Hillary Clinton won an amazing six out of six coin tosses in precincts where the dead heat between her and Bernie Sanders was too close to call during Monday night's Iowa caucus.
In a previous post, we investigated the odds that such a feat could take place. But what are some other events that have turned on the toss of a coin?
Here are a few.
1. Which Wright brother would make the first powered flight – Wilber won
2. The fate of Richie Valens – Another coin toss in Iowa ended up costing the singer his life. Valens won a coin toss with a band member for the last seat on a private plane that ended up crashing in an Iowa corn field, killing him, Buddy Holly and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. Tomorrow (Feb. 3) is the anniversary of that crash.
3. The overtime coin toss -- The Steelers and Lions were tied in the 1998 NFL Thanksgiving Day game at the end of regulation play, and as the coin was flipped at the beginning of overtime, Steelers RB Jerome Bettis, according to his account, called tails. The coin landed tails side up, but the referee declared the Lions the winner of the toss saying Bettis said "heads-tails." He went with Bettis' first call, the Lions won the toss and the game.
4. The NBA draft -- Before the lottery system, the first pick for the NBA draft was determined by a coin flip. Many of the game's best players went on to make their teams winners after a coin toss determine which team would get to choose the incoming players first.
Sources: History.com; Wikipedia; nfl.com
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