Some events truly seem against all odds. Could these events really just be chance, or are they signs of a greater design? Here are some astounding personal accounts and some famous “coincidences.”
The personal accounts were given by social media users on Quora and Reddit.
1. Of All the Payphones in France …
My wife and her brother were traveling through Europe in the spring of 1986. I was home working in California.
I knew their itinerary but did not know exactly where they were. [I] hadn’t talked to them in a couple of days. [I] got bored [and] called an overseas operator and got her to call a pay phone outside of Monet’s gardens in Giverny [, France].
After about 15 rings, someone finally picked up the phone. It was my wife. Needless to say, it blew both our minds.
Payphone image via Shutterstock
2. A Mysterious Bond Between Families
About six years ago, my family traveled to San Diego. While we were there, we befriended a family made up of two little people and their teenage son, who was average-sized. We spent a few hours with them and parted ways.
Four years ago, my family traveled on an Alaskan cruise line. We had dinner on day three, and who’s sitting at the table next to us?
The family of little people [and their] teenage son.
We all laugh about it and spend the last two days of the cruise hanging out ...
Last year, my family traveled to Australia. We were having a jolly time looking at all the things that could kill us. One day, we decide to go scuba-diving at the Great Barrier Reef. Who do you think was in our instruction group? The … family of little people [and their] teenage son.
3. Stalin’s Hubris Draws Warlord’s Curse?
Soviet communist dictator Joseph Stalin wanted to see the face of the 14th century Turko-Mongol warlord Tamerlane (also known as Timur) entombed in Samarkand. Legend held that “the War God’s sleep must not be disturbed,” as recounted in Edvard Radzinsky’s biography of Stalin. If Tamerlane’s corpse were disturbed, went the legend, Tamerlane would return on the third day, bringing war.
Stalin scoffed at the legend and on June 19, 1941, he opened the coffin. On June 21, Stalin found out Germany was set to invade the Soviet Union at dawn the next day.
Monument to Tamerlane. (Shutterstock)
4. Strange Signs Before 9/11
Georgia, August 2001: I was ten at the time, and I was never one to believe in coincidence or superstition; I was a ten-year-old boy just having fun.
I kid you not, for that entire month, every time I looked at a clock or watch to check the time it always, always, read 9:11 (by the twentieth time or so, I started making a game of this).
This went on until 9/11.
When watching the news at school the morning of [9/11], other kids were sitting at their desks crying; I was sitting at mine too, but I had other things on my mind. Picture me clutching the desk with both hands firmly, eyes bulging, sweating profusely, trying not to have a heart-attack, thoughts of me being a seer running through my head.
5. Exactly Right Song, Right Place, Right Time
I was in a cheap restaurant with friends for a quick meal. I ate up before they did and was getting downstairs to wait for them outside. I was singing a Turkish song in the stairs. I ran into someone while still singing, apologized, seeing him smiling, then recognizing him to be the composer and the singer of the song I was singing.
