Mark Twain & Halley's Comet !
By admin; Published 25 Oct 2010
After doing some searching on the topic, back in 2006, I got the following info. It instigated from an initial reading in one of David Levy's book "Comets: Creators & Destroyers" on this matter (a simply wonderful book in historic comets)
The well-known author of many comedies, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, under the pen name of Mark Twain, did he really have got something to do with the most famous of all celestial visitors, Halley's comet??
In 1835, it's perihelion date was November 10, 1835. And he was born on November 30, 1835 the return of Halley's, when it was still shining in the sky, that means he arrived 20 days after it's arrival. And he departed the planet on 21 April, 1910, the next day after perihelion, when it was again shining in the sky, that means he departed the next day after it did. He came with it and went with it !! Thats not it...
Quoting from his biography : I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year (1910), and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: "Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together." - Mark Twain, a Biography
And we hear echoes of Shakespeare : When beggars die, then are no comets seen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.
He entered a state of coma in the afternoon and by evening's sunset, 6:30 pm he had
already stopped breathing. I wont like to call it a simple word as 'coincidence'. There's much more to such bizarre connections. Afterall, comets of the past were believed to be divine portents :-)