Friday the 13th of November is a Superstitious Day

The next year to have three Friday the 13th dates will be 2012. Some find the number 13 unusually lucky but there is on theory that states that Friday the 13th is actually a combination of two bad luck superstitions: that thirteen is an unlucky number and that Friday is an unlucky day.

History has shown that the number 13 is not always unlucky but there certainly have been some interesting historical event on November 13. Not necessarily landing on a Friday, November 13 has a long trail of history behind the date.

This year, the movie 2012 comes out on Friday, November 13. Oddly enough the year 2012 is the next year that the 3 Friday the 13th dates will happen in one year. Pre-release movie reviews have shown positive reviews for the new movie 2012. Hopefully Friday the 13th will be a lucky day for the producers.

1775 - During the American Revolution, U.S. forces captured Montreal.

1789 - Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to a friend in which he said, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

1805 - Johann George Lehner, a Viennese butcher, invented a recipe and called it the "frankfurter."

1850 - Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is best known for Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

1909 - 250 miners were killed in a fire and explosion at the St. Paul Mine at Cherry, IL.

1927 - The Holland Tunnel opened to the public, providing access between New York City and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River.

1933 - In Austin, MN, the first sit-down labor strike in America took place.

1937 - NBC formed the first full-sized symphony orchestra exclusively for radio broadcasting. The conductor for its first 17 years was Arturo Toscanini.

1940 - The Walt Disney movie "Fantasia" had its world premiere at New York's Broadway Theater.

1942 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure lowering the minimum draft age from 21 to 18.

Nov. 13, 1850, Robert Louis Stevenson, the Scottish author best known for his novel "Treasure Island", was born.

1956 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public buses.

1968 - The Beatles' animated movie "Yellow Submarine" premiered in the U.S.

1971 - The U.S. spacecraft Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to orbit another planet, Mars.

1973 - Jerry Lee Lewis, Jr. was killed in a highway accident near Hernando, MS.

1977 - The comic strip "Li'l Abner" by Al Capp appeared in newspapers for the last time.

1982 - The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC.

1984 - A libel suit against Time, Inc. by former Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon went to trial in New York.

1985 - At New York's Whitney Museum, an exhibition opened celebrating Bob Dylan's 25 years in the music industry.

1985 - About 23,000 residents of Armero, Colombia, died when a gigantic mudslide buried the city. The slide was triggered by a mild eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano.

1986 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly acknowledged that the U.S. had sent "defensive weapons and spare parts" to Iran. He denied that the shipments were sent to free hostages, but that they had been sent to improve relations.

1991 - Roger Clemens won his third Cy Young Award for the American League.

1994 - In San Francisco, CA, a heavily armed gunman traded fire with police, hitting two police officers, a paramedic and another person before being killed.

1994 - Sweden voted to join the European Union.

1995 - Greg Maddox (Atlanta Braves) became the first major league pitcher to win four consecutive Cy Young Awards.

1995 - Seven people, including five Americans are killed in a car bomb attack at a U.S. military headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

1997 - Iraq expelled six U.N. arms inspectors that were U.S. citizens.

1997 - The musical "The Lion King" opened.

1998 - "The Wizard of Oz" was released on the big screen by Warner Bros. 59 years after its original release.

1998 - Monica Lewinsky signed a deal with St. Martin's Press for the North American rights to her story about her affair with U.S. President Bill Clinton.

1998 - U.S. President Clinton agreed to pay Paula Jones $850,000, without an apology or admission of guilt, to throw out her sexual harassment lawsuit.

2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush signed an executive order that would allow for military tribunals to try any foreigners captured with connections to the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. It was the first time since World War II that a president had taken such action.

2002 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq agrees to the terms of the UN Security Council Resolution 1441.

2002 – The oil tanker Prestige sinks off the Galician coast and causes a huge oil spill.

2005 – Andrew Stimpson, a 25-year old British man, is reported as the first person proven to have been "cured" of HIV

2007 – An explosion hits the south wing of the House of Representatives of the Philippines in Quezon City, killing four people, including Congressman Wahab Akbar, and wounding six.

2007 -Yahoo settles the lawsuit brought to them over the two Chinese dissidents who were jailed illegally due to Yahoo handing over evidence to the Chinese government.

2009 -The movie "2012" premieres. The movie is based on the myths that according to the Mayan calendar, the world will come to an end on December 21, 2012.

The number 13 and Friday the 13th are often associated with bad luck. With three chances for good luck in 2009 because Friday the 13th fell on three different calendar days, hopefully Friday, November 13 will be a good luck day for everyone.

Cheryl Phillips
HULIQ.com

sources: NYT, BBC, Fandango