Search of answers in our sunday morning cover story. Reporter what do Thomas Jefferson and john adams have in common . These two guys both president s of the United States both died on the same day. July 4th. Not just any july 4th, but the exact 50th anniversary of the signing of the declaration of independence. Reporter a freaky coincidence. Does it have a larger meaning . Ahead on sunday morning. Charles Michael Keaton has a long track record of playing just about any role. How does he feel about taking on his latest . Lee cowan is going to find out. Reporter we know him as the actor with relentless energy. It makes me want to kiss you. Reporter or pretty dark. Im batman. I always think, if its the right kind of scared, thats a good sign. Reporter nothing scared him quite as much as his challenging new role. Michael keatons journey, from batman to birdman later on sunday morning. Charles dreamers and doers of the computer age, front and center in the latest work with noted author. Reporter Walter Isaacson has won praise with benjamin franklin. Albert einstein and steve jobss. But his new book focuses on the innovator who is powered the computer and internet revolution. This is about people who how to collaborate and from the 40s to the present created the digital revolution. Reporter later on sunday morning, a walk through digital history. Charles and well be hear for example a newly mipted musical phenomenon. Singer sam smith. Anthony has the honors. Reporter this song, and that voice have made sam smith an International Star almost overnight. Reporter do you think you were prepared for where you are . Im not. Reporter where did he come from . We will, when we go home with sam smith ahead on sunday morning. Charles paige taily toasts madeline. And Steve Hartman treats us to beautiful music at a retirement home. Chip reid exploits the histories of the kennewick man. First the headlines, the 12th of october, 2014. A Health Care Worker who treated Thomas Eric Duncan at texas presbyterian hospital, may have tested positive for the virus. Officials are running further tests to confirm that preliminary finding. New stricter arrival screenings for the virus have go into effect at some u. S. Airports. A 21 month old mexican girl to die from a virus causing severe rez practice tore problems with children across the country. 5 others have died. A possible massacre in the syria border town of kobani. Islamic state militants now control about 40 of the town, despite waves of u. S. Airstrikes aimed at them. Seven teenage Football Players in new jersey are facing sex crime charges in connection with hazing attacks that took place last month. The charges prompted School Officials at the Memorial High School to cancel the teams football season. Heres todays weather. Severe thunderstorms are expected to move across the plains. Wet and cool in the northwest. The perfect day for leaf lovers in the northeast. In the week ahead. Cooler across the country, except the central plains. Sunny in the south. Tomorrow is columbus day, marking Christopher Columbus arrival in the americas. A parade here in new york and in San Francisco. Columbus day is no not observee in every state. In hawaii its discoverers day. In canada sts thanksgiving. In this country many post offices are closed, and so are many schools. With a large enough sample of events any outrageous thing could happen. Charles coming up, the Science Behind coincidence. And stay with us for sam smith. ,,,,,,,,,, charles what a coincidence. Thats what some say when you run into an old friend we havent seen for years on the street corner. Is it a chance encounter or something more . The cover story reported by Susan Spencer of 48 hours. Have a good day. Goodbye. Reporter bill and laurie solomon attribute their happy 16 year marriage to an unseen force, perhaps greater than love. Greater than random. Reporter coincidence. The solomons say a series of unbelievable coincidences really left them little choice. Do you think you would have gotten peared had this not been all such a coincidence . I dont know if we want to met. Reporter coincidence one. Bills mother and hillarys father were High School Friends not in touch for 40 years when they reconnected by chance. They realized that one had a son named bill, and one had a daughter named hillary. The people in the white house at the time. How funny. Weve got to fix them up. Reporter coincidence two. In a city of more than 7 million people, bill and hillary lived in the same neighborhood on the same street in the same building. In fact, in the very same line of apartments. There may were, just seven floors apart. Youre parents cant believe this. They were shocked. Reporter bills mother insisted he had to call hillary. But he played in cool, until coincidence three. He ran into a former coworkener his building. I said what are you doing in the lobby . Said i have a good friend in the building. I said who is what, she said hillary kimmelman. Bill made the call, and the rest is history. Coincidence is a striking occurrence of event that is appear to be meaningful related, but, in fact, theyre related only by chance. Reporter Professor Jay koehler from chicago is an expert on probability. A classic example of coincidence is you think of about somebody you havent thought of for years, and you know where im going. The phone things and its them. Reporter coincidents fascinate us, when they are like Thomas Jefferson. When jefferson and addd adams signed the declaration of independence, they had no idea they would one day be linked by a freaky coincidence. These two guys, both president s of the United States, both died on the same day, july 4th. Not just any july 4th, but the exact 50th anniversary of the signing of the declaration of independence. And that was the beginning of my questioning whether there was something more to coincidence than just coincidence. Reporter for squire rushnell, it was a sign, a one time tv executive had started a successful cottage industry, books, speeches, all about coincidences, or as he calls them, godwinks. A godwink is one of those coincidences that makes you say two things. Wow, what are the odds of that . And i wonder if that coincidence evidence of divine origin . Reporter rushnells answer, a resounding yes. I believe that everybody has godwinks. Theyre like gifts left on the doorstep, and my job is to get you to open the door and open your gift. Reporter inside that godwink gift box, rushnell says you might find the relationship like bill and hillary solomon did, or even the right career. Reporter this is the cbc evening news, Susan Spencer reporting. Now some things caused you to be at cbc. Maybe it was a call out of the blue. Maybe it was somebody you bumped into. But maybe it wasnt by chance at all. Maybe it was godwink. Reporter maybe it was because i applied for a year. Theres some research to suggest that the feeling of destiny can be good for you mentally. Reporter even if it is reassuring, it is not reality according to science writer, matt hudson who says while coincidences are not destiny, they are destineed to happen, thanks to something called the law of truly large numbers. Its a term that a lot of mathmeticians came up to describe this idea that with a large enough sample of events, any outrageous thing is likely to happen. Thinking about it, if you flip a coin long enough, eventually, youll get 10 heads in a row, and the universe flips a lot of coins. Reporter all those coin flips add up to a simple mathematical answer for even the weirdest coincidences. He played the numbers on a fluke, the new york state lottery on the First Anniversary of 9 11. You know the winning numbers . 911. Yeah. Lots of things happening to lots of people every day, youre going to come across an occurrence of event that is seems extremely unlikely. Reporter youre taking all the fun out of it. So when two former president s dieed on the same day, it wasnt mystical, just mathematical. But we tend to make these things mystical by annoying little details. So when people were comparing jefferson and adams. There were lots of things they didnt find. Did they have the same number of kids . Scratch that. And the selection fallacy to select out the interesting part. Reporter its like were hard wired to be amazed by these things. Thats the power of rationality. Reporter what about the power of godwinks or the force of destiny. Science writer matt hudson. I cant rule it out. I cant rule out unicorns, but theres no strong evidence of unicorns. Reporter youre really a kill joy. Thats my mathmeticians will also have an answer for everything. They have to. I put more faith in the grand designer than i do in accidents happening numerically. Reporter for rushnell, the stories are evidence enough, like this one about actress dianne lane whose father drove a new York City Taxi when she was a kid. He would come and pick her up after school. She would stand on her tippy toes looking for that one cab out of all those cabs. 6 f 99. Remember the number. 6 f 99. Shortly after her father died, lane was thinking about her dad. At that moment, her car pulled to the curb, she stepped out, and her heart lept. Pulling in right in front was cab number 6 f 99. Now what are the odds that one cab, her fathers exact medallion would be at that exact spot at that exact moment in time to give her a message of hope and reassurance. Reporter its all familiar territory to the solomons whose list of coincidences seems almost endless. And our fathers have the same exact birthday. June 10th. Her father went to boston university, and so did i. And his roommates in college became my dads roommate. Get out. Reporter one thing, believers and doubters agree on. You are more likely to find lifes amazing coincidences if youre looking for them. Do you think ill have one of these today . I bet you do. Only if you allow them. Reporter im ready. Once you see a godwink, you see them all the time. Present egg oation of the medal president truman. Corporal doss of lynchburg, virginia. An idea that reduced overcharge complaints by 98 . No matter how fast your Business Needs to adapt, if hp Big Data Solutions can keep wireless customers smiling, imagine what they can do for yours. Make it matter. Lots of them, right . But when you try to get one by using your travel rewards card miles. Those seats mysteriously vanish. Why . All the flights you want are blacked out. Or they hit you up for some outrageous number of miles. Switch to the venture card from capital one. With venture, use your miles on any airline, any flight, any time. No blackout dates. And with every purchase youll earn unlimited double miles. Now were getting somewhere. Whats in your wallet . Charles and now for the sunday morning almanac. Reporter washington, the congressional medal of honor for many top heroes. Charles october 12th, 1945, 69 years ago today. And congratulations. Charles today an Award Ceremony like no others. Reporter presentation of the medals by president truman himself. Charles president truman personally handed out the medals to the heroes of world war ii. Each with an aspiring story to tell. Highlight interest today is on Corporal Desmond doss of virginia. Charles he was a conscientious objecter. The first objecter to ever win the congressional medal. Okinawa. Charles during a two thafl month long battle of okinawa. Doss was serving as an unarmed medic. On just one day, the citation noted doss carried 75 wounded men to safety. One by one, all while braving enemy fire with no means of shooting back. I thank god for letting me do my part in this war, and saving the lives of my fellow men. Charles desmund saw serious wounds of his own after the long battle, and devoted much of the rest of his life to his church. Charles and during the vietnam war, the Seventh Day Adventist trained people to be medics. He died in 2006 at the age of 87, 61 years after giving the gift of life to so many. Reporter and for his kind of courage, americas conscientious admiration. One day when out to take the air charles ahead. Madeline said charles time with madeline. How did the most wanted man in world escape arrest so many times. Pouring millions into an escape that would make james bond jealous. Charles the very best books of childhood manage to stay generation after generation. Theres a birthday card for one of the most enduring characters of such books. Madeline. Reporter in an old house in paris covered with vines. The bread and brush their teeth and went to bed. Madeline. Reporter for generations of children, those familiar lines have made the beginning of another tale of madeline. The beguiling little girl with bright red her and a blue coat made her debut in 1939. With nearly 14 million copies of sold, madelines appeal shows no signs of wearing off. Why do you think madeline is so enduring . Shes in every girl. Shes brave. Shes adventurous. Shes funny. Shes what every Little American girl wants to be. Jane curly is the curator of the New York Historical society celebrating madelines 77th birthday. The 50y girl is full of surprises. People think shes french. Shes not. Shes american in a french boarding school. People think miss quinle is a nun. Shes not. The book arent academic. There are no classrooms. The kids are out in the world having adventures. Reporter traveling through europe meeting ambassadors, gypsies and magicians alike. Its the tale of a girl who gets herself in and out of trouble, not x uk like her creator ludwig bemelmans. The daughter of the mother, and based on, but i think really it was himself, and he was always getting into trouble. Reporter John Bemelmans marciano is the grandson. The father left the family when he was five years old. He had a hard time with it, but also someone no matter how hard things got, he embraced life. Born in austria. Ludwig bemelmans often ran afoul of authorities. At 16 he had to choose between Reform School or emigrating to america. He chose america. He found work as a busboy at the ritz hotel in new york city. All the while begining to develop his true calling. He loved the hotel business, but all the time he was here, she was drawing on the backs of menus, or using the bakery wall as a place to draw, and then mop off the wall. Reporter for years, the self thought bemelmans worked day job and pursued art. He published a comic strip, and illustrated for town and country. And then in 1935 he married and had a daughter barb ra. Life was hard, but took it in stride saying my greatest inspiration is a low bank balance. It was a vacation on a French Island and a chance meeting with a little girl that provided his greatest inspiration. Managed to run him over, and thankfully was the ambulance, and it brought him to the hospital where there was a crack tht ceiling that looked like a rabbit, and the little girl in the room next door who came in and proudly showed off her appendix scar to my grandfather and everyone else. Reporter so that was the seed of madeline . Yeah. Reporter bemelmans returned to new york and wrote the opening lines of madeline, incorporating tales his mother told about the childhood school where the beds were in rows and all the girls dressed alike. Madeline was named after her grandmother, right . It was, but madeline didnt rhyme with anything. The first madeline book was a success, and five more followed catching the eye of jacqueline kennedy. The first lady wrote a fan letter in 1961. You sent her a drawing back that he wrote to jacqueline. And a friendship ensued. They even talked about writing a book where madeline would come and visit jacqueline in the white house. Bemelmans passed away in 1962, but his fictional girl lives on. Theyre in cartoons and movies. The smallest one was madeline. What do you think . Its great. You captured it. Madeline . Reporter then 15 years ago, John Marciano revived the series. And miss kennedys wish, madeline at the white house. Kids havent changed. She really captures the spirit of a particular kid. They love the language. They love whats happening. Reporter whats your favorite thing about madeline . That shes not afraid of tigers. Reporter what do you love about madeline . That she plays. Reporter what endures is a little girl who isnt afraid of experiencing the ups and downs of life. A little girl who never grows old. And go to sleep said miss quinnell as she turned out the lights and closed the door. Charles still to come. Introducing sam smith. And the mothers and fathers of invention. ,,,,,, oh, wont you stay with me charles stay with me is a very big hit. Most of us hadnt heard of until recently. Introducing sam smith, Anthony Mason pays him a visit. I need love. No, its not a good look. Reporter his is the voice behind the international smash, stay with me. Almost overnight, that soulful falsetto made sam smith one of the biggest stars in the world. Oh wont you stay with me reporter do you think you were prepared for where you are now . I think i was not. Actually a hundred percent no. Reporter earlier this year, the 22yearold singer had two songs top the british charts. I wanted it so bad, and i still want it so bad that the thought of being 60 years old and thinking i could have tried harder you can you hear my song . Reporter then he invaded america. How did it feel to play saturday night live . It was scary. Cleverly, on the morning said to me it was ridiculous. But it was. Reporter his album, in the loney hour is the best selling debut of the year in the u. S. Number one. Its on everybodys watch list for twaent 14. Give it up for sam smith. Reporter the 63 singer came out of nowhere. Its hard to tell where i come from. Its in between cambridge is a half hour away. London is an hour away. Reporter smith grew up in the village of Great Chishill where he s