OT: Friday the 13th

Are you triskaidekaphobic (afraid of the number thirteen)?

Sailors were particularly superstitious in this regard, often refusing to ship out on a Friday. According to unverified legend, the British Navy commissioned a ship in the 1800s called H.M.S. Friday, in order to quell the superstition. The navy selected the crew on a Friday, launched the ship on a Friday and even selected a man named James Friday as the ship's captain. Then, one Friday morning, the ship set off on its maiden voyage... and disappeared forever.

On this day in history in:

523 - St John I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
642 - Christiaan Huygens discovers Martian south polar cap
1521 - Present day Mexico City was captured by Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez from the Aztec Indians.
1889 - A patent for a coin-operated telephone was issued to William Gray.
1907 - The first taxicab started on the streets of New York City.
1908 - Henry Ford's first Model T rolls off the assembly line
1912 - The first experimental radio license was issued to St. Joseph's College in Philadelphia, PA.
1985 - The engagement of Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenagger was announced.

Born on Aug 13th:

Annie Oakley 1860
Bert Lahr (the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard Of Oz) 1895
Alfred Hitchcock 1899


John | "There be dragons here"
| Annotation used by ancient cartographers
| to indicate the edge of the known world.

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