People who predicted their own deaths

Day 313 / 365

The Halleys’ comet is seen every 75 years, and its next visit will be in 2061. The author Mark Twain was born in 1835, a year when the comet was seen. 75 years later, when the comet was supposed to be seen again, Mark Twain predicted that his death. He said —

“I came in with Halley’s Comet… It is coming again … and I expect to go out with it… The Almighty has said, no doubt: ‘Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.”

And sure enough, he died from a heart attack within 24 hours of the next sighting of the comet! People predicting their deaths might just be a coincidence, but it has happened a number of times that it sure feels spooky.

Ronnie Van Zant, the founding member of the band Lynard Skynard, regularly said that he will not live up to the age of 30. He died in a plane crash just 3 months before his 30th birthday.

Pete Maravich, an NBA player said in an interview that he doesn’t want to keep playing for 10 years and die of a heart attack when he is 40. You probably guessed what happened, he died of a heart attack while he was playing basketball at the age of 40!

This post is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog — Roman Timekeeping