The Lincoln-Kennedy coincidences

Over the years in writing weekly columns and news stories, research on men like Abraham Lincoln has led me to believe that he was one of America’s greatest presidents.

After a column about Lincoln a few years ago, a reader called and said, “Have you ever heard of the amazing coincidences between Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy?” When my answer was no, I had not, she mailed me a copy of the article.

When the article arrived, the amazing coincidences between the two slain American Presidents were not only amazing, but it also gave me a very strange feeling. If you have never read this story, allow me to pass it along to you; you will find it very interesting.

Lincoln was elected President in 1860 and Kennedy was elected in 1960 exactly 100 years later. There are seven letters in each name, both Presidents were assassinated on Friday and both in the presence of their wives.

Both were directly concerned with civil rights and both had the legality of their elections contested.

President Kennedy’s secretary’s name was Lincoln, who warned him not to go to Dallas; Lincoln’s secretary’s name was Kennedy, who warned him not to go to the theater.

Both of their successors’ names were Johnson, Andrew Johnson and Lyndon Johnson. Each name contains 13 letters. Both men served in the U.S. Senate and both were southern Democrats. Andrew Johnson was born in 1808 and Lyndon Johnson was born in 1908.

Booth and Oswald were both southerners favoring unpopular ideas. Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and hid in a theater and Booth shot Lincoln in a theater and hid in a warehouse.

Booth and Oswald were both murdered before a trial could be arranged. Booth and Oswald were born 100 years apart and each name, Lee Harvey Oswald and John Wilkes Booth, has 15 letters.

It is highly unusual that there are so many coincidences, and while we live in a world of order, the chances or the odds that this will ever occur again has to be very slim. D. W. Allen once said that coincidence is chance stumbling more than once in the same place.

After reading the article that was sent to me, it reminded me of the words of Satchel Paige, “Do not look back, something may be gaining on you.”

PERCEPTION

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. was and still is generally regarded as one of the most outstanding justices in the history of the United States Supreme Court. He was known as The Great Dissenter because he disagreed with the other judges so much.

Holmes sat on the Supreme Court until he was 91 years old. Two years later, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt visited him, he was reading Plato. “Why?” FDR asked him. “To improve my mind,” Holmes answered.

And we all remember the famous words of John F. Kennedy, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.”

Have a great week and thank God for these great Presidents who served our nation so well.

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