31 Days of Halloween | Day 19: Friday the 13th — The Truth Behind the Unlucky Day
Haunted American HistoryShow Notes
In 1907, a wealthy Boston businessman named Thomas Lawson published a novel called Friday, the Thirteenth.
It told the story of a stockbroker who exploited people's fear of an unlucky date to trigger a financial panic.
That same year, a seven-masted schooner bearing Lawson's name sank in the Atlantic.
In Boston, where Lawson lived, the date was Friday, December 13th.
Only two men survived.
For generations, Friday the 13th has been associated with terrible luck, mysterious curses, and the fear that something awful is waiting to happen.
But the superstition isn't nearly as ancient as people believe.
Tonight, we're tracing the strange history of Friday the 13th, from medieval superstitions and the Knights Templar to a secretive New York dining club, a Wall Street panic, and the horror movie that turned an unlucky date into one of the most recognizable names in American pop culture.
Along the way, we'll uncover the stories that were invented, the coincidences that actually happened, and why Friday the 13th feels especially ominous when it falls in October.
Welcome to Day Nineteen of 31 Days of Halloween.
More from Haunted American History
In the winter of 1590, an elderly Scottish healer named Agnes Sampson was brought before King James VI of Scotland.
In 1967, the RMS Queen Mary arrived in Long Beach, California, after more than three decades crossing the Atlantic.
In Savannah, Georgia, ghost stories are everywhere.
On November 13, 1974, a young man ran into a bar in Amityville, New York, shouting that his parents had been shot.
In 1891, a jeweler in Salem, Massachusetts, began selling a silver souvenir spoon decorated with a witch on a broomstick.