Coincidence
"I came in with Halley's comet in 1835. It's coming again next year (1910), 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.' "
"I came in with Halley's comet in 1835. It's coming again next year (1910), 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.' "
-Mark Twain.
He did indeed die on April 21, 1910 --- the day following the comet's subsequent streaking flight through the sky.
As coincidental as that is, it is also worth noting: 1910 was also the first year where the comet could be recorded, photography had finally come to light. This could perhaps be the first instance of mass hysteria brought on by the more ominous media that had been born recently. With photographs to prove their posits, rampant unfactual information quickly spread. Newspapers wove feverish tales of mass cyanide poisoning circling the planet in the comet's wake (had they had the foresight to ask a question they'd of course have learned that the gas is so diffuse that no harm could have been done.)
Sadly, with the death of Twain we also have the birth of sensationalism --- a coincidence that he himself would have derived some small pleasure from no doubt.
