In most large cities in the United States, many building don't have 13th floors. In Japan, they don't have 4th floors, because the word for four sounds similar to the word for DEATH! Some say that the modern basis for Friday the 13th phobia dates back to Friday, October 13, 1307.
On this date, the Pope Clement V in conjunction with the King Philip of France secretly ordered the mass arrest of all the Knights Templar in France. The Templars were terminated with extreme prejudice (burned to a crisp) for apostasy, idolatry, heresy, "obscene rituals" and homosexuality, corruption and fraud, and secrecy, never again to hold the power that they had held for so long.
The first reference to an unlucky Friday the 13th came in an 1869 biography of the composer Gioachino Rossini who died on Friday November 13, 1868.
If it gives you some comfort, today is the last Friday the 13th of the year.
November 13, 1940 -
Walt Disney's third animated film Fantasia, opened in New York on this date.
Even after more than 70 years after its release, Disney still receives complaints from parents claiming the Night on Bald Mountain sequence terrified their children.
November 13, 1954 -
Looney Tunes first 3D cartoon, Lumber Jack Rabbit, starring Bugs Bunny, premiered on this date.
This was the only Warner Bros. cartoon filmed in 3D. It was intended for release with House of Wax, which was also filmed in 3D.
November 13, 1965 -
Get Off My Cloud by The Rolling Stones topped the charts on this date.
There was some of controversy over this song. Some U.S. radio stations refused to play the song because of the supposed drug references.
November 13, 1971 -
Steven Spielberg's first full- length film, Duel, starring Dennis Weaver, debuted on ABC-TV on this date.
During the chase, a parked sedan resembling a squad car is seen, briefly raising Dennis Weaver's hopes, but it turns out to be a service car for a pest exterminator named Grebleips... "Spielberg" in reverse.
November 13, 1975 -
Morris Albert's song Feelings went gold on this date.
In 1987, Morris Albert was found guilty of plagiarism, with a jury finding that this borrowed heavily from a French song from 1956 called "Pour Toi."
You can blame me later for this ear worm
November 11, 1976 -
Rod Stewart's Tonight's The Night, with some French cooing by his girlfriend Britt Ekland, hits #1 in America for the first of eight weeks.
The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section played on this song. They were a group of four musicians who started their own studio - Muscle Shoals Sound - in 1969 after doing sessions at FAME studios for Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, and many other popular soul acts. The famous story the musicians tell is that when Stewart arrived at the studios and saw them getting ready, he refused to believe they were the band - he was sure the guys he heard playing on those records were black, and had a hard time accepting that four white guys could deliver so much soul.
November 13, 1991 -
The first animated film to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast premiered in Hollywood on this date.
Angela Lansbury (Mrs. Potts) thought that another character would be better suited to sing the ballad, Beauty and the Beast. Directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise asked her to make at least one recording to have for a back-up; that one recording ended up in the movie.
It's 5 pm somewhere in the world. It's a good time to point this out.
Today in History:
While it is a particularly uneventful day in history, let us opine these words:
"The students are beyond control and their behavior is disgraceful. They come blustering into the lecture-rooms like a troop of maniacs and upset the orderly arrangements which the master has made in the interest of his pupils. Their recklessness is unbelievable and they often commit outrages which ought to be punishable by law, were it not that custom protects them."
People concerned about the pace of change in human affairs can find solace in knowing that these familiar sentiments were expressed about sixteen centuries ago by St. Augustine, who was born on November 13, 354 AD.
Like many other theological luminaries, Augustine began life as a debauched young man who sought his pleasures in wine, women, and song. Augustine admitted in his autobiography Confessions, that as a boy he "told lies to my tutors, my masters and my parents all for the love of games and the craving for stage shows." Eventually he became old and cranky and declared his youth wasted.
All of the things that occurred during the drunken orgies of his youth recounted in his Confessions do not hold a candle to the crap going on in the post-election debacle.
November 13, 1789 -
Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to a friend in which he said, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."
I would include, "please accept the results of an election when they are certified."
November 13, 1927 -
Although most of the Dutch returned to Holland after learning that New Amsterdam had become New York.
November 13, 1947 -
The AK-47 assault rifle development by Mikhail Kalashnikov in the Soviet Union was completed on this date. The rifle was one of the first assault rifles to be created.
Today, it is the most widely-used assault rifle in the world — more AK-47 models have been made than all other assault rifle models put together.
November 13, 1955 -
Happy Birthday Caryn
Whoopi Goldberg (Caryn Elaine Johnson) actress, comedienne, and television host, was born on this day.
November 13, 1965 -
Appearing on a late night live satire program called BBC3, critic Kenneth Tynan becomes the first man to say “Fuck” on TV.
A national fit of apoplexy follows with one Tory MP suggesting that Tynan should hang!
November 13, 1966 -
Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first astronaut to successfully work in space without tiring, during the Gemini 12 flight. (Previous astronauts suffered from fatigue carrying out tasks during EVA).
Aldrin worked outside the Gemini craft for 2 hours and 6 minutes, demonstrating that astronauts could work outside their transport.
November 13, 1971 -
The American space probe, Mariner 9, becomes the first space probe to orbit another planet when it enters into orbit around Mars on this date. The probe’s mission was to return photographs that would map seventy percent of the surface while conducting a study of the planet’s atmosphere.
Analysis of the data returned by the probe revealed that the planet is covered in dried river beds. Two Soviet probes achieved the same orbit about a month later.
November 13, 1974 -
Karen Silkwood, a technician and union activist at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron plutonium plant near Crescent, Okla., was killed in a 'car crash' while on her way to meet a reporter on this date.
The Kerr-McGee nuclear fuel plants closed in 1975. The grounds of the Cimarron plant were still being decontaminated more than 40 years later.
November 13, 1982 -
Maya Lin's simple yet elegant Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated on Veteran's Day to the veterans of the Vietnam War on this date (the memorial was opened to the public a few days earlier.) The memorial was built with polished granite, and it displays the names of over 60,000 veterans.
No federal funds were used to construct the wall. Private contributions from individuals, corporations, veterans and other organizations, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund raised almost $9 million.
It's that time of year: I still don't understand the concept of holiday long-form commercials in England. McDonald's UK released their annual holiday advert, concerning the Inner Child.
While it's nice to see a commercial ask if we're 'Reindeer Ready?', a better question could be, 'Are you ready to be Diabetes Prone?'.
I still can't imagine Americans sitting for more than a minute for a commercial, even for one from Amazon.
And so it goes.
Before you go - It is the fifth anniversary of the deadly Paris attacks, massacring 130 people in the bloodiest terror attack in years.
Please take a moment out of your day to remember the victims and their families.
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