Whether you are someone who believes that the Universe always has a plan or someone who believes in taking life as it comes, real-life and historical coincidences have always been events that surprise even the best of us. So, here is a list of coincidences that are so unbelievable that you’d write them off as bad writing had they been used in a movie script…

1 BBC reporter asks man if he remembers 1967 Everton vs Liverpool derby. He replies: “I played in it!”

Tommy Lawrence was an ex-Reds goalkeeper and represented Liverpool between the years 1957 and 1971. He was also a fan favorite among the Anfield faithful and had a nickname “the flying pig” because of his ability to dive around the penalty area despite having a heavy frame.

The BBC reporter was interviewing the public before the Merryside derby about the 1967 game and had a pleasant surprise when the gentleman answered that he had played in it.(source)

2 The sun and moon appear to be the same size because of an astonishing coincidence: The moon is 400 times smaller but 400 times closer.

Our solar system exists as a result of many events that took place since it was born, including the exact placement of the planets, their satellites and orbits. And it so happens that there is another such unique geometrical relationship between the Sun, the Moon and the Earth. The apparent sizes of the Sun and the Moon are roughly the same when viewed from Earth, which is one of the reasons why we have complete solar eclipses. However, since the orbits are elliptical, the Moon has a 10 percent difference between its near and far points.(source)

3 In 2001, a ten-year-old named Laura Buxton, released a balloon with her name and address in the hope of finding a pen pal. The balloon traveled 140 miles before coming down and was found by an almost-ten-year old also named Laura Buxton. They share a number of other similarities.

It all began when Laura Buxton’s grandfather encouraged her to have a bit of fun with one of the helium balloons at her grandparents’ 50th anniversary. Laura wrote her name and address with an instruction to write back to her which resulted in a unique coincidence when another girl with the same name found it and they became pen pals. Their name isn’t the only similarity they share. They both have a 3-year-old female Labrador, a rabbit and a guinea pig. They are both of almost the same age, the same build and eye color.(source)

4 A burglary suspect was left embarrassed when he realized that the judge presiding over his case was his middle school playmate!

An unexpected reunion occurred when Mindy Glazer, a judge in Miami, was presiding over a burglary and theft case. When she saw Arthur Booth, the man on the stand, she calmly asked him if he had been to Nautilus Middle School. Then he recognized that they used to play football back in school and broke down emotionally because of the circumstances in which they had met again. According to his cousin, he used to be a scholar and an athlete before drugs took over his life and he turned to crime.(source)

5 In 1913, Hitler, Stalin, Trotsky, Tito and Freud all lived within a few miles of each other in Vienna, with some of them being regulars at the same coffee houses.

The time before the First World War was the golden time for intellectuals in Vienna. Many people, including Stalin and Trotsky sought solace in the city. Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, was already well established there, while Tito sought employment and good times there. Adolf Hitler, who was at that time 24, was twice rejected by the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and so lodged in the city. In the Viennese coffee-houses, intellectual discussions and debates were quite common, and were a melting pot for the who’s who of the intellectual world. So, not just these five, but there might have been even more such people who frequented those cafes.(source)

6 This 3,000 year old Egyptian bust mildly resembles Michael Jackson.

The Egyptian bust belongs to the New Kingdom Period which existed between 1550 BC and 1050 BC, around the same time as the famous Egyptians Ramesses and King Tut. The limestone statue has slightly gaunt cheeks, big slanted eyes, a thin and tipless nose which strikingly resemble the King of Pop. The bust’s popularity raised significantly when he died in 2009 and his fans blogged about it because of the resemblance. To protect the statue, the museum officials have put it in a glass case and banned visitors from touching or kissing it.(source)