King Henry IV of England thought he would die in battle. A zealous crusader, he dreamed of conquering the holy land and returning it to Christian control. Affairs at home delayed his crusade; however a prophecy made to him years earlier claimed that he would die in Jerusalem, a prediction which he took very seriously. Extremely ill through most of his reign, he defiantly told those around him that he couldn’t die in England, as he still had not yet set foot in Jerusalem. As his health declined and death seemed near, he was brought to a room in the home of the Abbot of Westminster. He asked if the room in which he lay had a name. He was told that it was called the Jerusalem chamber, after which he promptly died.


A ship sunk near the shores of Wales on December 5, 1664. Another ship went down on the same location on December 5, 1785. A third ship sunk to the bottom of the sea on the same location on December 5, 1866. Each of the shipwrecks had only one survivor. In all the three cases, a survivor’s name was Hugh Williams.


Twin brothers Jim Lewis and Jim Springer were separated at birth and adopted by different families. Unknown to each other, both were named James, both owned a dog named Toy, both married women named Linda, both had a son they names James Alan, and both eventually divorced and got remarried to a woman named Betty.


 
The Lincoln and Kennedy list of coincidences:

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.
Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.
The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters.
Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost children while living in the White House.
Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head.
Lincoln’s secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy’s secretary was named Lincoln.
Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners.
Both successors were named Johnson.
Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.
John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.
Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are comprised of fifteen letters.
Lincoln was shot at the theater named "Ford’s".
Kennedy was shot in a car called "Lincoln – made by Ford Motor Co".
Booth ran from the theater and was caught in a warehouse.
Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater.
Both John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald were assassinated before their trials.


In 1975, a man riding a moped in Bermuda was accidentally struck and killed by a taxi. One year later, the man’s brother, riding the very same moped, was killed in the very same way by the very same taxi driven by the very same driver – and carrying the very same passenger.


On July 28th 1900, the King of Italy Umberto I was having dinner in a restaurant in the city of Monza, accompanied by his aide-de-camp, General Emilio Ponzia-Vaglia. When the owner, Umberto Satini, took King’s order, the King noticed that he and the restaurant owner were virtual doubles, in face and in build. Both men began discussing the striking resemblance between each other and found many more similarities.
Both men were born on the same day, of the same year (March 14, 1844).
Both men had been born in Turin.
Both men married a woman with same name, Marguerite.
The restaurateur opened his restaurant on the same day that King Umberto was crowned King of Italy.
King was very impressed and planned to meet the restaurant own to the other day, on the 29th July 1900. But in the morning King Umberto was informed that the restaurateur had died in a shooting accident (he was cleaning his gun and accidentally shouted himself), and as he expressed his regret and noted that in death date they are not similar, an anarchist in the crowd assassinated him. They died the same day.


A German mother who photographed her infant son in 1914 left the film to be developed at a store in Strasbourg, but was unable to collect the film picture when World War I broke out. Two years later she bought a film plate in Frankfurt, over 100 miles away, and took a picture of her newborn daughter—only to find, when developed, the picture of her daughter superimposed on the earlier picture of her son. The original film, never developed, had been mistakenly labeled as unused and resold.


In the 19th century, the famous horror writer Edgar Allan Poe wrote a book called ‘The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym.’ It was about four survivors of a shipwreck who were in an open boat for many days before they decided to kill and eat the cabin boy whose name was Richard Parker. Several years later, in 1884, the yawl, Mignonette, foundered, with only four survivors, who were in an open boat for many days. Eventually the three senior members of the crew killed and ate the cabin boy. The name of the cabin boy was Richard Parker.


In 1930s Detroit, a man named Joseph Figlock was to become an amazing figure in a young (and, apparently, incredibly careless) mother’s life. As Figlock was walking down the street, the mother’s baby fell from a high window onto Figlock. The baby’s fall was broken and Figlock and the baby were unharmed. A year later, the same baby fell from the same window, again falling onto Mr. Figlock as he was passing beneath. Once again, both of them survived the event.


Not well known is the story of Egypt Pharaoh Menes’ double. When pharaoh was traveling in his large country, to his throne came an impostor. During a month he ruled the country and passed many smart laws.
When pharaoh finally returned, it turned out that he and the impostor were very similar. They both even had birthmarks at breast in form of sun with rays. However real pharaoh managed to prove whose the throne is. He demonstrated the scar which he had since teen age.


On a hot July night of 1930, a policeman called Allan Folby from Texas got in a car crash and damaged a femoral artery in his leg. He would have bled to death had not a passerby intervened and saved his live. The passerby’s name was Alfred Smith. He applied a tourniquet and Folby stopped bleeding. The policeman recovered and went back to his beat. Five years later, he got a call to proceed to a car crash site. He saw a man lying on the ground. The man was bleeding; his femoral artery was apparently damaged. The man’s name was Alfred Smith: he was the very man who saved Folby’s live in the past under the same circumstances. 

 

 

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via4 – The Royal Book of Lists By Matt Richardson