13 Unfortunate Events In The Past That Took Place On Friday The 13th

The fear of Friday the 13th has been widespread for a prolonged period of time, and it’s not without reason. Friggatriskaidekaphobia or the fear of the day (Friday the 13th) is a real thing.

While Friday the 13th, is considered unlucky in general, there have been reasons and incidents from the past that have supported people’s fear of it. Not that, I’m asking you to be scared. Personally I am going to binge watch on horror movies for the entire night and worship Satan (okay, TMI) but you sit back and read about the unlucky coincidences that have earned 13th, Friday its infamous reputation.

1.  September 13th, 1940 – Buckingham Palace Bombing

Nazi Germany’s intense bombing campaign against London, hit Buckingham Palace harder than people could have thought – 16 times to be precise. One of the most destruction inducing hits was experienced on Friday, Sept. 13th, 1940 as a result of which the interior of the Royal Chapel was destroyed and 3 people were injured severely.

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2. March 13th, 1964 – The murder of bar manager Kitty Genovese

Kitty Genovese was a bar manager in a New York pub and was brutally raped and murdered by a Winston Moseley. Apparently the attack was witnessed by 38 people, none of whom came to her help or rescue and this gave rise to the ‘bystander effect’ or ‘Genovese syndrome’.

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3. November 13th, 1970 –  Cyclone in Bangladesh

The killer cyclone, Bhola struck Bangladesh and took 300,000 lives. The storm, which was a Category 3 hurricane, with winds reaching a speed of 185 km/h, led the water to rise up to 16 feet and forced people to climb trees to save their lives.

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4. October 13th, 1972 – Uruguayan Air Force flight 571 crashed

The Uruguayan Air Force flight carried the Uruguayan Old Christians Club rugby team and was travelling to Chile when the plane crashed into an Andean, snow-capped mountain peak. Only 16 of the original 45 passengers survived the ordeal towards the end and were rescued.

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5. October 13th, 1972 – a Soviet Aeroflot crashed in a lake

An Ilyushin-62 airplane carrying 164 passengers and 10 crew members started from Paris and crashed near Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport killing everybody on board.

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6.  January 13th, 1989 –  IBM computers across the UK infected with virus

Computers in IBM, UK were infected by a horrendous virus named ‘Friday the 13th’. The virus was programmed to delete all files from the system and managed to cause a lot of anxiety and damage due to the novelty of computer viruses at the time and the inability of the then-current systems to deal with it.

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7. January 13, 1939 – A ‘terrifying’ bushfire killed 36 people in Australia

It is said, a total of 71 people die and 75% of Victoria’s inhabitants were affected by the fire. 1300 buildings and 700 homes were damaged too.

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8. September 13th, 1996 – Legendary rapper Tupac Shakur was killed

This day was a sad day for music lovers as legendary rapper Tupac Shakur passed away due to gunshot injuries sustained on the 7th of September, in a Las Vegas hospital shooting.

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9. June 13th, 1997 – Uphaar Cinema tragedy

The Uphaar Cinema tragedy is one of the worst fire tragedies in the history of India, and it occurred during the 3-6 PM screening of the movie Border. 59 people died due to being trapped inside and 103 were injured in the stampede that followed.

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10.  October 13th, 2006 – Blizzard in Buffalo

Blizzards in Buffalo, New York were a common thing. But not in the middle of October. The blizzard led to 22 inches of snow covering the city and almost 1 million people dealing with power failure for almost a week.

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11. August 13th, 2010 – 13-year-old boy was struck by lightning

A boy in Suffolk, England was struck by lightning on August 13th, 2010 at 13:13 PM (1:13 PM) and that too when the boy was only 13. Coincidence? Huge one.

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12. August 13th, 2010 – Driverless train found running on London’s Tube

A runaway train caused chaos on London’s Tube network when it ran driver-less for 13 minutes without being stopped causing other trains to redirect their routes to avoid a head-on collision.

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13. January 13th, 2012 – Cruise ship Costa Concordia capsizes

The Costa Concordia almost pulled a Titanic when it hit a reef on the coast of Isola del Giglio and began to tilt. Attempts were made to rescue passengers using lifeboats and air-lifting. It took 19 hours to raise the ship from the reef, but 32 people lost their lives in the wreck.

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Friday the 13th does look unlucky, doesn’t it?

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