13 Freaky Facts about Friday the 13th

Scared to leave the house today?

Beware, superstitious friends! The dreaded Friday the 13th is almost here.

We’ve uncovered 13 bizarre facts about Friday the 13th that may give you one of the THREE phobias associated with this unlucky day:

Friggatriskaidekaphobic
Triskaidekaphobia
Paraskavedekatriaphobia

13 Weird Things that Happened on Friday the 13th…

FLIGHT TO HEL

Finland offers a Flight 666 to HEL (their airport code) every Friday the 13th.

FEARFUL PRESIDENT

President Franklin D. Roosevelt had a great fear of Friday the 13th… and the number 13. He wouldn’t travel on the 13th day of the month and would never host or attend a gathering with 13 people at the dinner table.

HALLOWEEN

Halloween 2016 was the first time in 666 years that it fell on Friday the 13th.

INTERESTING PEOPLE WERE BORN ON FRIDAY THE 13th

Alfred Hitchcock was born on Friday the 13th

… and so was Fidel Castro and the original Grand Wizard of the KKK (eek!)

On a positive note, Taylor Swift’s favorite number is 13. She was born on Friday the 13th, turned 13 on Friday the 13th and her debut album went platinum after 13 weeks!

THE BIRTH OF HEAVY METAL

Marked by many music experts as the official birth of heavy metal, Black Sabbath’s first heavy metal album was released on an appropriately dangerous Friday the 13th in 1970. Maybe a good omen for anyone who wanted to board the crazy train?

NATURAL DISASTERS

A cyclone killed 500,000 people in Bangladesh on Friday, November 13th in 1970, one of the most catastrophic natural events the world had ever seen.
That was the snowfall total recorded at the Buffalo airport on Oct. 13, 2006, during the “Friday the 13th” blizzard. They received 24 inches of snow in OCTOBER.
In England, a boy was struck by lightning on Friday, August 13, 2010. The time was 1:13 (13:13 military time) and he was 13 years old at the time.

ACCIDENTS THAT OCCURRED

On Friday the 13th in October of 1972, a plane crashed in the Andes Mountains while carrying the Old Christians Rugby team. Twelve people died instantly and more were killed in an avalanche later. Those survived did so by resorting to cannibalism. This horrible crash was later turned into a film, “Alive.”

On that same day, October 13, 1972, a plane in Moscow crashed into the ground, killing all 174 onboard. Maybe this explains the fear of flying on this date??

The largest passenger-ship wreck was on Friday, Jan. 13, 2012. More than 30 passengers aboard Costa Concordia died in the wreck off the Italian coast.

BUSINESS IS NOT GOOD

On Friday, October 13, 1989, the US stock exchange suffered a major crash. This day is often referred to as “Black Friday.”

About $900 million is lost every Friday the 13th because people are scared to go to work and/or travel on this date. Probably the only scary thing about that is how superstitious people are!

FRIDAY THE 13th PREDICTIONS

On Friday the 13th in 2029, an asteroid (Asteroid 99942 Apophis) is forecasted to pass earth at a closer distance than any of our current satellites. Not sure of the ramifications, but this doesn’t sound does not sound promising.