Yep, it’s Friday the 13th today lads and ladys and although Jack Towers isn’t of the superstitious persuasion we thought we may have a little look into wether the date is something to be concerned about or not.
It seems that fear of Friday the 13th is something that began in in the 19th Century as there is no written evidence for it before then and there are several theories as to why it became a date to be feared.
The most obvious is that two superstitions collided being that 13 is of course an unlucky number and Friday is deemed an unlucky day.
The other suggestion is that the corresponds with the arrest of the Knights Templar by King Philip IV of France.
So what further bad things have happened on Friday the 13th to keep the superstitions alive? We have a little list for you.
Jan. 13, 1939 : Australia : The Black Friday bushfires decimated 20,000 km² of land, killed 71 people and destroyed several towns entirely
Sept. 13, 1940 : Five German bombs hit Buckingham Palace and destroy the Palace Chapel, as part of Hitler’s strategic “Blitz” bombing campaign.
July 13, 1951 – Kansas : ‘The Great Flood’ left 2 million acres of land in Kansas underwater, caused $760 million and killed 24 people.
June 13, 1952 : A Swedish military DC-3 plane carrying a crew of eight disappeared over international water in the Baltic Sea.
Nov. 13, 1970 : A huge South Asian storm killed an estimated 300,000 people in Chittagong, Bangladesh, and create floods that killed as many as 1 million in the Ganges delta.
June 13, 1986 : The Olsen twins, Mary-Kate and Ashley, were born.
Jan. 13, 1989 : The “Friday the 13th virus” infected hundreds of IBM computers across Great Britain.
Oct. 13, 1989 : The Dow Jones Industrial Average underwent the second largest drop it had ever experienced at that time.
March 13, 2009 : “SAW – The Ride” premiered at Thorpe Park amusement park in England, only to be temporarily shut down due to “minor teething problems”, basically it broke.
Aug. 13, 1999 : The day would have been Alfred Hitchcock’s 100th birthday, if he had been alive.
Al Capone was allegedly indicted on a Friday 13th in 1931.
Tupac Shakur died on Friday 13 September 1996.
So we have concluded that you only ned worry about Friday the 13th and it’s bad vibes if you live in a disaster zone, are at war or you are a rapper/gansta.
Further Friday the 13th Facts :
Folklore says that you can avoid the bad tidings of Friday the 13th by climbing to the top of a mountain or skyscraper and burning all the socks you own that have holes in them or standing on your head and eating a piece of gristle.
Black Sabbath’s self-titled first album was released in the UK on Friday, February 13, 1970.
In a traditional hangman’s noose there are 13 twists of the rope and 13 steps to the gallows.
There is no 13th Avenue in San Francisco, instead Funston Avenue is between 12th and 14th Avenues. There is however a 13 Street. It’s covered by the Central Skyway making it one of the darkest and ugliest streets in San Francisco.
In Formula 1, there is no car with the number 13. The number has been removed after two drivers were killed in crashes — both driving cars numbered 13.
According to Dr. Donald Dossey, founder of the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina, more than 80% of high-rises lack a 13th floor.
Infamous murderers Charles Manson, Harold Shipman, Frederick West, Saddam Hussein, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Theodore Bundy, and Jack the Ripper each have 13 letters in their names.
Women drivers have a 64% increased chance of death when driving on Friday the 13th.
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