Unusual Coincidences – Dale’s Daily Data

On three separate occasions - in the years 1664, 1785, and 1860 - there was a shipwreck in which only one person survived the accident. Each time that one person was named Hugh Williams.  

Several secret code words were devised by Allied military commanders during their preparations to invade Normandy in World War II. Among them were the words "Utah," "Neptune," "Mulberry," "Omaha" and "Overlord." Before the invasion could begin, all of the words appeared in a crossword puzzle in the London Daily Telegraph. The man who made up the puzzle, an English school teacher, was interrogated for hours.  Turned out it was nothing more than a coincidence.  

In the 1930's in New York, a commuter train drove off a bridge into Newark Bay killing 30 passengers.  A picture in the newspaper clearly showed the number 932 on the side of one of the coaches.  A large number of people used that number for the Manhattan numbers game and the number came up!  Thousands of people won. 

In 1911, three men convicted of murder were hanged at a place called Greenberry Hill in London. The killers’ last names were Green, Berry and Hill.  

In 1899 a man was killed by a bolt of lightning as he stood in the backyard of his home in Italy. 36 years later his son was also killed by a bolt of lightning standing in the very same spot in the yard.  Twenty years after that the grandson of the first victim was also killed by yet another bolt of lightning standing in the same spot in the yard.