Is Friday 13th Really Unlucky? It Seems So...

Paraskevidekatriaphobia, if you learn how to say it, you are cured…or so superstition would have it. 

Paraskevidekatriaphobia is the fear of Friday the 13th.

But is this day more unlucky than any other?

These military stories may suggest so…

Friday 13th, October 1307:

It was just after the first crusade when the Pope of the Roman Catholic church, in combination with the King of France, sentenced a monastic military order known as the Knights Templar to death and ordered the torture and crucifixion of their leader.

Friday 13th, September 1862:

Another seemingly unfortunate event was back when General Robert E Lee misplaced his orders detailing the Confederates’ plan for the Antietam campaign near Frederick, Maryland. Even more unlucky for him the person to find these misplaced notes was as Union soldiers!

Friday 13th, November 1942

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of Japan’s Combined Fleet, was very unlucky when he set out on this ill-fated date to break the Guadalcanal stalemate. He was determined to try again to break the deadlock and win the war. However this resulted in Yamamoto losing two battleships, three destroyers, a heavy cruiser, and seven fully-loaded troop transports sunk and four were destroyed on the beach.

Friday 13th, September 1940:

Even Royalty can't escape the curse of Friday 13th. King George VI and Elizabeth the Queen Mother were enjoying a spot of afternoon tea when the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on Buckingham Palace. Elizabeth recalled “battling” to remove an eyelash from the King’s eye, when they heard the “unmistakable whirr-whirr of a German plane” and then the “scream of a bomb”.

Friday 13th June 1952

It was a miserable day in Swedish history when their defence staff issued a statement claiming an aircraft from the Air Force, ordered to carry out a navigation flight above the Baltic Sea in connection with radio operators training, has been missing since around 12 o’clock.

It is believed that the aircraft was attacked and shot down by a single Soviet MiG-15 jet fighter in international airspace, disappearing into the Baltic Sea with its eight men. For a long time, only one rubber lifeboat, unused but containing air-to-air munition fragments, was found

The affair was a thorn in the Cold War history of Sweden and the surviving families were long bereft of information on the fate of those lost.

Friday 13th, 19th Century

The infamous HMS Friday. Sometime in the 19th century, the Royal Navy attempted to finally dispel the old superstition among sailors that beginning a voyage on a Friday was certain to bring bad luck.

To demonstrate this, they decided to commission a ship named HMS Friday. Her keel was laid on a Friday, she was launched on a Friday, and she set sail on her maiden voyage on Friday the 13th, under the command of a Captain James Friday. She was never seen or heard from again.

**this may or may not have happened....