Bizarre Coincidences in History that Shaped Our World
This article highlights strange coincidences throughout history, including remarkable stories like two cars crashing in Ohio and Henry Ziegland's unconventional fate 30 years after being shot.
Throughout history, a series of remarkable events have unfolded that have shaped the world as we know it today. These peculiar coincidences range from the comical to the astonishing, yet they all share a common thread: they are some of the most bizarre occurrences in recorded history.
For instance, in the year 1895, there were exactly two cars in the entire state of Ohio, until they both crashed into each other. While DMV records from the 1890s are scarce (the department wasn't founded until 1915), this story has been linked to publications such as Life magazine in 1967 and "The Blunder Book" from 1984.
Considering that Ohio covers more than 44,800 square miles, the odds of the only two cars in the state meeting and crashing is a feat in itself.
If you thought that story was strange, consider the tale of Henry Ziegland, who met an unusual fate 30 years after a bullet was fired at him. In 1883 in Honey Grove, Texas, Ziegland ended a relationship which led his girlfriend to commit suicide. Her brother, enraged and seeking revenge, shot Ziegland, but the bullet only grazed him, knocking him unconscious.
The brother, believing Ziegland dead, took his own life. Ziegland went on to live his life, only to have a bizarre twist of fate occur three decades later. While attempting to blow up a stubborn tree, the explosion released the bullet that had been lodged in the tree from the original duel, ultimately killing him.
Another strange case is R (Regina) v Dudley and Stephens, an 1884 English criminal case that set a precedent in common law that necessity cannot justify murder. Dudley and Stephens, alongside two others, were shipwrecked after their yacht sank. Without prospects for rescue, they made the grim choice to kill and eat the cabin boy, Richard Parker.
Following a highly publicised trial, they were convicted of murder and sentenced to death, although this was later commuted to six months in prison. The oddity lies in the fact that Edgar Allan Poe wrote a story where four survivors of a shipwreck also decided to kill and eat a cabin boy named Richard Parker.
