Lincoln Kennedy Riddle

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Abraham Lincoln , 1863
John F. Kennedy , 1963

The Lincoln-Kennedy riddle is a series of alleged and actual matches relating to the two US Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy who were killed, and which emerged not long after Kennedy's murder in 1963 and which has appeared repeatedly in the media since then.

Notable actual matches

  • The last names of both presidents, Lincoln and Kennedy, each contain seven letters, of which the same number of "n".
  • Both Lincoln and Kennedy were their parents' secondborn children; Lincoln is sometimes wrongly called "son".
  • Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846 , Kennedy in 1946. Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860, Kennedy in 1960.
  • Lincoln was shot in the Ford Theater . Kennedy was in a Ford Lincoln car during the assassination attempt .
  • Both were accompanied by another couple when they were murdered, each of which injured the man.
  • Both attacks took place on a Friday (although Lincoln did not die the following Saturday).
  • Both were shot by southerners . The Lincoln killer Booth was born in Maryland , which was not separated from the United States during the Civil War , but which is counted among the southern states.
  • In both cases, the alleged murderers were killed themselves before their trials.
  • Both presidents were succeeded by southerners named Johnson.
  • Andrew Johnson , Lincoln's successor, was born in 1808. Lyndon B. Johnson , Kennedy's successor, was born in 1908.

Banal matches

  • The names of the alleged murderers John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald each contain 15 letters. There are also three names in both cases. - Three names are the norm in the United States, such as John Fitzgerald Kennedy, William Jefferson Clinton, George Walker Bush. The average name length is between 13 and 18 letters, which is why the 15 letters do not represent a particular coincidence.
  • Both presidents were shot dead in the presence of their wife. - Presidents are most likely to be shot in public, where a murderer can get at them more easily, and it is not uncommon for a president to be accompanied by his wife in public.
  • Both were hit in the back of the head. - It is understandable that murderers often aim at the head when the victim is sitting.
  • Both presidents campaigned for civil rights (in the sense of the rights of African Americans ). - You weren't the only ones; Furthermore, it is debatable to what extent they actually advocated civil rights. Lincoln only had slavery abolished during the Civil War.

Refuted rumors

  • Lincoln's secretary was called Kennedy, and Kennedy's secretary was Evelyn Lincoln. - Kennedy actually had a secretary named Evelyn Lincoln ; the claim that Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy is fabricated.
  • John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln's killer, was born in 1839; Lee Harvey Oswald, Kennedy's killer, 1939. - Booth was actually born in 1838.
  • Booth fled the theater and was caught in a warehouse; Oswald fled the warehouse and was caught in a (film) theater. - In reality, Booth was caught in a tobacco shed on a farm, but this can pass as a warehouse.
  • Both assassins were murdered before their trial. - Booth died in a gun battle; Reports of a "murder" are highly dubious.
  • The Kennedy chauffeur who drove the car in which he was shot was called Lincoln. - In truth, Kennedy was driven in Dallas by Secret Service man William Greer .

Explanations

In response to the reproduction of the "puzzle" American US in the media, in particular by the newspaper columnist Ann Landers, the magazine hosted Skeptical Inquirer , dedicated to the debunking of superstition and pseudoscience busy 1992 a Spooky Presidential Coincidences Contest ( "Contest for uncanny matches among presidents ”). Readers should find their own lists of such parallels with other presidential couples. One of the two contest winners (a Mexican ) had found 16 astonishing matches between Kennedy and former Mexican President Alvaro Obregón , the other had compiled lists of no fewer than 21 different pairs of US presidents.

The phenomenon that even in a relatively small group of people it is likely that two people can be found who have a certain characteristic, such as the date of birth, is known in mathematics as the birthday paradox . The corresponding mathematical calculations show that among the (then) 36 dead US presidents there is an 83% probability that at least two can be found who have the same date of death - in fact, Millard Fillmore and William Howard Taft both died on March 8th. Even Harry S. Truman and Gerald Ford both died at a 26 December. With the second US President John Adams and the third US President Thomas Jefferson , two presidents died on the same day on July 4, 1826, which was also the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence . In addition, the US congressional elections always take place in even years, the presidential elections in a consistently maintained four-year cycle, which limits the number of possible last two digits and makes exact one-hundred-year intervals between such events much more likely.

In addition, the number of characteristics that can be considered for such a list (day of the week of the murder, name of the successor, last two digits of the year of the first congressional election, etc.) is very large. It is also not specified which of them should match. So you can neglect the many mismatched properties and still get a respectable list.

See also

Web links