Lincoln-Kennedy coincidences. The urban legend. (war, Washington, assassin, assassinated)

[Housemartin]

What about the Lincoln-Kennedy coincidences? Is that all true?

-Both presidents were elected to the presidency in '60.
-Both presidents were elected to the United States House of Representatives in '46.
-Both were runners-up for the party's nomination for vice-president in '56.
-Both successors were Southern Democrats named Johnson born in '08.
-Both presidents were concerned with the problems of American blacks and made their view strongly known in '63. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, which became law in 1863. In 1963, Kennedy presented his reports to Congress on Civil Rights, and the same year was the famous March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
-Both presidents were shot in the head.
-Both presidents were shot in presence of their wives.
-Both presidents were shot on a Friday.
-Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre. Kennedy was shot in a Ford car, a Lincoln limousine.
-Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy who told him not to go to the theatre. Kennedy had a secretary named Evelyn Lincoln (who was born 100 years after Abraham Lincoln, and whose husband Harold's nickname was Abe), and she warned him not to go to Dallas.
-Both Oswald and Booth were killed before they could be put on trial.
-Lincoln and Kennedy each have 7 letters.
-Lincoln and Kennedy both have five syllables in their full name (which counts Kennedy's middle initial).
-John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald each have 15 letters and 3 words.
-There are 6 letters in each Johnson's first name.

Not at all

[Irishtom29]

Lincoln's secretary was John Nicolay and his assistant was John Hay. Neither of the Lincoln biographies I own (one by David Donald and the other by Benjamin Thomas) even mention a fella named Kennedy in the index.

[Grandstander]

What is the suggested conclusion? That some higher power deliberately arranged for any two presidents with that many coincidences in common, to both be assassinated?

One could as easily compile lists of differences:
Lincoln had a Secretary of War named Stanton, Kennedy had one named McNamara.
Lincoln's wife was frumpy and difficult, Kennedy's wife was beautiful and charming.
Lincoln lived for nearly nine hours after his shooting, Kennedy was declared dead within 30 minutes.
Lincoln was shot in Washington DC, Kennedy in Dallas.

...that sort of thing.

Are the similarities meaningful while the differences are not?

[slowlane2]

This link explains that the similarities aren't really as coincidental as they seem snopes.com: Lincoln and Kennedy Coincidences

[Housemartin]

I'm not a fan of that kind of things you are saying, of course.
In my post I don't say nothing about conclusions, gods, destiny, conspirations or UFOs.

I read the article (pretty late, I guess) and I was just asking what was true and what lie in the coincidences list. So I've already know that someones aren't true. That's all. Thanks

[jtur88]

"Coincidence" is not a fixed object like a cube that has an absolute and discrete perimeter. Anything can be included or excluded from the category of Coincidence, according to the whim of the evaluator.

The true test would be to make a random selection of two past presidents, and see if one can manufacture a set of "coincidences" that are as compelling as the ones associated with Lincoln/Kennedy. I know of no such accomplishment, and no doubt it has never been tried. But to declare that Lincoln/Kennedy do or do not harbor statistically significant coincidences, remains an unfounded statement without a control with which to compare it.

Even then, there is no reason to assume that it is anything more than coincidence, because it's the mathematical nature of probability that no coincidence is too improbable to ever occur by mere happenstance.

[Mathguy]

I would imagine that if you thoroughly went through the backgrounds of two random US citizens you could come up with all kinds of "wierd links" like their 2nd grade teachers were both named Susan Smith or they have the same birthday or that they had a dog named fluffy etc etc etc.

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by jtur88

The true test would be to make a random selection of two past presidents, and see if one can manufacture a set of "coincidences" that are as compelling as the ones associated with Lincoln/Kennedy. I know of no such accomplishment, and no doubt it has never been tried. But to declare that Lincoln/Kennedy do or do not harbor statistically significant coincidences within a margin of error, remains an unfounded statement without a control with which to compare it.

There could be no such test, none of the accepted statistical methodologies are designed to cope with what would be virtually limitless variables. I could skew any such study immediately by selective emphasis on either similarities or differences. Let's see, Presidents Jackson and Truman both had...

two eyes
two legs
two kidneys
two ears
one heart
one gall bladder
etc etc etc

or
Jackson was tall, Truman was short.
Jackson was married to a woman named Rachel, Truman to a woman named Margaret
Jackson fought against the British in the War of 1812, Truman fought with the British in WW I.
Jackson decharted the Nationa Bank, Truman left it alone
Truman played the piano, Jackson did not.
etc etc etc

See the problem? Where do you close down your sets of variables in order to apply any tests for statistical sig?

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by Grandstander

There could be no such test, none of the accepted statistical methodologies are designed to cope with what would be virtually limitless variables. I could skew any such study immediately by selective emphasis on either similarities or differences. Let's see, Presidents Jackson and Truman both had...

two eyes
two legs
two kidneys
two ears
one heart
one gall bladder
etc etc etc



See the problem? Where do you close down your sets of variables in order to apply any tests for statistical sig?

We start out by taking a reasonable approach unencumbered by kibbitzers who have nothing to offer but silly comparisons. Obviously, anything that is held in common by 99%+ of all human beings, it is just being silly to even consider it. You see, it is so amazingly simple to weed out the elements that are just plain silly, that almost everybody except Fox News can do it intuitively, and it would not be hard to get a consensus of what constitutes at least some degree of unexpected coincidence.

We even have enough demographic data that we could exclude all coincidences in which there is more than some agreed-upon probability, say 1%. The probability that any two people are both left handed is about 0.5%. That would be an admissible coincidence, but the probability that both had a high school teacher named William might be about 80%, so that would inadmissible.

Obviously the limiting factor would be the things that historians can reasonably know with fair certainty about each one. That would reduce the number of comparisons to a manageable number, since there would not be the myriad possibilities of dreaming the same thing on a certain date, or wearing the same socks for X days in a row.

The both had two eyes would be a silly point. But they both had one glass one would not be. I think Truman was married to a woman named Bess, so we should at least try to get them right.

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by jtur88

The both had two eyes would be a silly point. But they both had one glass one would not be.

But would the fact that neither had a glass eye be meaningful?

What would be the purpose of such an experiment, if you could design a satisfactory one? Where is the hypothesis? If you were to identify two presidents with an uncommonly large number of similarities and common coincidences, this would establish.....what? That it is possible to have two presidents with that many similarities and common coincidences? That only the intervention of some higher power could have made this possible? That the hand of destiny is evident in these odds defying outcomes?