mind-blowing historical coincidences thread

[Archibald]

as said in the title...

the same surgeon, Professor Émile Letournel, repaired the badly broken legs of many french F1 drivers
- 1979 Patrick Depailler
- 1980 Jean Pierre Jabouille
- 1982 Didier Pironi
- 1986 Jacques Laffitte
while he did a good job every time it was career ending.
And it carried on with the next to generations.
- 1989 Philippe Streiff on a wheelchair, saved by Letournel once again
On top of that in 1997 Olivier Panis was running second best to the Williams... In Canada he crashes heavily and... breaks his legs. Doctor Letournel to the rescue, please. Damn it !!
...
End story: guess why Prost was sooo prudent unlike Senna - on the rain...?

By a bitting irony Pironi (horribly) broke his legs in 1982 in an accident
... where he hit Prost Renault on torrential rain. Prost saw Pironi's Ferrari cartwheeling 30 ft over his head (no kidding: a carbon copy of Villeneuve's horror - with Prost in place of Jochen Mass) He is still haunted by the sight to this day.
Pironi lost the championship and in 1985 Prost was France first F1 champion. Sigh, the irony is killing me ...

At least french pilots helped Letournel improving medecine.
Curiously enough Alesi and Romain Grosjean escaped that jinx despite all their crashes (LMAO) Then again Letournel is dead of old age - so maybe they are more careful nowadays...

 

[Archibald]

JK Rowling mother name was "Volante" and her father worked at RR on the Harrier (potter) Pegasus engine.
So it is hardly a surprise Harry Potter features so many flying things - brooms spells cars and owles...

 

[Archibald]

Ayrton Senna and the deathly hollows...

See Nelson Piquet crash at Imola in 1987. A brazilian with three championships driving a Williams crashes into the Tamburello at 160 mph. Piquet survived only because he spun and did not hit head on. Even the accident video is a haunting carbon copy of Senna's. Pretty sickening.
The next year it was Berger, this time with fire and flammes. Berger who was Senna best friend.
Together with a recovering Berger Senna examined that fateful corner and concrete wall. Let's demolish or move that thing !

Well...you can't.

Tamburello is stuck near a river with no margin whatsoever. Berger and Senna saw this... and did not dug the matter further.

And then Senna died.

Years later a heartbroken Berger said "we didn't thought about putting a hairpin to lower the speed. Silly us."

Oh Death, you old bitch.

 

[Archibald]

Senna come to F1 early in the year 1984. Two years before, thus in 1982, he was racing in a lower category, Formula Ford 2000. Some of the races happened the same day as F1 races.

On Saturday May 8, 1982 Senna had a FF2000 race in Zolder... and that day, Gilles Villeneuve killed himself on the same track, racing in F1.
Only twelve years later, to the week, Senna died.

There are some very hauting /troubling parallels between Villeneuve and Senna deaths, and not only the dates, exactly 12 years apart to the week.
1982 and 1994 were equally rotten F1 years.
- both were revered as F1 genius and never got hurt before, they seemed to be unvulnerable
- both had just found a nemesis that outdrove them - Pironi, and Schumacher.
- Villeneuve in zolder and Senna in Imola were men in doubt and turmoil for many reasons - personal life etc.
- the F1 season was marred by their death, but also by the death of a mostly unknown pilot (Riccardo Paletti / Roland Ratzenberger) and a third pilot was so badly wounded its career ended (Didier Pironi, Karl Wendlinger in Monaco). Plus a string of very violent accidents before and after (Alesi, Barichello...)

In fact the reason why 1982 and 1994 were so similar is because marked the end of an era and a dangerous transition into a new era.

In 1982 ground effect had been banned (at least partially) so pilots had to re-learn how to drive without it. By 1983 it was banned.
in 1994 active suspension and electronic goodies had all been banned, and pilots (mostly Williams !) had to re-learn how to drive without them

Adrian Newey recognized later than Williams had been designing active suspension cars since 1988 so after six years, all of sudden they had to design a new car without it - and failed.

Didier Pironi 1982 season was a bundle of fateful coincidences. His crash was a carbon copy of Villeneuve. It happened under torrential rain when Pironi tried to overtake Derek Daly and did not saw Alain Prost Renault. Pironi hit the Renault in the back and was launched in the air before crushing his legs into a pulp when the car come crashing down.
then...
Not only was Prost champion in 1985, the first French F1 champion in place of Pironi.
But Derek Daly was a pilot at Williams and team mate of... Keke Rosberg, who was 1982 final champion in place of Pironi.
Fuck, if I was a conspiracy nut (I'm not) , I would say that Daly and Prost made a deal "we trap Pironi, your team mate Rosberg will get the pilot title in 1982, and I'll be champion for France in 1985."

 

[Archibald]

The Barnard star is one of the twenty stars closest from our solar system. Since 1995 and the discovery of the first exoplanet, it was quite logical that astronomers examined the twenty stars the closest, and searched for exoplanets around them. And of course wikipedia has a list

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_stars_and_brown_dwarfs

I watch this list from time to time, and as time pass, more and more of the closest stars have exoplanets around them. Proxima Centauri, our closest neighbourgh, has exoplanets. Pretty cool.

Yet, among those stars, one was "resisting" - no exoplanets was being found around it. I mean, the Barnard star.

And this was particularly ironic, because of this man

Peter van de Kamp. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_van_de_Kamp

From 1948 onwards, van de Kamp examined the Barnard star with a technique called astrometry. For decades and decades, 1948 to 1978, he tracked the elusive exoplanet around Barnard Star. Once he felt he had enough evidence, he claimed the planet existed. With perfect hindsight, we know it was a mirage. Astrometry was not refined enough to see anything. Even in the present day, astrometry hasn't found a lot of exoplanet. Other techniques have better results, but did not existed before the 80's (Kepler's photometry !)
And so Van de Kamp claim was rebuked.
And he continued his claims, until 1982.
...
And he died in May 1995.
And the first exoplanet - 51 Pegasi b - was found in October 1995 (dang !)

And then more and more exoplanets were found, including among the closest stars... with the notable exception of the Barnard star, which somewhat "resisted" to better and better investigations.

No exoplanet was being found.

Maybe there was none, after all ? Sirius star has no exoplanet, too...

That is, until november 2018 !

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0677-y

They have find it at least ! Considering how long Van de kamp ruined his eyes looking for it, it is probably the most hunted exoplanet in history.

Note: this doesn't mean van de Kamp was right. What he saw was an optical illusion. He was kind of right, but indirectly - his opinion that there was a freakkin' planet around the freakkin' Barnard Star, was correct. What lacked was the proof.