10 Unlucky things that happened on 13th

10 Unlucky things that happened on 13th

Friday the 13th is a seriously unlucky day. It even has a phobia named after it – friggatriskaidekaphobia. Part of it may stem from religion – more specifically, The Last Supper when Judas Iscariot was the 13th diner.  Also, Friday was the standard day for public hangings throughout Britain, and it’s believed there were 13 steps leading up to the gallows and 13 knots in the noose. Look at these unluckly happenings in our list.

    1.   Hurricane Charley hit south Florida on August 13th, 2004, battering the state for over six days and causing over $11 billion in damages.

    2.  Justin Bartlett was imprisoned in Texas and slated to be executed in 1992. This death row inmate was given a reprieve on Wednesday the 11th of January just before his scheduled execution. However, he unceremoniously died two days later on Friday the 13th from poisoning during his last meal on that Wednesday.

      3.   November 13th, 1970 saw one of the worst natural disasters in all of history. In just one day, 500,000 people in Bangladesh were killed by the intense tropical Cyclone Bhola.

   4.   Some  scary people have been born on Friday the 13th, including master of  thriller film director Alfred Hitchcock and former Cuban President Fidel Castro.

     5.   On Friday the 13th, October 1972, a plane crashed in the Andes mountains. Of the people on board, 12 immediately died, more died in the ensuing avalanche, and the ones who survived became cannibals. On the same day, a plane from Leningrad to Moscow also crashed, killing all 160 people on board.

     6.   Bush-fires ravaged the Australian state of Victoria on Friday the 13th, January 1939. The fires killed 36 people on that day alone and destroyed 75% of the state.

       7.   Joshua Dudley’s uncle died in late 1995. His lawyers called to tell him he inherited an estate worth $3 million from his  uncle. Dudley was at the Fabergé egg exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art when he received the call – his happy dance caused $4 million in damages. 

      8.   New Yorker Daz Baxter chose to stay in bed on Friday the 13th in August 1976 to keep away from potensial bad luck. It seems bad luck came to him as his apartment block collapsed, and he fell six stories to his death.

    9.  On Friday the 13th, 2010, a 13 year-old boy was struck by lightning at 13:13 p.m in England. He miraculously survived with only a small burn.

     10.  Since millions of people are scared to travel or work on any given Friday the 13th, the world loses an estimated $900 million every time this day comes around.