Some people just seem to have no luck in life. From losing their job, to becoming ill, to having an accident, they just seem to attract bad luck. We all feel like we have been dealt one of life’s blows from time to time, however, the stories below are hard to beat as these people stumble through life and always seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
1. Ann Hodges
via Wikipedia
Ann Hodges has definitely earned her place in the Hall of Unluckiness because, in 1954, she became the only person in the world to ever have been hit by, wait for it…. A meteorite. It doesn’t get better than that when it comes to stories to tell the grandkids and thankfully, she did survive to tell the tale.
It happened as she was dozing on the sofa in her front room and the meteorite smashed through her roof and hit her on her side. Hopes to cash in on her unfortunate experience and sell the piece of rock were dashed when the American authorities decided it was theirs. She took them to court and won, after which she admirably donated it to Alabama Museum of Natural History.
2. John Lyne
credit: poorboy1225
Even though Ann Hodges had an extremely unpleasant accident that no one else has had the misfortune of having, spare a thought for John Lyne who has suffered SIXTEEN major accidents in his life. He has been struck by lightening, had several car crashes, experienced a rock fall while in a mine, been in a bus crash on the way home from hospital after recovering from another accident and even fell of a cart as a child, only to be promptly run over by a van. John however says he doesn’t worry about it as he hasn’t died yet so things could be worse!
3. Frane Selak
credit: aussiegall
Frane Selak appears to be nearly as unlucky as John Lyne after having a series of serious and rather nasty accidents. Born in 1929 in Croatia he was travelling on a train in the sixties when it derailed killing many of the passengers. Despite falling into a freezing river Frane managed to escape with no more than a few bruises. However, that was just the start as a few years later a faulty fuel pump blew his car up but he managed again to escape, only for another of his cars to go on fire years later while he was in it. Again he managed to escape but was then hit by a bus, he only received minor injuries and a few years later found himself clinging to a tree after driving his car off a cliff to avoid another road user. His car burst into flames at the bottom of the cliff while he waiting to be rescued. It’s not all bad though as in 2003 he won 1,000,000 Croatian Kunas on the lottery!
4. Jenny and Jason Cairns-Lawrence
via Wikipedia
English couple Jenny and Jason Cairnes-Lawrence were two of the very unlucky tourists to get caught up in the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York. Their amazing vacation turned into pure terror as they had to escape the smoke and burning buildings. That was not the end for them, however, and in a terrible twist of fate they found themselves caught up in the London July 7 terrorist attacks in 2005. They took it on the chin though and just put it down to extreme bad luck and carried on their lives. In 2008 they took another holiday, this time to Mumbai – nothing else could happen could it? While on holiday, the worst terrorist attack the country had ever seen broke out, killing and maiming thousands of locals and tourists. Thankfully Jason and Jenny escaped unhurt again and are now waiting for their next unlucky experience.
5. Henry Ziegland
via Wikipedia
Henry Ziegland could never have imagined how dumping his girlfriend could affect his future. He finished with her after a rocky relationship back in 1883 but she was so upset she took her own life days later. Her brother was so enraged that he took off after Ziegland with a gun (as they did in those days) to make sure he paid for his ex’s death. The brother caught up with Ziegland and shot him, and when he thought he had successfully killed him the brother turned the gun on himself and committed suicide. However, Ziegland hadn’t been killed as the bullet has simply grazed him then got lodged in a tree trunk and he recovered fully from his close shave. Years later he decided to cut down the tree with the bullet still inside it, however, rather than use an axe like most people of his day, he decided to use dynamite and not only did the tree blow up but it blew the bullet so hard it went right into Ziegland’s head and killed him.
This list of unfortunate events was compiled by GoIreland – the hotels database covering all major destinations in Ireland (the land of luck).
