Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Leaders come in all
Speaker 1: shapes and sizes, but they tend to possess certain similarities.
Speaker 1: They must be strong, opinionated, and their dedication to their cause,
Speaker 1: good or bad, must be great enough to convince others
Speaker 1: to join with them. In the case of two particular leaders, however,
Speaker 1: it seems timing was everything. When we think about Napoleon,
Speaker 1: we think of an emperor, his hand tucked into the
Speaker 1: front of his uniform and his diminutive figure perched atop
Speaker 1: a dark horse crossing the Alps in paintings we've seen
Speaker 1: all over the world. He didn't get that way by
Speaker 1: acts in it, though. Napoleon and his ambitious rise to power,
Speaker 1: had to start somewhere. Born in August of seventeen sixty
Speaker 1: nine to Italian nobility, he eventually moved to France when
Speaker 1: he was just nine. He graduated from French military school
Speaker 1: at sixteen as a second lieutenant in the artillery. Napoleon
Speaker 1: rose through the ranks from second lieutenant to brigadier general,
Speaker 1: winning battles across Europe for the French army. In eighteen
Speaker 1: o four, his military prowess paid off in a ceremony
Speaker 1: at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Pope Pious the seventh
Speaker 1: declared the thirty five year old Napoleon Emperor of France.
Speaker 1: This was the uh crowning achievement of what is known
Speaker 1: as the Napoleonic Era, a period of roughly sixteen years
Speaker 1: when Emperor Napoleon conquered countries across continental Europe and things
Speaker 1: went well for the young emperor. Following his coronation, he
Speaker 1: established the French Empire and began a lengthy crusade to
Speaker 1: expand it as far as possible. Eighteen o nine saw
Speaker 1: his victory against the Austrians at the Battle of Wagram.
Speaker 1: The clash lasted only two days but resulted in a
Speaker 1: devastating loss of life for both sides. The Austrians, unable
Speaker 1: to bear any more casualties, surrendered Vienna to Napoleon's forces.
Speaker 1: His ambitions only grew larger after conquering Vienna. French forces
Speaker 1: sought occupation in Spain and Russia as well, but the
Speaker 1: opposing armies were prepared there. It was at eighteen twelve
Speaker 1: when Napoleon witnessed the first of several crucial defeats. He
Speaker 1: invaded Russia to enforce a stricter trade system and to
Speaker 1: expand his empire, but was forced to retreat. In fact,
Speaker 1: that's what the period became known as the Great Retreat.
Speaker 1: He battled for several years after that, but each battle
Speaker 1: saw his forces pushed back even farther. Napoleon had lost
Speaker 1: the territories he'd taken, and by April of eighteen fourteen,
Speaker 1: the time had come for a new ruler. Louis the
Speaker 1: eighteenth took over on the throne and poured defeat in
Speaker 1: Napoleon and was banished to an island in Tuscany. You know,
Speaker 1: people like Napoleon don't come around every day. In fact,
Speaker 1: they're often one of a kind. At least that's what
Speaker 1: people thought for over a hundred years. It wasn't until
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty three when shades of Napoleon started to appear
Speaker 1: across Europe. That was the year Adolph Hitler became Chancellor
Speaker 1: of Germany one hundred twenty nine years after Napoleon's coronation.
Speaker 1: Five years later, Hitler's forces took over Vienna and turned
Speaker 1: it into a Nazi territory one twenty nine years after
Speaker 1: Napoleon's invasion and eventual conquering of Vienna in the name
Speaker 1: of the French Empire. And in nineteen one, Hitler sent
Speaker 1: over four million Access troops, the largest force in history,
Speaker 1: to take on one million Soviet soldiers in Russia. You
Speaker 1: might assume that that much firepower would mean a quick
Speaker 1: defeat for the Russian forces, but the Nazis hadn't counted
Speaker 1: on the harsh Russian whether to slow them down. The
Speaker 1: Soviets used the muddy to reign to their advantage and
Speaker 1: beat the Germans back in a glorious defeat, marking the
Speaker 1: beginning of the end of Hitler's power in World War Two.
Speaker 1: Oh and can you guess the span of years between
Speaker 1: Hitler's defeat in Russia and that of Napoleon's. If you
Speaker 1: guessed one nine years, then you've been paying attention. It
Speaker 1: seems to leaders with over zealous plans for Europe had
Speaker 1: more in common than we thought. Could Hitler have been
Speaker 1: Napoleon reincarnated, his lust for power unquenched even after one years?
Speaker 1: Or is the answer much simpler than that. Perhaps this
Speaker 1: strange coincidence is nothing more than a perfect example of
Speaker 1: history repeating itself. Anyone with a sibling knows the typical
Speaker 1: struggles they face. One it's more attention than the other.
Speaker 1: The younger sibling always has to tag along behind the
Speaker 1: older one, and the copying whatever the older sibling does
Speaker 1: just has to be imitated by the younger one. And twins,
Speaker 1: you might say, have it worse. They are only too
Speaker 1: aware of the nature of their close relationship. Twins have
Speaker 1: been known to share secret languages or every waking moment
Speaker 1: together as each other's best friends. In some families, twins
Speaker 1: can be highly competitive. One will not let the other
Speaker 1: outdo them in a particular sport or activity. Everything becomes
Speaker 1: a contest to show who can do it better, who
Speaker 1: is the superior twin. You might also be surprised to
Speaker 1: know it's not uncommon for twins to read each other's thoughts.
Speaker 1: One can know what the other is thinking. They can
Speaker 1: finish each other sentences too. There are even stories of
Speaker 1: twins connections being so strong one knows when the other
Speaker 1: is injured or in trouble. It's hard not to think
Speaker 1: that might have been what happened with a pair of
Speaker 1: seventy three year old Finnish twins over fifteen years ago.
Speaker 1: One brother had been riding his bicycle in the town
Speaker 1: of Rage, almost four hundred miles north of Helsinki along
Speaker 1: the western coast. This wasn't an unusual ride for the man.
Speaker 1: He rode his bike everywhere, navigating suburban streets and busy
Speaker 1: thoroughfares with ease. However, on this day, only weeks before
Speaker 1: the snow would give way to springs budding flowers, fate
Speaker 1: had caught up with the man. The elderly gentleman would
Speaker 1: never arrive at his destination. While crossing a busy road
Speaker 1: on his bicycle, a road he'd crossed hundreds of times
Speaker 1: without incidents, he was struck and killed by a passing truck.
Speaker 1: It's not clear why the truck hit him. We don't
Speaker 1: know whether the old man hadn't been looking where he
Speaker 1: was going, or if the driver of the truck had
Speaker 1: been distracted. But in a split second, the poor finished
Speaker 1: man and his bicycle we're gone. Police arrived at the
Speaker 1: scene and established a perimeter, questioning witnesses as to what
Speaker 1: they'd seen just before the accident. It was odd, They noted.
Speaker 1: Though the road had been infamous for its high traffic levels,
Speaker 1: accidents were rare, especially involving pedestrians or cyclists. The police
Speaker 1: had not reported the man's death to his family just yet.
Speaker 1: There was still more to investigate. While crews cleaned up
Speaker 1: the road and prepared the body for transport, no one
Speaker 1: other than the first responders, the truck driver, and the
Speaker 1: witnesses at the scene knew what had transpired. But like
Speaker 1: I said, twins are known to possess a kind of
Speaker 1: sixth sense between them. One always knows when the other
Speaker 1: is hurt or scared, or in deep trouble. There's an
Speaker 1: inexplicable connection that comes from sharing a womb with another person,
Speaker 1: which is why it's not so hard to believe the
Speaker 1: man's brother had some idea of what had happened. It's
Speaker 1: possible he'd been on his way to see his brother
Speaker 1: when the truck collided, or maybe he'd felt a sudden
Speaker 1: loss of life, the shifting of the air and the
Speaker 1: clouds darkening above him, a twang of pain in his heart,
Speaker 1: like a string snapping on a guitar. He had to
Speaker 1: go see what had happened for himself and so he
Speaker 1: mounted his own bicycle and headed down the same stretch
Speaker 1: of road. Two hours after the collision, the victim's twin brother,
Speaker 1: only one mile away from the scene of the accident,
Speaker 1: crossed the same road on his own bicycle, and, in
Speaker 1: a twist of fate too impossible to believe, he too
Speaker 1: was hit and killed by a passing truck. Such coincidences
Speaker 1: have an almost supernatural feel, like someone or something is
Speaker 1: playing a sick game with our lives. What befell the
Speaker 1: twins was, without a doubt, a tragedy to tragedies in fact,
Speaker 1: but it cements the relationship between twins better than anything else.
Speaker 1: Wherever you'll find one, the other isn't far behind. I
Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.