While we like to say that there are no coincidences, there are a handful of baffling events in the annals of history that truly make one wonder.
YouTube user Dark5 has put together a collection of eerie stories from the past which involve strange cases of serendipity.
Perhaps the most jaw-dropping tale featured in the video centers around a Civil War-era man named Wilmer McLean.
The Virginia resident found himself too old to serve in the Confederate army as forces were gathering before the war in 1861.
Nonetheless, McLean offered his farm as a staging area for soldiers and the site subsequently served as the setting for the legendary First Battle of Bull Run, which seen as the de facto start of the Civil War.
Following the commencement of the conflict, the man and his family would later leave the area in search of a more peaceful locale and settled a little over 100 miles away from his former residence.
However his role in history had seemingly not finished as, amazingly, he greeted a messenger at the door of his new home in 1865 and agreed to the courier's request to use his house for a meeting the next day.
It was at that gathering in McLean's home, that the Civil War ended when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to his Union counterpart and future president Ulysses S. Grant.
While having a minor role in both the beginning and end of the war might sound like something worth celebrating, it was actually not too prosperous for McLean.
This is because his initial home had been badly damaged during the first battle and his second house was ransacked by souvenir-seeking soldiers commemorating the end of the bloody conflict.
Another incredible twist of fate detailed in the riveting collection is a photograph from the funeral procession for Abraham Lincoln which shows future president Theodore Roosevelt watching the scene as a child from a window overhead (seen above).
Check out the complete collection for more historical coincidences that will leave you scratching your head.
Source: YouTube