13 Strange Things That Happened On Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th is synonymous with bad luck and superstitions. But is there really a reason to be so apprehensive of a day that's technically just like any other? Of course not, but that's not going to stop me from telling you about some weird stuff that’s happened on a Friday the 13th. (Via)

• 1. Oct. 13, 1307

  

  Officers of King Philip IV of France raided the homes of the Knights Templar. Charged with illegal activities, at least a hundred were killed and hundreds more were tortured.

• 2. Aug. 13, 1521

  

  Conquistador Hernan Cortes captured Cuauhtemoc, the ruler of Tenochtitlan, claiming the city for Spain and marking the end of the Aztec Empire. Cortes appointed himself the new ruler and renamed it Mexico City

• 3. Nov. 13, 1789

  

  Benjamin Franklin wrote "Everything appears to promise that it will last; but in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes."

• 4. Sept. 13, 1940

  

  Five German bombs hit Buckingham Palace and destroyed the Palace Chapel, as part of Hitler's strategic "Blitz" bombing campaign.

• 5. June 13, 1952

  

  A Swedish military DC-3 plane carrying a crew of eight disappeared over international water in the Baltic Sea. Later known as the "Catalina affair" because one of two Catalina rescue planes sent to search for the plane was attacked by Soviet forces.

• 6. July 13, 1956

  

  The United States and Britain turned down Indian and Yugoslavian pleas to stop atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons.

• 7. Nov. 13, 1970

  

  A huge South Asian storm killed an estimated 300,000 people in Chittagong, Bangladesh, and create floods that killed as many as 1 million in the Ganges delta.

• 8. June 13, 1986

  

  The Olsen twins, Mary-Kate and Ashley, were born.

• 9. Jan. 13, 1989

  

  The "Friday the 13th virus" infected hundreds of IBM computers across Great Britain, wiping out program files and causing considerable anxiety at a time when large-scale computer viruses were a relatively new threat.

• 10. Oct. 13, 1989

  

  The Dow Jones Industrial Average underwent the second largest drop it had ever experienced at that time. During the Friday-the-13th mini-crash, the Dow dropped 190 points.

• 11. Aug. 13, 1999

  

  What would have been Alfred Hitchcock's 100th birthday.

• 12. March 13, 2009

  

  "SAW - The Ride" premiered at Thorpe Park amusement park in England, only to promptly shut down due to "minor teething problems."

• 13. Sept. 13, 2013

  

  The planned release date of Friday the 13th, Part XIII.