This cosmic story began not long after President Kennedy was assassinated. I first heard about the "remarkable" coincidences probably in Jr. High School. So, some of this story is old. Recently a document has been circulating on the internet outlining even more "remarkable" coincidences. A copy was forwarded to me by a colleague who had little to do one recent (05/01/00) morning. Being a skeptic, I decided that it might be fun to examine these coincidences using only information available on the World Wide Web, plus what I could remember from my high school U.S. History class. Here is what I determined.In what follows I will first summarize an alleged "amazing fact" in the cosmic connection as reported on the WWW, and then comment on what I verified about it using the WWW.
Alleged Amazing Fact
Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960. Comment
This is, of course, no more remarkable than two victims of assassination being elected 96 years apart or 104. One hundred is just such a nice, round number that people see extreme significance in it--much like they did the year 2000, for instance. There are many people who have been elected president 100 years apart. And each being assassinated doesn't deepen this coincidence one iota, because we chose two assassinated leaders and then found that by coincidence they were elected 100 years apart.
Alleged Amazing Fact
Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946. Comment
Obviously people might think that both men entering politics 100 years apart, and then being elected president also 100 years apart is a great coincidence. However, when two people are separated by about X years in history, it seems very likely, in fact more likely than not, that major milestones in their lives are separated by roughly the same increment as well. This is entirely expected. At least it is more expected than their being elected to congress 100 years apart, and being elected president 150 years apart, because one of them would have been in congress as long as Strom Thurmond. The parallel in political careers diverges here, for Kennedy won a Senate seat in 1952, while Lincoln lost his Senate bid in 1858.
Alleged Amazing Fact
The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters. Comment
OK, and I might add that their successor's names also had 7 letters. Perhaps seven letter last names are quite common.
Alleged Amazing Fact
Both were particularly concerned with civil rights. Comment
It would be more amazing if they hadn't been concerned with civil rights, because civil rights were THE SOCIAL CONCERNS of the day in both instances. During both of these time periods the country was nearly torn to pieces over the issue. In fact, to characterize the Lincoln Presidency as being "particularly concerned with civil rights" seems a comic understatement.
Alleged Amazing Fact
Both wives lost their children while living in the White House. Comment
This is a muddied statement that ought to read "Both their wives lost a child while living in the White House." In fact the Lincoln's lost three of their four children before the children reached adulthood. The death of children was not uncommon at the time. I am unable to find information regarding the Kennedy child, but I recall this being a miscarriage, which is not only surprisingly common, but makes the two losses not really comparable. Someone recently wrote with information they found on the web to the effect that the Kennedy child died of complications resulting from premature birth. Nonetheless there is less parallel than the myth suggests.
Alleged Amazing Fact
Both Presidents were shot on a Friday. Comment
I originally thought this was a mistake through a mistaken calculation of weekdays. I parodied the coincidence with, "This would be an excellent coincidence if it weren't for Kennedy being shot on a Thursday." However, a Mr. Goldman wrote to point out my error and I stand corrected. It's nice to see that someone reads this stuff. I just wish people would write for reasons other than to point out my errors. Ah, then Mr. Goldman wrote back to explain that Lincoln was actually shot on Thursday and died on Friday, whereas Kennedy was shot and died on Friday. Once again the full story has not quite the parallel that the simple story suggests.
Alleged Amazing Fact
Both Presidents were shot in the head. Comment
When someone is trying to kill a person, they will likely shoot them in the head. It is more effective than shooting them in the leg, for instance. So this is entirely expected.
Alleged Amazing Fact
Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln. Comment
This is quite difficult to analyze. How many secretaries and assistants did each have? Did Kennedy choose Lincoln as secretary from a pool of applicants because of his name? Sometimes coincidence is not all it seems. In fact, Robert Lincoln the eldest son of Abraham Lincoln, was saved from a nasty accident by J. Wilkes Booth's brother. Yet another cosmic connection? Most recently a Mr. Patrick Vincent wrote to tell me that his research on the web turned up evidence that Lincoln had no secretary named Kennedy. The interesting story of this myth is told at the web site synnergy . Another alleged coincidence dies.
Alleged Amazing Fact
Both were assassinated by Southerners. Comment
J. Wilkes Booth was born in Maryland. I suppose that if one were trying to force a cosmic connection, then Maryland might pass muster as a southern state. People have written to me refering to Maryland as a "border state", although I think of it as in the Union because we refer to Lee as "invading " MAryland in 1862 at Harper's Ferry and Antietam. The best a person could argue is that Wilkes was a southern sympathizer maybe.
Alleged Amazing Fact
Both were succeeded by Southerners. Comment
OK, granted; but it isn't as though each man having a southerner as Vice President was a random occurence. Each was a northern politician trying to win an election by choosing a southern running mate. Things that people do by design are not coincidences.
Alleged Amazing Fact
Both successors were named Johnson. Comment
It isn't as though Johnson is a strange last name.
Alleged Amazing Fact
Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908. Comment
There is that 100 year separation again.
Alleged Amazing Fact
John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939. Comment
They are trying for the 100 year thing again! It didn't work this time, though. Booth was actually born in 1838. What I found interesting about researching Lee Harvey Oswald's age is the misinformation regarding it in web documents.
Alleged Amazing Fact
Both assassins were known by their three names. Comment
A biography of Booth that I found on the world wide web suggested that he was known as J. Wilkes Booth. A Mr. Vsevolod Onyshkevych wrote to me and advanced the theory that killers are often known by their full (three) names and that this may be applied to each after the fact. He also provided a list of stunning length of the names of killers found from biographies on the web. Yes, Mr. Onyshkevych, the web is full of stange information.
Alleged Amazing Fact
Both names are comprised of fifteen letters. Comment
What a bore I'm going to be here. Let us suppose that the length of a name is a random variable (Poisson perhaps) where the probability of very long or very short names is small and the expected length is about 5 letters. Then, the distribution of the summed lengths of three names is going to be sharply peaked at 15 letters. In other words, this might be common. I can think of 5 members of my immediate family who meet this test also.
Alleged Amazing Fact
Lincoln was shot at the theatre named 'Kennedy'.
Kennedy was shot in a car called 'Lincoln'. Comment
I had trouble believing what I was reading here, because I recalled distinctly from High School or earlier that Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre. Practically any person with high school education would recall this fact. Moreover, this seems to be a corruption of the original list of coicindences in which this one was "Lincoln was shot in a theatre built by Ford. Kennedy was shot in a car built by Ford."
Alleged Amazing Fact
Booth ran from the theatre and was caught in a warehouse.
Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theatre. Comment
Well, I could explain this coincidence as resulting from the shear number of theaters and warehouses, but the story of Booth's escape is so complex that to characterize it as "ran from a theatre and was caught in a warehouse" skirts the suburbs of misrepresentation. Booth was ultimately caught in a tobacco shed on a farm, which hardly qualifies as a warehouse.
Alleged Amazing Fact
Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials. Comment
Booth died in a gunbattle, so reports of his assassination are highly exaggerated.
Alleged Amazing Fact
This is the climactic last alleged fact that the author decribed as "the kicker."
A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was in Marilyn Monroe. Comment
I was pretty sure at this point that the whole e-mail was a joke. Nevertheless, I have gone this far, and I may as well finish. Marilyn Monroe died over one year before Kennedy's assassination. Once again Mr. Onyshkevych has written to tell me that there is no Monroe, Maryland known to the U.S. Post Office at least. Perhaps there was in 1865.
