We can’t always have a logical explanation for every situation. A series of events that happen in a remarkably concurrent way with no obvious connections is simply going to be interpreted in different ways by different people. Science would claim they are just that, coincidences, while religion and cultures would often attribute them to supernatural forces. Sometimes, events may occur in such a powerfully striking way that the term “coincidence” becomes unfit to describe them.
That being said, below are 7 look-alike coincidences in history that will certainly blow your mind.
A visual description of “spitting image”
Can anyone explain why Jennifer Lopez looks exactly like the Egyptian actress, Zubaida Tharwat? J.Law was born in 1991 in the United States while Tharwat was born in 1940 in Alexandria, Egypt. Tharwat was known for having “the most beautiful eyes in classic Egyptian cinema” and played in movies such as There is A Man in Our House and Part Virgin. She passed away in 2016.
Twin brothers in different centuries and from different mothers
Arsenal’s player, Mesut Ozil from Germany looks exactly like Enzo Ferrari, the automobile magnate from Italy. Surprisingly, Ferrari died in 1988, the same year Ozil was born, and the resemblance is too mind-blowing to not ask those … weird questions.
We are often told that everyone on earth has at least one doppelganger, and it can be pretty flattering when people say you look like a celebrity. Looking almost exactly like someone who is not your identical twin or related to you in any way has boggled humans for ages. It also fosters the religious and cultural ideas of reincarnation. Well, reincarnation doesn’t explain the situation when both persons are alive at the same time.
Scientists have a reasonable explanation for this. [1] Every pair of unrelated humans on earth would share 99.5% of their gene sequence, just like we share 97% of our gene sequence with chimpanzees. In the remaining 0.5% which accounts for a huge part of individual variation, there are 16 million base pairs of DNA. The more closely related you are to someone, the higher the amount of gene sequence you’ll share with them, which is why identical twins share 100% of their gene sequence with each other.
More research is required in this area of study, but according to geneticist Arthur Beaudet, M.D., a professor at the Baylor College of Medicine, “People who look identical almost certainly share more DNA than two random strangers who don’t look alike,”
The tragedy of the Hoover Dam
The story of the Tierney father and son will remain a scary question in American history. George Tierney, one of the earliest workers on the Hoover Dam died on December 20, 1922, while doing preparatory work on the dam. His son, 25-year-old Patrick Tierney, one of the last workers on the dam also died on December 20, 1935, as they wrapped up construction at the site.
The collision that shocked Ohio
In 1895, as automobile production was beginning to find its footing in the world, the only two cars in the American state of Ohio collided at a sharp bend. The particulars of the case are unknown since the records of the survivors weren’t documented, but what are the odds that the only two vehicles in an entire state will collide head-to-head with each other? Could they have been in a pre-planned racing game?
Is this the worst incident of sheer bad luck?
In July 1975, 17-year-old Erskine Lawrence Ebbin from the Bermuda Islands was riding his moped on the road when he was hit and killed by a taxi. A year later, also in July, his 17-year-old younger brother was killed by a taxi as he rode his elder brother’s moped. The coincidence becomes almost unbelievable as the taxi was being driven by the same driver that hit his older brother while carrying the same passenger.
The rumors of Edgar Allan Poe’s time machine
Edgar Allan Poe is one of the timeless pioneers of American literature. In Poe’s 1838 book, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, he wrote about four ship-wrecked sailors who had to kill their ship-boy, a character named Richard Parker, and ate his flesh to survive. Poe claimed the events in the book were based on real-life happenings, and of course, no one believed him.
Forty-six years later, a boat actually sank in real life and the sailors ate their ship-boy who was surprisingly named Richard Parker, like the cannibalized character in Poe’s book. The events were so strikingly similar that rumors began to spread about Poe owning a time machine with which he’d traveled to the future.
Next door neighbors – but two centuries apart
German-British composer George Frideric lived in the 18th century and was a truly influential figure in the baroque era of music. James Marshall “Jimi” Hendrix was an American musician, singer, and songwriter who is remembered as one of the most influential electric guitarists of the 20th century. Handel had lived in London at 25 Brook Street, Mayfair, while Hendrix lived at 23 Brook Street two centuries later. It’s amazing how two men who powerfully impacted the global music industry could have been neighbors if they’d lived at the same time.
References
- ” Scientists Explain How Total Strangers Can Pass for Twins.” Women’s Health. Korin Miller. Retrieved October 22, 2020.