I was sitting in a waiting room the other day and to pass the time I picked up the Readers Digest. Whilst reading I stumbled across an interesting article about coincidences. There were a few that were just unbelievable, although true, but the one that interested me the most was about John Wilkes Booth's (the man who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln) brother Edwin Booth. At the time Edwin was a famous actor, probably of a level with Brad Pitt, if he was alive today, and as a result his face was well recognised. He probably would have been famous in his own right if his brother had not killed the president, but he is now more often remembered as John Wilkes Booth's brother then for his own fame as a great actor.
The part of the article that interested me about Edwin Booth, was that prior to his brother assassinating Abraham Lincoln, Edwin Booth saved the life of Robert Lincoln, Abraham's son. Apparently Robert was waiting on a train platform, and the press of the crowd pushed him against a stationary train at the platform. As the train started to pull out of the station, Robert fell onto the tracks. Edwin Booth saw this happen, reached down and pulled Robert to safety. Robert recognised Edwin, (if your life was saved by George Clooney you would probably recognise your saviour) thanked him and that was the last they saw of each other. I found this story to be a massive coincidence which is why I am sharing it with you. To think that one Booth saved the life of a Lincoln and the other Booth took the life of a Lincoln, that is almost unbelievable.
If you want to read a section of a letter Robert wrote about Edwin Booth saving his life, check out Wikipedia.
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