With the election coming up and the vitriol among politicians increasing, I thought the readership might enjoy a change of pace.

A coincidence is a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without an apparent causal connection. Most of us experience coincidences regularly, but they tend to be more ordinary—like discovering you’re wearing the same sweater as someone else in the room. The following 12 examples are much more extreme, and some even seem unbelievable, even though they are true. Read on and prepare to be amazed!

• Halley’s Comet passed by Earth in 1835; the year Mark Twain was born. The great writer famously predicted he’d “go out with it” as well. Indeed, he passed away in 1910, the next time the comet appeared.
• A patriotic yet somber coincidence, occurred between two of the Framers, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the second and third U.S. presidents. Both died on the Fourth of July 1826—fifty-years to the day after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
• The construction of the Hoover Dam was a long and difficult process, claiming over 100 lives. The first person to die was J.G. Tierney, and the last recorded death was his son, Patrick Tierney.
• Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy were elected 100 years apart(1860 and 1960). Both suffered fatal head wounds and were succeeded by presidents named Johnson. Their assassins each had three names: John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald. Both were assassinated on a Friday while sitting next to their wives.
• Actor Charles Francis Coghlan died in Texas in 1899. But his casket was lost at seaduring a hurricane. Eight years later, his coffin washed ashore near his birthplace in Prince Edward Island, Canada, more than 3,000 miles away.
• A few years before the Titanic sank, Morgan Robertson wrote a short book called Futility, about a massive “unsinkable” ship called the Titan that hit an iceberg and sank. The tale describes a ship with a similar size and a similar lack of lifeboats to the famous vessel.
• Two comic strips featuring a character named Dennis the Menace debuted in British and American outlets, respectively, on March 12, 1961—only a few hours apart. However, the two creators did not know each other and had no idea of the other’s work.
• Identical twin brothers separated at birth, Jim Lewis and Jim Springer, were reunited at age 39 and discovered many coincidences: both married women named Linda, divorced, and then remarried women named Betty. Both had dogs named Toy and drove the same model of car. Both grew up with an adopted brother named Larryand had sons whom they named James Allan.
• A soon-to-be-married couple, Alex and Donna, were looking through old photos to include in their wedding video. They found one photo of Donna posing on a childhood trip to Disney World in 1980. And in the background, they spotted Alex being pushed in a stroller by his father.
• In 1975, 17-year-old Erskine Lawrence Ebbin was struck by a taxi in Bermuda while riding his moped. A year later, his brother Neville, also 17 at the time, was riding the same moped when he was struck by the same taxi—with the same passenger—on the same street.
• Being hit by lightning is an extremely rare occurrence. Park ranger Roy Sullivan was struck not once, but seven times between 1942 and 1977—and survived them all. The strikes hit him in a fire tower, in his truck, in his yard, while patrolling, and more. His unusual record earned him the nickname “Human Lightning Rod.”
• Fireman Arthur John Priest survived the sinkings of the Titanic in 1912, the Alcantara in 1916, and the Britannic later that same year. Afterward, he reportedly found it difficult to find a job working on ships – go figure!

Quote of the day: “Coincidence is the universe trying to keep a straight face.”– Unknown