Reading Comprehension: Lincoln-Kennedy coincidences urban legend

Abraham Lincoln

American presidents Lincoln and Kennedy share a number of coincidences, the main one being that both of them were assassinated while in office. Wikipedia lists a number of them that have been popular knowledge since they first appeared in American press in 1964.

QUESTIONS:

• Which of these coincidences are the most surprising?
• Which ones do you think are simply chance?
• Do you think that similar coincidences could be found between any two people we chose? Explain your answer.

TEXT: (from Wikipedia)

• Both presidents were elected to the House of Representatives in '46.
• Both were losing candidates for their party's vice-presidential nomination in '56.
• Both presidents were elected to the presidency in '60, after a series of debates with their opponent.



John F. Kennedy


• Lincoln defeated incumbent Vice President John C. Breckenridge for the presidency in 1860; Kennedy defeated incumbent Vice President Richard M. Nixon for the presidency in 1960.
• Both their predecessors were the last presidents to be born in their respective centuries.
• Both their predecessors left office in their seventies and retired to Pennsylvania. James Buchanan, whom Lincoln succeeded, retired to Lancaster Township; Dwight D. Eisenhower, whom Kennedy succeeded, retired to Gettysburg. They both then died before the end of the decade.
• Both their Vice Presidents and successors were Southern Democrats named Johnson (Andrew Johnson and Lyndon B. Johnson) who were born in '08.
• Both presidents were concerned with the problems of black Americans and made their views strongly known in '63. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, which took effect in 1863. In 1963, Kennedy presented his reports to Congress on Civil Rights, and in June of that year delivered his Civil Rights Address on radio and television in which he proposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
• Both presidents, and their successors, conferred with a nationally-known black leader about civil rights. Both Lincoln and Andrew Johnson conferred with Frederick Douglass. Both Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson conferred with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr..
• Both presidents were known for their wit and eloquence, and both frequently quoted Shakespeare and the Bible in their speeches.
• Both presidents had been captains of ships in their private lives: Lincoln on a river boat, and Kennedy on PT-109.
• Each president suffered from a genetic disease. Lincoln had Marfan's syndrome. Kennedy had Addison's disease.
• Both presidents were shot in the head on a Friday seated beside their wives. Both Fridays preceded a major holiday observed within the week.
• Both presidents were accompanied by another couple.
• The male companion of the other couple was wounded by the assassin.
• Both presidents fathered four children, and had a son die during his presidency.
• Both presidents had only one child survive into the next century. That child served another president by political appointment.
• Both presidents' wives died in their sixties after an untimely decline in health, during the administration of a president who had seen their husbands in Washington, D.C. the same year as the assassination.
• Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre; Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald in a Lincoln automobile, made by Ford.
• Both presidents' last names have 7 letters.
• Both assassins' full names have 15 letters.
• Each assassin committed his crime in the building where he was employed.
• Both presidents were purportedly smiling immediately before the assassination began.
• After shooting Lincoln, Booth ran from a theatre to a warehouse; after shooting Kennedy, Oswald ran from a warehouse to a theatre.
• Both Johnsons were succeeded as President in '69 by Republicans whose mothers were named Hannah.
• Both assassins died in the same month as their victim in a state adjacent to the state of their birth.
• Both assassins were Southern white males born in the late '30s, who were in their mid-20s.
• Both assassins were sympathetic to a government that opposed the United States, and both resided within that government's borders.
• Both assassins were killed before being tried, by men who were reared in the North, changed their name as adults, and were bachelors.
• Both assassins suffered injuries during escape.
• Both assassins fled using modes of transportation they did not own. Booth rented a horse, Oswald rode a bus.
• Both had body guards named William, William H. Crook told Lincoln not to go to the assassination point, William Greer drove JFK to the assassination point.
• Both body guards named William died within 48 hours of being aged 75 years, 5 months.
• Presidential security was heavily criticized, after each assassination, for being too lax.
• Lincoln sat in box number 7 at Ford's Theater; Kennedy sat in car number 7 in the motorcade.
• The doctors who primarily attended to each president were both named Charles. Dr. Charles Leale treated Lincoln. Dr. Charles Crenshaw treated Kennedy.
• Each president died in a place with the initials "P.H." Lincoln died at the Petersen House and Kennedy died at Parkland Hospital.