If you know your history, this story, born far from his nation's center of influence,

he rose through society to eventually achieve the unthinkable, total and absolute power, and then he led his people to war. As his armies marched all over Europe, a major threat loomed in the frigid east,

and so he gathered troops and sent them off

to put that enemy down.

But this mighty leader failed to prepare for something

that should have been expected.

Winter.

As a result, his campaign failed horribly, hastening the end of his domination over his European neighbors.

And if you guess that this mystery leader was Napoleon Bonaparte, you'd be correct.

On the other hand, if you thought that he was Adolf Hitler, you too would also be right.

You see, these parallel stories are examples of something known as historic recurrence, which is basically the documentation

of incredibly similar stories throughout history. These types of events are almost eerie in just

how similar they are.

Another great example would be the massive storm that wiped out Kublai Khan's fleet on its way to

invade Japan, and the massive storm three centuries later that did the same when Spain's Philip II tried to invade

England. History repeats itself. As they often said on Battlestar Galactica, all of this has happened

before and all of this will happen again.

Of course, it's easy to explain away when you understand that human greed and lust for power

often drives leaders to do the exact same thing as those who came before them.

But some moments in history repeat for reasons that are more difficult to explain.

These are painful events wrapped in tragedy and suffering that seem to come back to vividly haunt others.

Some call them coincidences, while others think of them as proof of the supernatural.

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