Friday, September 13, 2013

Friday The 13th



Today is Friday the 13th. Here are some 13 facts about Friday the 13th which some people believe as a bad day.

  1. More than 60 million people worldwide claim to be affected by a fear of Friday 13th. Some of them won’t go to work, drive cars or get out of bed on this day.
  2. The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia.
  3. According to the British Medical Journal there is a significant increase in traffic-related accidents when the date is Friday 13th.
  4. Every year has at least one and at most three Friday the 13th.
  5. Famous people born on Friday the 13th include Samuel Beckett (13 April 1906), Margaret Thatcher (13 October 1923), Fidel Castro (13 August 1926) and Steve Buscemi (13 December 1957).
  6. Tupac Shakur died on Friday, September 13, 1996.
  7. The Uruguayan rugby team’s plane crashed in the Andes mountain range on Friday, 13 October, 1972.
  8. Many hospitals have no room 13, while airports don't have a Gate 13.
  9. Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13. Napoleon and President Herbert Hoover were said to be sufferers.
  10. The Athens Olympic Games opened on Friday 13th of August, 2004.
  11. President Franklin D. Roosevelt would not travel on the 13th day of any month and would never host 13 guests at a meal. Napoleon and President Herbert Hoover were also triskaidekaphobic, with an abnormal fear of the number 13.
  12. Mark Twain once was the 13th guest at a dinner party. A friend warned him not to go. "It was bad luck," Twain later told the friend. "They only had food for 12." Superstitious diners in Paris can hire a quatorzieme, or professional 14th guest.
  13. The number 13 suffers from its position after 12, according to numerologists who consider the latter to be a complete number — 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles of Jesus, 12 days of Christmas and 12 eggs in a dozen.