when Pinkerton agents uncovered a scheme to kill Lincoln en route to his inauguration. Though no actual Sergeant Kennedy existed, a real‑life figure, H. F. Kenney, helped the Pinkertons. The film’s fictional twist of giving a driver bad directions for safety adds a quirky, almost comedic layer to an otherwise tense historical drama.

8 All My Children

Soap‑opera veteran All My Children aired over 10,700 episodes from 1970 to 2011, providing ample opportunity for on‑screen drama to intersect with real life. In August 1997, a storyline featured Eva LaRue’s character Maria Santos perishing in a plane crash. The plot’s tragic tone was later mirrored by a real‑world close call for LaRue herself.

On September 10, 2001, LaRue was scheduled to fly on American Airlines Flight 11 but postponed her departure due to pregnancy, inadvertently avoiding the World Trade Center attacks. She later tweeted about the narrow escape, noting the experience stripped away her fear. A similar brush with death befell Seth MacFarlane, underscoring how fiction sometimes eerily shadows reality.

7 Poltergeist

Although the list isn’t confined to horror, the 1982 cult classic Poltergeist carries its own grim tally. Shortly after the film’s debut, actress Dominique Dunne, who played teenage Dana, was strangled to death by her boyfriend John Thomas Sweeney in October 1990. The method echoed the on‑screen fate of Robbie, Dana’s younger brother, who was also strangled in the movie.

The tragedy deepened when Heather O’Rourke, the seven‑year‑old star of the series, died at twelve from complications after emergency surgery linked to contaminated well water. Both children were interred in the same cemetery, cementing the unsettling notion of a curse hovering over the Poltergeist franchise.

6 The West Wing

In the final season of Aaron Sorkin’s political drama The West Wing, the character Leo McGarry—an advisor to President Josiah Bartlett—suffers two heart attacks, the second of which proves fatal. The actor portraying McGarry, John Spencer, died in real life before the episode aired, meaning his on‑screen demise was eerily prescient.

Spencer was 58 at his passing, still relatively young. The show’s producers rewrote the season’s arc after his death, with Martin Sheen confirming that the election storyline was altered. The coincidence of a fictional political death mirroring the actor’s real‑world exit adds a haunting layer to the series’ conclusion.

5 Troy

Wolfgang Petersen’s 2004 epic Troy, a modern retelling of Homer’s Iliad, is remembered more for its box‑office success than its behind‑the‑scenes drama. During a stunt, lead actor Brad Pitt injured his Achilles tendon—a striking parallel to the mythic hero Achilles, whose downfall stemmed from a vulnerable heel.

The injury forced a production shutdown for weeks, and while Pitt recovered, a hurricane later battered the set, destroying equipment and scenery. The combination of mythic irony and real‑world setbacks makes Troy a prime example of a film that seemed cursed by its own narrative.

4 Above Suspicion

Christopher Reeve, famed for his embodiment of Superman, often chose roles that subverted his wholesome image. In the 1995 thriller Above Suspicion, he played a man faking paralysis to cover a crime, with his real‑life wife Dana Reeve portraying the investigating detective. The film premiered just days before Reeve suffered a horse‑riding accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down.

The timing of the on‑screen deception and the off‑screen tragedy was chillingly coincidental. Dana Reeve later expressed reluctance to be portrayed as a victim, insisting the family move beyond pity. The overlap of art imitating life—only this time, the reality was far more harrowing—adds a disturbing note to the movie’s legacy.

3 McMillan & Wife

The 1970s police procedural McMillan & Wife followed Commissioner Stewart McMillan and his wife Sally as they solved crimes together. The series ran from 1971 to 1977, but behind the scenes, a contractual dispute led to the on‑screen death of Sally’s son—a move that later resonated with real‑life tragedy.

By 2004, star Susan St. James had married NBC executive Dick Ebersol, and they had a teenage son, Teddy. During Thanksgiving that year, a plane crash claimed Teddy’s life while Ebersol survived. James reflected on the loss, noting that “resentment is like taking poison and hoping the other guy dies,” underscoring how the fictional loss foreshadowed personal grief.

2 The Omen

The 1976 horror film The Omen sparked rumors of a satanic curse during its production, much like the lore surrounding The Exorcist. While many of those stories were later debunked as marketing hype, one incident stood out as genuinely chilling.

Special‑effects artist John Richardson, while working on the war film A Bridge Too Far, was driving in Belgium with assistant Elizabeth Moore when they were involved in a fatal car accident that decapitated Moore. Richardson noted the gruesome similarity to a decapitation effect he’d created for The Omen, and the crash occurred near the Dutch town of Ommen—adding an eerie, real‑world echo to the film’s dark themes.

1 The China Syndrome

The 1979 thriller The China Syndrome, starring Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas, and Jack Lemmon, dramatizes a whistle‑blower exposing a near‑meltdown at a nuclear plant. Only twelve days after its premiere, the real‑life Three Mile Island accident unfolded, causing a massive public scare and prompting studies that suggested a 64 % rise in local cancer rates.

Unlike other horror films that capitalized on tragedy, the studio remained silent, with Michael Douglas issuing a “no comment” to press inquiries. Yet screenwriter Michael Gray later wrote a Rolling Stone piece covering the disaster, linking the film’s fictional warning to the real event. The coincidence of art foretelling a crisis cemented The China Syndrome’s place among cinema’s most unsettling prophecies.

Brace yourself for a whirlwind tour of 10 wild coincidences that actually happened, each one stranger than the last. Our brains love to stitch unrelated events together, but these tales are so bizarre they demand a double‑take. Let’s dive into the most astonishing alignments history ever threw our way.

10 Wild Coincidences

10 Struck By Lightning 7 Times

Roy Sullivan, a park ranger stationed in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, earned a grim claim to fame: he was hit by lightning not once, not twice, but seven separate times between 1942 and 1977. Statisticians estimate the odds at roughly 4.5 in 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 – a number so huge it practically defies comprehension. Of course, his profession kept him outdoors in a region prone to thunderstorms, yet even that can’t fully explain the sheer improbability of his repeated electro‑encounters.

The lightning strikes occurred in wildly different settings – inside his ranger station, while driving his truck, during patrol walks, and even after he retired. Each strike left him with burns and other injuries, and the relentless streak of bolts turned him into a bizarre celebrity, drawing attention far beyond the usual ranger duties. Despite the drama, Sullivan never acquired any super‑powers from his electrifying experiences.

9 The Weirdest Double Tragedy Ever

There’s a version of this story that sounds like a Hollywood script: two brothers, Erskine Lawrence Ebbin and Neville, allegedly killed by the exact same taxi, with the same driver and passenger, at the identical spot exactly one year apart. While that rendition is exaggerated, the core truth remains chillingly close. Both brothers, who were 17 at the time, met their untimely ends riding the same moped, struck by the same cab on the same street, and under the same driver.

The island of Bermuda, where the tragedy unfolded, is relatively small and sparsely populated, meaning fewer taxi drivers and a higher chance of repeated encounters. Even with those mitigating factors, the coincidence of two siblings dying in such a mirrored fashion is startling enough to earn a spot on this list.

8 Thomas Jefferson And John Adams Die On The Same Day

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the second and third presidents of the United States, share more than just a place in the nation’s early leadership. Both men, famed for their powdered wigs and revolutionary zeal, died on the very same day – July 4, 1826 – just hours apart. Remarkably, that date marked the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a document each had helped bring to life.

According to legend, Adams’s final words were “Jefferson still lives,” unaware that his fellow Founding Father had already passed away earlier that afternoon. The nation mourned the loss of two pillars of its founding, and five years later, on July 4, 1831, another president, James Monroe, also breathed his last, adding another layer of eerie timing to the calendar.

7 The Only Man Nuked Twice

Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a Japanese engineer, holds a singular distinction: he is the only individual officially recognized as having survived both atomic bombings of World War II. On August 6, 1945, Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a work trip when the first bomb detonated. Though he sustained injuries, he managed to escape the immediate blast zone.

Undeterred, Yamaguchi returned to his hometown of Nagasaki just three days later, arriving in time to experience the second atomic explosion on August 9, 1945. He survived that second catastrophe as well, later becoming an outspoken advocate for nuclear disarmament, sharing his harrowing experiences to warn future generations of the horrors of nuclear warfare.

6 Jim And Jim Separated At Birth

Jim Lewis and Jim Springer were identical twins who, through adoption, grew up in entirely different families. Their reunion in 1979, when both were 39, revealed a cascade of uncanny parallels that have left researchers and laypeople alike scratching their heads.

Both were named James by their adoptive parents – a coincidence that might seem ordinary, but it was just the beginning. Each twin owned a childhood dog named Toy, married a woman named Linda, later divorced her, and then remarried a woman named Betty. Their sons bore nearly identical names: one James Alan, the other James Allan.

The twins also pursued similar careers; Lewis worked as a security guard while Springer served as a deputy sheriff. Both possessed talents in carpentry and mechanical drawing, and they each enjoyed woodworking in their spare time. The depth of these similarities continues to fascinate anyone who hears their story.

5 Mark Twain And Halley’s Comet

Mark Twain, the celebrated American humorist, entered the world on November 30, 1835, just weeks after the appearance of Halley’s Comet, the most famous of all comets, which dazzles the sky roughly every 76 years. The timing of his birth sparked a lifelong fascination with the celestial visitor.

Twain often quipped that he came in with the comet and expected to go out with it as well. True to his prediction, he passed away on April 21, 1910, a day after the comet’s return to the inner solar system, cementing his personal connection to this astronomical phenomenon.

4 A Lincoln Saved By A Booth

On April 13, 1865, the nation mourned the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln at the hands of John Wilkes Booth. Yet, in a twist of fate, the Booth family had earlier played a heroic role: Edwin Booth, John’s older brother, saved Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln, from a near‑fatal tumble on a Jersey City train platform in either 1863 or 1864.

Robert, a young lawyer at the time, slipped toward the tracks, but Edwin, who happened to be nearby, quickly pulled him back to safety. Adding another layer of irony, Edwin was traveling with John T. Ford, the namesake of Ford’s Theatre – the very venue where his brother would later shoot the president.

3 November 9 In Germany

November 9 has earned the nickname “Day of Fate” in Germany because it has repeatedly served as a backdrop for pivotal moments in the nation’s history. In 1918, the Kaiser was forced to abdicate, ushering in the Weimar Republic. In 1938, the night of Kristallnacht erupted, a violent pogrom that foreshadowed the Holocaust. Finally, on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, symbolizing the end of the Cold War and the reunification of East and West Germany.

Each of these events, separated by decades, underscores how a single calendar date can become a stage for momentous change, leaving the German people perpetually on edge whenever November 9 rolls around.

2 Why Solar Eclipses Are Possible

Solar eclipses occur when the Moon slips directly between Earth and the Sun, casting its shadow and turning day into night for a brief period. While the mechanics are well understood, the sheer coincidence of sizes and distances involved is astonishing.

The Moon’s diameter is about 400 times smaller than the Sun’s, yet it sits roughly 400 times closer to Earth. This near‑perfect ratio allows the Moon to cover the Sun almost exactly, revealing the Sun’s glowing corona around the edges. If the Moon were any larger, smaller, closer, or farther, the spectacular spectacle we cherish would look entirely different.

1 Stephen Hawking’s Amazing Lifespan

Stephen Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford, England. Coincidentally, that same date marks the 300th anniversary of the death of another scientific titan, Galileo Galilei, who passed away on January 8, 1642. The alignment of two of humanity’s greatest minds on the same calendar day is a striking footnote in history.

Hawking’s own death came on March 14, 2018 – a date celebrated worldwide as Pi Day (3.14). Adding another layer, March 14 is also Albert Einstein’s birthday, the physicist whose theories paved the way for Hawking’s groundbreaking work on black holes and cosmology. These intertwined dates highlight just how interwoven the lives of great thinkers can be.

Sometimes, sheer luck trumps skill, and other times a bout of bad luck creates the very chance for good fortune. In the grand tapestry of America, the phrase 10 coincidences helped shape the nation in ways you’d never expect. From a fog that saved an army to a melted candy bar that birthed a kitchen staple, these twists of fate proved that destiny often rolls its dice behind the scenes.

How 10 Coincidences Helped Shape Our Nation

10 The Fortuitous Fog That Saved Washington’s Army

The fledgling United States teetered on the brink of a six‑week existence. In August 1776, General George Washington’s Continental Army was entrenched in present‑day Brooklyn, facing a crushing defeat at the Battle of Long Island.

Outnumbered, outflanked, and outgunned, the American forces suffered staggering losses: 970 soldiers dead or wounded and more than 1,000 captured, while the British lost a mere 63 men. With the East River at his back and 15,000 Redcoats bearing down, Washington seemed trapped.

Then Mother Nature intervened. A torrential downpour on August 28 stalled both sides, and on the morning of August 29 a dense fog rolled in, shrouding the battlefield.

Seizing the moment, Washington ordered every vessel that could float to be gathered and positioned in the East Harbor by nightfall. The unusual summer fog lingered all day, masking a silent, nocturnal evacuation across the river to Manhattan.

That thick veil of mist saved roughly 9,000 troops—men the Continental Army could not afford to lose. The British awoke on August 30 to find an enemy that had vanished into the very air they were fighting through.

9 Don’t I Know You? Lewis, Clark, And A Tribal Chief’s Long‑Lost Sister

Dense forests, roaring rivers, and endless plains defined the Corps of Discovery’s trek after the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out in May 1804, aiming to chart a route to the Pacific.

One obstacle loomed larger than any map: the Rocky Mountains. The expedition needed horses to cross, yet they possessed none. The Shoshone tribe owned the necessary mounts, but they had never encountered white explorers.

Enter Sacagawea—a Shoshone girl kidnapped as a child, sold to a French‑Canadian trapper, and now traveling with Lewis and Clark. Unbeknownst to the expedition, she was the long‑lost sister of the Shoshone chief, Cameahwait.

When the expedition reached the Shoshone, the chief recognized his sister and, overjoyed, offered horses, supplies, and guides. That familial reunion proved pivotal; without those horses, the Corps might never have claimed the western continent for the United States.

8 The ‘Pick From Heaven’ That Gave Rise To America’s Pastime

Baseball, the sport that defines America, took shape in 1846 with its first official game in Hoboken, New Jersey. By 1857, a set of rules codified the game, establishing nine innings and nine players per side.

Yet one rule proved more consequential than any other: the distance between bases—exactly 27.432 meters (90 feet). That precise measurement created a delicate balance of speed, strategy, and drama.

Every routine ground ball or close throw at first base hinges on a split‑second, a step, a fingertip. The seemingly arbitrary 90‑foot spacing turned out to be a perfect sweet spot, earning the moniker “pick from heaven.”

Had the founders chosen a different spacing, baseball might never have achieved its enduring popularity. Today, legends like Mike Trout and Jose Altuve still feel the impact of that celestial measurement.

7 Hide‑And‑Go‑Shoot: The Lost Company That Saved The Union

America’s Civil War was a brutal clash of wills, with the Union holding a clear advantage in manpower and industry. Yet a single tactical twist could have tipped the balance.

During the Battle of Gettysburg, the Union’s left flank centered on Little Round Top. If Confederate forces had seized that strategic hill, they could have rolled up the Union line.

Most histories spotlight Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain’s daring bayonet charge, but an unseen group of roughly 40 Union soldiers, led by Captain Walter Morrill, lingered behind a stone wall, cut off from the main force.

For over an hour, these men remained hidden, delivering a relentless hail of fire that decimated the attacking Confederates. Their covert action forced the enemy to retreat, preserving the Union’s position on the hill and, arguably, the war’s outcome.

6 You (Only) Sank My Battleship: Pearl Harbor Could Have Been Far Worse

December 7, 1941, marked a dark day for America as Japanese forces struck Pearl Harbor, killing 2,403 and damaging a fleet of battleships and aircraft. The devastation, however, could have been catastrophic.

By sheer happenstance, the three U.S. aircraft carriers stationed in the Pacific—USS Lexington, USS Saratoga, and USS Enterprise—were not present. Lexington had departed for Midway on December 5, Saratoga was undergoing repairs on the mainland, and Enterprise, delayed by bad weather, missed a scheduled return by mere hours.

Had any of those carriers been in harbor, the United States would have lost its dominant air‑power in the Pacific, dramatically lengthening the war and possibly exposing the West Coast to further attacks.

The fortuitous absence of these carriers ensured that, despite the tragedy, the U.S. could rebuild its naval might and eventually turn the tide against Japan.

5 Let Them Eat Popcorn: The Accidental Invention Of The Microwave

Fast food and convenience converge in the microwave oven, a kitchen staple born from pure accident. Physicist Percy Spencer, working on radar technology during World War II, discovered that a candy bar in his pocket melted when he stood near an active magnetron.

Intrigued, Spencer experimented with various foods, including popcorn kernels, and realized that microwaves could heat items rapidly. He enclosed the energy‑producing magnetron in a metal box, creating the first functional microwave oven.

Patented in 1946, the device didn’t reach mass production until 1967, when cost reductions made it affordable for households. By 1975, a million units were sold annually, forever changing American eating habits with pizza rolls, Hot Pockets, and instant popcorn.

4 The Window Frame That Doomed JFK

Seven months before the fateful Dallas assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald’s career was a string of failures—from a disgruntled Marine to a failed defector. In April 1963, he attempted to assassinate Major General Edwin Walker, a staunch anti‑communist.

Oswald’s bullet struck a window frame, grazing the wood and merely parting Walker’s hair. The frame’s interference prevented a fatal shot, leaving Walker unharmed.

Had Walker died, the ensuing investigation might have uncovered Oswald’s activities earlier, possibly thwarting his later attempt on President John F. Kennedy. A simple wooden frame, therefore, may have inadvertently preserved a president’s life.

3 Hole In Two: The Confusing Ballot That Swayed The 2000 Election

The 2000 presidential race boiled down to Florida’s razor‑thin margin, but a design flaw in Palm Beach County’s “butterfly ballot” turned the contest into a statistical nightmare.

The ballot placed candidates’ names on two facing pages, with larger fonts for elderly voters. Unfortunately, the layout caused many to mis‑punch, selecting Al Gore’s name alongside Pat Buchanan’s, or George W. Bush’s name next to a third candidate, thereby invalidating those votes.

Approximately 6,600 Gore ballots and 1,600 Bush ballots were spoiled in this way. Given Bush’s official 537‑vote victory in Florida, the ballot’s confusion likely altered the election’s outcome, sending the nation into a protracted recount saga.

2 The Ill‑Timed Financial Crisis That Flatlined McCain’s 2008 Presidential Run

The 2008 election seemed poised for a tight race between Barack Obama and John McCain. Early September polls showed a statistical dead‑heat.

Then the financial system teetered on collapse: Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy on September 15, the government seized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on September 17, and a massive bank bailout passed on October 3.The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, enacted just weeks before Election Day, crippled the incumbent party’s credibility, handing Obama a decisive victory with a 365–173 electoral margin.

McCain’s campaign, once a credible contender, fell victim to an economic cataclysm that unfolded at the worst possible moment, illustrating how timing can rewrite political destiny.

1 The Inglorious Return Of Carlos Danger

The 2016 presidential showdown was a nail‑biter, with the winner losing the popular vote and clinching the presidency by a razor‑thin margin in three battleground states.

In a bizarre twist, Anthony Weiner—known online as “Carlos Danger”—was embroiled in a scandal when a photo emerged of him sexting with a minor. The incident forced the FBI to reopen its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private‑email server.

The reopened probe, sparked by Weiner’s indiscretion, dominated headlines in the final weeks of the campaign, arguably shifting public perception and influencing the election’s outcome.

Christopher Dale, a veteran journalist, has contributed to The Daily Beast, NY Daily News, Parents.com, and New York Newsday, among other outlets.

Given how many humans have existed in the world and how many events and incidents, both big and small, happen every day, history is littered with examples of strange coincidences. But the ones we will be looking at today are so unusual that they strain credulity and, should they have come from the pages of a book, they would have been deemed contrived or unbelievable. 

10. Poe’s Tale of Cannibalism

In 1838, Edgar Allan Poe wrote and published The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. It wasn’t one of his better-known works and even the writer himself later dismissed it as “a very silly book.” Basically, it tells the story of the eponymous character after he becomes a stowaway on a ship called the Grampus. 

At one point, the ship wrecks during a storm and only four men survive and are washed ashore. With no food whatsoever, after a few days they resort to the most drastic solution – cannibalism. They draw straws and the unlucky one is a young man named Richard Parker who is killed and eaten.

At first, this would seem like a straightforward, albeit grisly story. But then we move forward 46 years and something strange happens. In 1884, a yacht called the Mignonette left England headed for Sydney, Australia. Carrying four men, it also shipwrecked and left the seafarers stranded with no food. As a last resort, they also cannibalized one of their own – a 17-year-old named Richard Parker. The only main difference was that the survivors saw no need to draw straws as the real-life Parker had fallen ill after drinking seawater and was considered a goner. 

Eerie coincidences aside, the case that followed after the remaining men were rescued and arrested for murder represented a landmark ruling in English law. It stated that necessity does not excuse murder, meaning you cannot kill someone else to save your own life.

9. Where the War Began and Ended

On July 21, 1861, the First Battle of Bull Run marked the first major engagement in the American Civil War. Of course, the war was horrible for many people, but it was a particularly strange inconvenience for one wholesale grocer named Wilmer McLean. He lived on a plantation near Manassas, Virginia, and the Bull Run River passed right through his land. In fact, most of the battle took place on his property and the Confederate leader, General P.G.T. Beauregard even commandeered McLean’s house to use as his headquarters.

Obviously, McLean and his family couldn’t live in the middle of a war so they relocated. A few years later, they were residing in a house near a village called Appomattox Court House. As it happens, that is where the last battle of the Civil War took place. Afterwards, Confederate General Robert E. Lee officially surrendered to Union leader Ulysses S. Grant. And he did it in the parlor of Wilmer McLean’s new home.  

The McLeans later moved back to their previous estate and simply abandoned the house in Appomattox County. They also defaulted on the loans they took out to buy it so “Surrender House”, as it came to be known, was confiscated and sold at auction. Today, it operates as a museum and it is a designated National Historical Monument. As for Wilmer McLean, he liked to say that the Civil War “began in his front yard and ended in his front parlor.”

8. The Curse of Tecumseh

Ever since 1840, American presidents have died according to a pattern which is remarkable enough that people have ascribed it to a curse. Every president who is elected in a year ending in 0 (something which happens every two decades) is fated to die in office.

First was William Henry Harrison. Elected in 1840, he died of pneumonia a month after being sworn in. Then, in 1860 came Abraham Lincoln, and we all know how that ended. In 1880, James Garfield was elected president and he was also assassinated by a man named Charles Guiteau. 

William McKinley might have escaped this alleged curse if he stuck at just one term. Alas, in 1900 he was elected president to his second term, and a year later, he was shot and killed by an anarchist. Next up was Warren G. Harding, who suffered a stroke three years after being elected in 1920. Afterwards came Franklin Roosevelt who passed away of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1945. While he did die in office, he didn’t actually die during the term which allegedly sealed his fate. And last, but not least, there was JFK, who won the 1960 election and whose assassination is all too well-known.

As you can see, seven presidents followed this extraordinary pattern. Many see it for what it probably is – a series of incredible coincidences, but others claim it is a curse placed originally on William Henry Harrison by Tecumseh, leader of the Shawnee people, for the former’s role in Tecumseh’s Rebellion. 

Ronald Reagan would have been next in line. He was elected in 1980 and, although someone did try to kill him, he survived his injuries and died of old age decades after he left office. Even if the curse was real, it appears that he broke it. 

7. The Church Explosion

At 7:25 p.m., March 1, 1950, the West Side Baptist Church in Beatrice, Nebraska, exploded due to a natural gas leak ignited by the fire from the furnace. It was a Wednesday and every Wednesday at 7:20 p.m. sharp, the church choir gathered there to practice. People were expecting the worst as they approached the smoking rubble, but it soon became apparent that nobody had been injured in the blast. Even though the choir director was very strict about tardiness, on this particular night, none of the 15 choir members arrived on time.

It wasn’t one single thing that caused the delays, either, but rather a series of minor occurrences that detained each person enough to evade the deadly blast. The reverend and his family, for example, were late because his wife had to iron a dress at the last moment. Two sisters both had car trouble. Two high school girls wanted to finish listening to a radio program, while another student was struggling with her geometry homework. The pianist fell asleep after dinner. A man was late because he wanted to finish writing a letter he kept putting off, while one woman was simply feeling lazy because it was cold outside and her home was warm and cozy. 

And so went all the other excuses. Unsurprisingly, given the nature of the circumstances, some people considered it divine intervention.

6. Right Place, Right Time

Joseph Figlock became a hero of Detroit due to a bizarre series of events that happened over the course of a year. One morning in 1937, Figlock was at his job as a street sweeper when he was struck by something that landed on his head and shoulders. That “something” was a baby girl who fell out a four-story window. Because Figlock broke her fall, the infant survived her drop that, otherwise, would have almost surely been fatal.

A year later, the street sweeper was back at his job when he was, again, hit by a falling object. And you guessed it – it was another baby. This time, it was 2-year-old David Thomas who also fell out of his window on the fourth floor. This baby did sustain some injuries but, once more, had escaped certain doom thanks to Joseph Figlock being in the right place, at the right time.

5. Miss Unsinkable

Violet Jessop was born in Argentina to Irish immigrants in 1887. When she turned 21, she found work as a ship stewardess and, in 1911, secured a position aboard the RMS Olympic, the first of the Olympic-class ocean liners built by the White Star Line at the start of the century.

At the time, these were the largest, most luxurious ships in the world. Jessop was probably thrilled with her new job but, pretty soon, she might have reconsidered her fortunes. In September 1911, Jessop was onboard the Olympic when it collided with a warship called the HMS Hawke. The collision wasn’t too bad and the ocean liner managed to make it to port without any fatalities.

This incident didn’t deter Jessop from continuing her career as a stewardess. Although she was content aboard the Olympic, her friends persuaded her that it would make for a much more exciting experience to work aboard the White Star Line’s new ocean liner. After all, this vessel was proclaimed to be “unsinkable” and its name was the Titanic. 

You already know how this went down – just four days into its maiden voyage, the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank. Jessop survived the ordeal as she was lowered down into lifeboat 16 which was later picked up by the RMS Carpathia. She later recalled that, as the boat was being lowered, an officer put a baby in her lap. Later, aboard the Carpathia, a woman leaped at her, snatched the baby and ran. Jessop always assumed that was the mother, but she never saw either one of them again.

Then World War II started and Jessop served as a nurse for the British Red Cross. She worked aboard the Britannic, which was the third and last of the Olympic-class ocean liners and had been repurposed into a hospital ship. In 1916, the vessel suffered damage from a mine explosion and sank in the Aegean Sea. For the third time in five years, Violet Jessop had survived a shipwreck, retroactively earning her the nickname “Miss Unsinkable.”

4. The Opposing Graves

Just outside the Belgian town of Mons sits the St. Symphorien Military Cemetery which serves as the final resting place for over 500 soldiers who died in the First World War.

Many of these men perished in the Battle of Mons which took place on August 23, 1914, and is considered to be the first major action of the British army in the war. One of these men, however, died a little earlier. John Parr was a private who was born in London and lied about his age so he could enlist. He served as a reconnaissance cyclist and scouted the area ahead of his battalion. However, he was gunned down by enemy fire and died on August 21, at only 17 years of age. He is generally considered to be the first British serviceman killed in action during the First World War.

His grave is at St. Symphorien and opposite of it, just a few yards away, is the grave of Private George Ellison. He died years later on November 11, 1918. This date is significant because it is, in fact, the day that Germany and the Allies signed an armistice, bringing an end to the war. George Ellison was killed just 90 minutes before peace was declared, thus giving him the unfortunate distinction of being the last British soldier killed in the war. 

These two graves face each other, although this was done completely unintentionally as nobody was aware of their “first” and “last” positions when they were buried.

3. Death at Hoover Dam

The Hoover Dam was one of the greatest, most ambitious engineering projects of its day, but it came with a heavy price as a lot of people died during construction. 

Exactly how many is a matter of debate. Officially, the death toll was 96, but historians argue that the real number would be much higher because the official version didn’t take into account workers who died off-site of construction-related injuries or illnesses. An inquiry by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation increased the number to 213 deaths between 1921 and 1935.

The first fatality was a surveyor named John Gregory Tierney who drowned in the Colorado River on December 20, 1921, after he got caught in a flash flood. Technically, another worker named Harold Connelly died first, but his demise was completely unconnected with the project as he drowned in the river when he went swimming.

Here is the truly tragic part – the last fatality registered during construction of the Hoover Dam occurred on December 20, 1935, exactly 14 years to the day after Tierney drowned, when a 25-year-old electrician’s helper plummeted 320 feet from one of the intake towers. That man was Patrick Tierney, the surveyor’s son.

2. The King and His Double

Some say that we all have a doppelganger somewhere in the world, a person who isn’t related to us in any way but they look just like us. King Umberto I of Italy found his doppelganger in 1900 when he went to eat at a little restaurant in Monza. He discovered that the proprietor looked almost exactly like him but, more than that, they had been born on the same day.

At this point, you would think this was more a case of twins separated at birth, but the coincidences did not stop there. Both men had married women named Margherita and had sons named Vittorio. Moreover, the restaurant owner had opened his establishment the day of King Umberto’s coronation.

Shocked to his core by these revelations, the king invited his doppelganger or long-lost twin to an event taking place the next day. Sadly, neither one made it. The next morning, the restaurateur was killed under unexplained conditions. Just hours later, when King Umberto found out about his demise, he was assassinated by an anarchist named Gaetano Bresci. 

1. The Writer and the Comet

The life of American writer Mark Twain has been inexorably linked to the passing of Halley’s Comet from beginning to end.

This famous comet visits us every 75 to 76 years. It will next be visible in 2061, but a noteworthy appearance happened in November 1835. Just two weeks after its perihelion (meaning the point of its orbit which is closest to the Sun), Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri. He would go on to adopt the pen name Mark Twain and become America’s most celebrated author.

Throughout his life, Twain took a keen interest in science and he was well-aware of his connection to Halley’s Comet. In the early 20th century, the writer was getting on in years and knew that the end was near. However, he also knew that the comet was due to pass by Earth again soon, and he was convinced that he would not die before that happened. As he put it: “Now there are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.” 

He could not have been more right. Mark Twain died on April 21, 1910, just one day after Halley’s Comet reached its perihelion.

The human mind likes to make sense of things. We look for patterns and order in everything, even if it’s not really there. Few things spark our interest in finding meaning more than when we stumble upon a coincidence. Many people believe they have to mean something. And whether or not these amazing coincidences are indicative of something supernatural or just bad luck doesn’t really matter, they’re all still pretty creepy.

10. The Baby Catcher

About 4,000 children per year under 10 are injured by falling from windows. That seems like a lot, all things considered. And it may be at the root of explaining the curious coincidence that befell Joseph Figlock back in 1938. According to reports, Figlock was a street sweeper in Detroit. He was walking down the street one day when a baby fell from somewhere above him in the building he was passing. The child landed on Figlock and injured both of them, but they both survived as a result.

A year later, Figlock was cleaning out an alley and a two-year-old fell from a fourth story window, once again landing on Figlock. The results were the same as before, with Figlock cushioning the falls enough that the child survived. 

You may see this story retold with embellished details, such as the same baby landing on Figlock exactly one year later, and he caught it both times. The original reports didn’t include those details at all and, in fact, point out that one baby was a girl and the other was a boy.

9. Booth’s Brother Saved Lincoln’s Son

People love to share eerie coincidences about Abraham Lincoln, whether or not they’re always true. But there are some quirky facts about the president’s life that do make you want to scratch your head, including the very odd coincidence about his son’s near-death experience. 

Everyone knows that Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. Less well known is how Edwin Booth, brother of John, saved the life of Robert Todd Lincoln. Like his brother, Edwin was an actor as well. Unlike his brother, he was actually a big fan of Lincoln and the Union.

It was during the Civil War when Edwin and Robert met by chance in New Jersey. Neither knew the other personally, of course, and Robert was on a break from college while Edwin was traveling to see a friend. 

Robert was knocked off a train platform and fell down next to the train, which had started moving. Trapped, Robert suddenly felt someone grab him and yank him back up. He recognized Edwin Booth as being an actor, though Booth didn’t know who Lincoln was. It was only a year or two later when John Wilkes Booth assassinated the president.

8 . The Life and Death of George Story

George Story became famous from birth thanks to Life magazine. On November 23, 1936, the first issue of Life hit the stands. Inside that first issue, the very first photo was of a doctor delivering a baby. The caption read “Life begins” which was a clever bit of wordplay for the magazine title. The baby was George Story.

Throughout the years, Life would check in on George and run that photo again. The man himself grew up to be a journalist for some years. Life magazine stopped publishing in the year 2000. For their farewell issue, they were going to include one final photo of George with the caption “A Life ends.” Two days before the photographers showed up to take the final photos, Story passed away from congestive heart failure. 

7. The Nebraska Church Explosion

Choir practice at the West Side Baptist Church was scheduled to begin at 7:20 p.m. on Wednesday, March 1, 1950. It always started at that time, so this was by no means an unusual event. What was unusual was that, at 7:25, the church exploded. It’s been suggested that, after the furnace was lit in preparation for the choir’s arrival, a gas leak may have caused the blast. It was powerful enough to blow the windows out of nearby buildings and even knock the local radio station off the air. And not a single person was hurt because no one was there.

Every single member of the choir was late that night. Every single one was late for a different reason. Reverend Klempel, who lit the furnace, went home after to have dinner but ran late when his daughter’s dress got dirty and his wife was ironing a clean one.

The church pianist fell asleep at home after her own dinner and woke up at 7:15. A highschool student was stuck on a geometry problem with her homework. Two other members couldn’t get their cars started. One man was stuck writing a letter, and another was helping her mother. In total, 15 different people were late for 15 different reasons, such that no one was in the church when it eventually blew. 

6. The Deaths of Bruce and Brandon Lee

Bruce Lee died in 1973 while filming his fifth movie, Game of Death. His death was caused by a cerebral edema in his brain and was all but unpredictable. He left behind a wife and two children. One of those children, Brandon Lee, famously followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming an actor. As most of us know, Brandon Lee tragically died as well on the set of his film The Crow 20 years later in 1993. 

The Crow was Brandon’s fifth film. His death was caused by a prop gun that was improperly prepared for use. The dummy rounds were made from altered live rounds and one of the dummy bullets was still in the chamber when the blank was fired, causing it to fire like a normal gun. 

In what turned out to be a bizarre coincidence, a scenario that almost exactly mirrored this turn of events happens on screen in Game of Death. In the film, Bruce Lee is playing an actor. On the set of the movie he’s starring in, the prop guy explains to the cast and crew how to properly fire the prop gun. He explains that the gun is loaded with blanks but that they must only aim upwards because there’s a wad of paper that could come out and injure someone. If the actor on the set of The Crow had followed those instructions, Lee would have survived.

In his movie, Bruce Lee’s character is then shot by the prop gun, though the character shooting intentionally swapped out the dummy round for a real bullet. The similarity between what happened on screen and what his son endured 20 years later was eerily prophetic. 

5. The Death of Stephen Hawking

Ask the average person to name the greatest physicists of all time and they’ll likely only come up with a handful of names. Let’s be honest, science isn’t super glamorous and fame isn’t typically one of the perks, anyway. But that doesn’t mean some of them don’t achieve it. People like Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking are at the top of the list. And while their scientific minds likely wouldn’t give much credence to weird coincidences, the rest of us can still do it.

Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, and passed away on March 14, 2018. He was born on the 300th anniversary of famed astronomer Galileo Galilei’s death. He died on the 139th anniversary of Albert Einstein’s birth. And it was also Pi Day, the day to commemorate the mathematical constant of Pi, which is often abbreviated down to 3.14, or March 14.

As you can imagine, social media made no end of clever quips about the timing of Hawking’s death, but even if it had no greater meaning related to relativity and time, it was still a hell of a coincidence. 

4 The Tierney Men

A lot of sons follow in the footsteps of their fathers. That’s usually a good thing. Not so for the Tierney family, however, who endured generational tragedy at the Hoover Dam.

By the time the Hoover Dam was finished, 96 fatalities had been recorded. One of those deaths occurred on December 20, 1921. John Gregory Tierney was caught in a flood and drowned in the Colorado River. Tierney left behind a family, which included his young son Patrick.

Fourteen years after his father died. Patrick Tierney was a young man and had taken up work at the site of his father’s death. It was December 20, the anniversary of his father’s death, when Patrick slipped from an intake tower. His death would be the final one associated with the building of the dam. 

3. My Way Killings

Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” spent 75 weeks as a Top 40 hit, and another 49 weeks in the top 75. The song was arguably Sinatra’s biggest and most memorable hit ever and is still popular to this day. Maybe even too popular, at least in the Philippines. Bad things happen to people who sing it there. 

Between the years 2002 and 2012, upwards of a dozen people were killed in connection to “My Way.” In the Philippines, karaoke is both very popular and very serious. Serious enough that at least one of those 12 people was killed for singing the song out of tune. It was reported at that time that the song had already been taken off of numerous play lists because violence kept breaking out when people sang it poorly.

Another victim was stabbed in 2018 when a fight broke out before the song even started. In another incident, a four-year-old was singing the song, adults started arguing, and one man attacked with a meat cleaver. The only common theme is the choice of song, it seems, making it quite a deadly coincidence with little reason for the deadly acts beyond the arrogant lyrics, making people angry. 

2. The Taxi Brothers

Many stories of amazing coincidences are too good to be true. Do some digging and they fall apart. But one popular tale of two brothers killed a year apart by the same taxi driver carrying the same passenger may actually be the real deal. 

The incident supposedly took place in Bermuda in 1975, so records are a bit hard to come by. But internet sleuths wanting to get to the bottom of the story have dug around to find the clues. A story from the Telegraph in 1975 does present the incident as fact. Both brothers were 17 at the time of their death, both riding the same scooter on the same road, one year apart. Other reports mention the name of the taxi driver and even the sections of road on which the boys were hit. 

Though verifiable details are hard to come by, a 1974 newsletter from a Bermuda worker’s union does offer a small message of sympathy after the death of a 17-year-old with the same name from the original story, which gives the whole thing a lot of credence. 

1. Umberto and Umberto

In The Prince and the Pauper, Mark Twain created a tale of two identical men who swap places. One royalty, the other a poor commoner. Sounds fantastical and implausible, which makes the story of King Umberto of Italy and Umberto the restaurateur so unbelievable. 

According to the story, the King went to a restaurant to have a meal. The owner wanted to meet the king, and the men were stunned to notice they looked exactly alike. They shared the same name and the same birthday. Both married women named Margherita on the same day. 

The day after their meeting, King Umberto was assassinated. He was shot four times. The two men were scheduled to meet again that day, but it never panned out. Umberto, the restaurant owner, had died that morning after also being shot. 

If the story is true, it’s quite the coincidence indeed. The two men very well could have been twin brothers without knowing it. But the death of a random restaurant owner in the year 1900 did not cause many waves, especially on the same day the king was assassinated, so details of his life, if he even existed, have been lost.

By definition a coincidence is something that is remarkable involving two or more unrelated things that still happens at the same time or in a way that seems to relate the two. One of the key features of a coincidence is the fact that the things or events are, in fact, unrelated. But over time we’ve come to doubt the very idea of a coincidence. People will remark “isn’t that a coincidence?” in a knowing way that suggests they don’t think it’s a coincidence at all, and conspiracies abound that many coincidences must therefore be the exact opposite. But despite that, the world is still rife with true coincidence, things that seem like they have to be related somehow and just aren’t. 

10. Freddie King, Albert King and B.B. King Were all Blues “Kings” But Unrelated 

If you’re a fan of the Blues or even just good guitar playing in general, then you probably know B.B. King who was also known by the nickname King of the Blues Guitar. It’s a clever name with a dual meaning thanks to King’s name and the fact that the man was just really good at playing the Blues. But he was also known by another name, or rather as part of another name, one of the three Kings of the Blues Guitar.

The Three Kings included B.B. King, Freddie King and Albert King. They were all born within about a decade of one another and rose to fame in the 50s and 60s together, their careers overlapping for many years. All three men rose to prominence as incredible musicians, in particular for playing Blues guitar, and it was sheer coincidence that all three were named King and they were unrelated. 

9. Robyn, Robin S, and Robin Schulz all Have Songs Called “Show Me Love”

“Show Me Love” may not be the most creative sounding name for a song ever, but it certainly captured the imagination of more than one artist. By coincidence, it seemed to capture the imagination of three artists who all had basically the same name. American R&B singer Robin S. was first to release a “Show Me Love“ back in 1993. 

Swedish singer Robyn released her “Show Me Love“ in 1997, which went on to create confusion as both were popular ’90s dance hits. Robin Schulz waited until 2015 to release his own “Show Me Love“ which was, once again, a dance hit — though it didn’t get as popular as the first two. It’s still made trying to Google one specific song difficult in the present if you aren’t sure who sang what.

8. Denmark Keeps Electing Prime Ministers Named Rasmussen

What’s in a name? If you’re a Danish politician, maybe more than you’d think if you don’t believe in coincidence. But if you do, then it’s still interesting to note that Danes apparently have a real affinity for the name Rasmussen. As in they elected three Prime Ministers in a row who were all named Rasmussen, even though they were unrelated. They liked the last one so much they elected him again a few years later after taking a four-year break for someone named Thorning-Schmidt. 

The Reign of Rasmussen began in 1993 when Poul Nyrup Rasmussen was elected. In 2001, he was replaced by Anders Rasmussen who served until 2009 when he resigned from office. That was when Lars Løkke Rasmussen took over. He only got two years in office but the people of Denmark were willing to give him another go when he was reelected in 2015 and stayed in office until 2019. 

7. The Word for Dog in the Mbabaram Language is Also Dog

Language is one of the most fascinating parts of human development and when you look back through the history of language, it just gets more and more fascinating. You can pick any random word in English and trace its etymology, perhaps to French or German or Old English and Latin and so on, back through centuries. But where did it start? When did the first person to ever name an apple call it whatever they called and why? How? 

The creation of language out of literally nothing will not be a thing we can ever fully understand in the present, but we can at least appreciate some remarkable coincidences that can occur across languages that have nothing in common and could have nothing in common over their development. One of the most amazing coincidences comes to us in the form of the word dog.

The etymology of dog in English gives us a dead end when we go back far enough. You can go back to Old English, around 1,000 years ago, and then the trail runs dry. But, remarkably, the same word appears in the Mbabaram language, one of the rarest languages in the world that was spoken by native Australians.  

Mbabaram had no ties to English whatsoever and evolved entirely separately with no influence. Somewhat more remarkable was how linguists traced the evolution of dog in that language from the earlier word gudaga which saw some mild phonetic changes over time to produce what they called a one in a million accidental similarity of form and meaning. 

6. The Caduceus and the Rod of Asclepius Looks Similar by Coincidence

In the medical community you can commonly find two symbols used by organizations as part of their official logos. One is the Caduceus, a staff encircled by two snakes with a pair of wings on top. The other is the Staff of Aesculapius, a staff with a single snake winding around it to the top.

You’ll see both symbols on medical ID bracelets but the Staff is the official symbol of organizations like MedicAlert, the American Medical Association, Yale School of Medicine and more. The Caduceus, on the other hand, is the official symbol of the Surgeon General of the US Army and the US Army Medical Corps. It’s used by the Public Health Service and numerous medical businesses as well. So what’s the difference?

The Staff of Aesculapius has been a symbol of medicine for years. Aesculapius was a god of healing. But the Caduceus is associated with Hermes, a messenger god who had nothing to do with medicine. The image, however, is more balanced with the wings and snakes and therefore more aesthetically pleasing. For that reason, since it looks sort of like the other symbol, it seems to have enjoyed widespread use as a result entirely by coincidence. It looks like the real symbol for medicine and healing, so it replaced the real symbol in many places. 

5. Australia and America Both Have a Store Chain Called Target with a Bullseye Logo 

Target, with its red bullseye logo, is one of the most popular retailers in America and reported over $100 billion in revenue for 2022. Suffice it to say, the chain is doing okay. But on the other side of the world there’s another chain of stores in Australia also called Target that also feature the exact same red bullseye logo that has nothing at all to do with the American stores. The goods sold are also similar, with the Australian version selling clothes, toys, electronics and so on but no food.

Target Australia is not owned by Kmart, contrary to rumors, but by a company called Westfarmers Limited. They filed their own copyright claim on the name and logo in Australia in 1968, a year after the American company did the same thing in America, neither company really having any idea that the other existed. The name and logo similarities are entirely coincidental and, if you think about it, using a bullseye as a logo for a store called Target is pretty much a no-brainer, so it’s not hard to imagine. 

Though the copyright in Australia came a year later than the US store, the original stores, known as Lindsay’s, actually date all the way back to 1926 making the Aussie version much older than the American one. 

4. There’s a UK Dennis the Menace Which Debuted on the Exact Same Day as the US Dennis the Menace 

In the age of social media you’ll see a lot of accusations of plagiarism if someone posts a joke online and then someone else posts the same joke sometime later. But the fact is that this kind of simultaneous discovery or synchronicity of thought is not unheard of and can get remarkably complex. One of the best examples of this is arguably Dennis the Menace, which was created in both the US and the UK at the exact same time, each with no knowledge of the other. 

Dennis the Menace appeared in comics on March 12, 1951 in both the UK and the US. The UK version appeared as a strip in a comic book and was created by David Law. The US version appeared in newspaper comic strips and was created by Hank Ketcham. Neither man knew the other, neither man had any idea that the other comic existed. Also, aside from the name, they aren’t all that similar.

The UK Dennis was much more of a Menace that his US counterpart, who was more of a pest than another else. When the two creators learned what was happening they seem to have mostly shrugged it off and agreed to keep doing what they were doing, acknowledging that the other was not a ripoff. That said,the UK version did end up being known as Dennis and Gnasher. When the Dennis the Menace movie was released in the UK, they just called it Dennis. 

3. Two Postal Workers in Two Different States Shot Up Their Workplaces on the Same Day

There was a time when the saying “going postal” had a very clear meaning for most people – it meant going on a rampage. It had become a sort of morbid joke that postal workers were inclined to grab a gun and shoot up their coworkers as a result of a series of shootings that started in the mid-80s and claimed the lives of dozens of people. 

The postal shootings became so ubiquitous for a time that, on May 6, 1993, it actually happened twice, in two different states, in totally separate and unrelated incidents. One shooting took place in Michigan while the other took place in California and three people died as a result while several others were injured. 

2. Anise, Star Anise, Fennel, and Licorice Unrelated

If you like black licorice there’s a good chance you also enjoy anise and star anise as they all have very similar flavors. You can lump fennel into that group too as it also has a subtle licorice flavor. But despite the similarity, and especially when it comes to anise and star anise which are obviously very closely related at least in terms of names, none of these things are actually biologically related.

The flavor similarity comes from an oil called anethole. You can also find it in licorice root and in fennel. All four have the same flavor as a result even though the plants are not closely related in the biological sense of the word. Anise is actually more closely related to parsley and celery while licorice is from the legume family.

1. Agatha Christie Was Investigated By MI5 Over a Coincidental Name

Imagine being such a good writer of mysteries that you actually just start echoing reality with the stories you make up, completely unintentionally and in a way that makes the government investigate you because you’ve convinced them you’re a spy. That’s what happened to Agatha Christie. In her book “N or M,” Christie created a character named Bletchley, who knew some military secrets.

MI5 had an issue with this because Christie was friends with someone named Dilly Knox who happened to be a code breaker at a secret facility in a place called Bletchley Park. Knox had helped break the Enigma codes and his work was informing the movement of British spies. So they had to find out if Christie somehow had learned this info. 

When Knox tried to stealthily inquire about why she named the character with secret info Bletchley, she explained it was because she was stuck in Bletchley waiting for a train and hated it so much she named her least likable character after the place. It was merely a coincidence in the end.