Uncanny

May Day. The death of Adolf Hitler was announced to the world on May 1. The death of Osama bin Laden was announced to the world on May 1.

• Osama bin Laden was killed on May 1, 2011 -- eight years to the day after President George W. Bush famously announced "Mission Accomplished." (Bush got the right day, just the wrong year.)

 

What is it about our presidents and the Fourth of July?

• On July 4, 1826 -- the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence -- the nation celebrated its golden anniversary, and two of the founders who served on the committee to produce the document, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, died on that memorial day.
• James Monroe died on July 4, 1831.
• Without direct military linkage, Vicksburg in the western theater and Gettysburg in the eastern theater were both secured for Union armies on the same day -- July 4, 1863. Generals Grant (a future president) and Meade were operating independently.
• Calvin Coolidge was born on July 4, 1872.

 

On the Ides of March, Brutus, Cassius, and fellow republicans assassinated Julius Caesar in an attempt to preserve the Roman republic. They were ultimately unsuccessful. On the Ides of March 1783, George Washington advanced the American cause and saved our republic when he rooted out the plot among his officers at Newburgh who wanted him either to become king or to lead a military takeover of the Confederated Congress, which had not honored its promises to our Patriot soldiers. Washington was successful.

 

Curse of Tippecanoe: After the Indians in Indiana Territory lost a major battle on the Tippecanoe River in 1811, Tecumseh's brother Tenskwatawa, known as "the Prophet," supposedly set a curse against William Henry Harrison and future presidents who were elected every 20 years. They would ultimately die in office. The "curse" applied to seven presidents in an uncanny pattern:
- William Henry Harrison, elected president in 1840, died in 1841.
- Abraham Lincoln, elected in 1860, died in 1865.
- James Garfield, elected in 1880, died in 1881.
- William McKinley, elected in 1900, died in 1901.
- Warren Harding, elected in 1920, died in 1923.
- Franklin Roosevelt, elected in 1940, died in 1945.
- John F. Kennedy, elected in 1960, died in 1963.
NB: Ronald Reagan, elected in 1980, was almost killed by John Hinkley on March 30, 1981.

 

The 6th century B.C. saw an uncanny rise in spiritual and intellectual pioneers who would make a permanent contribution to the worldview of human beings -- Confucius, Lao Tzu, Buddha, Thales of Miletus, and possibly Zoroaster were all contemporaries.

 

 

Why is it that so many of the great spiritual and intellectual leaders of humankind did not write their teachings down? Confucius, Buddha, Socrates, Jesus, Muhammad?

 

 

Newton was born on the day Galileo died.

 

Newton and Leibniz created the calculus around the same time, unknown to each other.

 

Darwin and Wallace refined the idea of evolution around the same time.

 

The 12th-century B.C. saw the decline and/or fall of numerous peoples, just as the 5th-6th centuries A.D. did. Why do civilizations fall in clusters?


What is it about Monday, January 22, 1973? The Supreme Court overturned state anti-abortion laws in Roe v. Wade; Lyndon Johnson died on his ranch, leaving the U.S. without a living ex president; and U.S. involvement in Vietnam was coming to a formal end.

 

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Lincoln-Kennedy comparisons:

 

- Lincoln's name has 7 letters
- Kennedy's name has 7 letters

 

- In Lincoln's and Kennedy's names the vowels & consonants fall in exactly the same place in the order c, v, c, c, v, c, c

 

- Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
- Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

 

- Lincoln was elected president in 1860.
- Kennedy was elected president in 1960.

 

- Both their wives lost a child while living in the White House.

 

- Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln.

 

- Lincoln was succeeded, after assassination, by vice-president Johnson.
- Kennedy was succeeded, after assassination, by vice-president Johnson.

 

- Andrew Johnson was born in 1808.
- Lyndon Johnson was born in 1908.

 

- Andrew Johnson's name has 13 letters
- Lyndon Johnson's name has 13 letters

 

- Lincoln was sitting beside his wife when he was shot.
- Kennedy was sitting beside his wife when he was shot.

 

- Rathbone, who was with Lincoln when he was shot, was injured (by being stabbed).
- Connally, who was with Kennedy when he was shot, was injured (by being shot).

 

- Rathbone's name has 8 letters.
- Connally's name has 8 letters.

 

- Lincoln's wife held his head in her lap after he was shot.
- Kennedy's wife held his head in her lap after he was shot.

 

- Lincoln was shot on a Friday.
- Kennedy was shot on a Friday.

 

- Lincoln was shot in a theater named  Ford.
- Kennedy was shot in a car made by  Ford -- and in a car named Lincoln.

 

- Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assassin ran to a warehouse (actually a tobacco shed).
- JFK was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran to a theater.

 

- Lincoln's assassin had a three-worded name, John Wilkes Booth.
- Kennedy's assassin had a three-worded name, Lee Harvey Oswald.

 

- John Wilkes Booth has 15 letters.
- Lee Harvey Oswald has 15 letters.

 

Close, but no cigar:
- John Wilkes Boothe was born in 1838.
- Lee Harvey Oswald was born in 1939.

 

- Lincoln and Kennedy died in places beginning with the initials P and H:
Lincoln died in the Petersen house.
Kennedy died in Parkland Hospital.

 

- Booth was shot and killed in police custody before going to trial.
- Oswald was shot and died in police custody before going to trial

 

- Andrew Johnson was a heavy drinker with crude behaviour
- Lyndon Johnson was a heavy drinker with crude behaviour

 

- There were conspiracy theories that Johnson was knowledgeable about Lincoln's assassination
- There were conspiracy theories that Johnson was knowledgeable about Kennedy's assassination**

 

- Jefferson Davis was the name of the president of the Confederate states while Lincoln was president of the Union states
- Jefferson Davis Tippitt was the name of the police officer killed allegedly by Kennedy's alleged assassin

 

By the way, Robert Lincoln, the eldest son of Abraham Lincoln, was saved from an accident by John Wilkes Booth's brother.