History is full of strange and unusual coincidences. Some people think that connections between events are nothing more than unusual coincidences – others see historical connections as proof that history repeats itself.
Of all the strange coincidences in history, few are as fascinating as the connection between President Abraham Lincoln and President John F. Kennedy.
This week I thought it would be fun to change things up and take a closer look at the two presidents and point out some of the similarities between them. Spoiler alert – there are a lot!
Names
One of the first things people notice is that Lincoln and Kennedy’s names each have seven letters.
Most (including me) would dismiss this as a coincidence, but others would point out that not only do the names of the two presidents have the same number of letters, but their vice presidents’ names also have the same number of letters and both had the last name Johnson.
To make things even more interesting, the assassins of Lincoln and Kennedy, John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald, not only had three names, but also the same number of letters (15) in their names.
It is also noteworthy that each president had a security agent named William (William Crook; William Greer). Both agents had 12 letters in their names.
Dates
Both presidents were elected to Congress and to the presidency 100 years apart. Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress for Illinois in 1846. John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress for Massachusetts in 1946.
Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States in 1860. John F. Kennedy was elected President of the United States in 1960. Even more interesting is the fact that their assassins were 100 years apart. John Wilkes Booth was born in 1839 and Lee Harvey Oswald in 1939.
As if that wasn’t remarkable enough, Vice President Andrew Johnson was born in 1808, 100 years before Lyndon Johnson, who was born in 1908.
Finally, both presidents were assassinated on a Friday – Lincoln was killed on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, and Kennedy on Friday, November 22, 1963.
policy
Civil rights and race played a major role in President Lincoln and President Kennedy’s presidencies.
Lincoln did not originally intend to free the slaves, but believed that slavery should be abolished and eventually did so with the Emancipation Proclamation, which led to the freeing of slaves in the Confederate states.
Kennedy was concerned about racial inequality and was the first to propose the Civil Rights Act, which would be signed and enacted after his death.
Assassins
We’ve already identified some similarities between the Assassins, but there are others that are equally interesting.
Both men killed the presidents from their workplaces – John Wilkes Booth was a regular performer at Ford’s Theater and Lee Harvey Oswald worked at the Texas Book Depository.
Booth shot Lincoln in a theater and then fled to a barn that was being used as a warehouse. Oswald killed Kennedy from a warehouse and then fled to a theater. Both assassins were killed before they could be brought to justice.
Miscellaneous
Lincoln was killed in Ford’s theater. Kennedy was killed while driving a Lincoln (a company owned by Ford).
Both presidents were killed by gunshot wounds to the back of the head.
John F. Kennedy’s personal secretary warned him not to go to Dallas – her name was Evelyn Lincoln.
Both presidents were in their 30s when they married women in their 20s.
It’s easy to look at the uncanny coincidences between Kennedy and Lincoln and point to some kind of supernatural power, but it’s just as easy to say that coincidences can be found anywhere if you look hard enough.
So do the assassinations of Lincoln and Kennedy prove that history repeats itself? Or are they simply an example of what the great Mark Twain once said: “History never repeats itself, but sometimes it rhymes.”
At this point, we’ll probably never know.
