Friday, June 13, 2008

Do you suffer from Triskaidekaphobia

A couple years ago, I was laid off on a Friday the 13th. This was after I worked hard trying to convince my daughters that there was no reason to consider Friday the 13th special in any way, shape, or form. Today is special, though. It is my birthday. In honor of myself, I thought I would list a few things that have happened on 13 June through out history.

1525 - Martin Luther marries Katharina von Bora, against the celibacy rule decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for priests and nuns.

1774 - Rhode Island becomes the first of Britain's North American colonies to ban the importation of slaves.

1777 - American Revolutionary War: Marquis de Lafayette lands near Charleston, South Carolina, in order to help the Continental Congress to train its army.

1798 - Mission San Luis Rey de Francia is founded.

1805 - Lewis and Clark Expedition: scouting ahead of the expedition, Meriwether Lewis and four companions sight the Great Falls of the Missouri River.

1893 - Grover Cleveland undergoes secret, successful surgery to remove a large, cancerous portion of his jaw; operation not revealed to US public until 1917, nine years after the president's death.

1898 - Yukon Territory is formed, with Dawson chosen as its capital.

1927 - Aviator Charles Lindbergh receives a ticker-tape parade down 5th Avenue in New York City.

1934 - Adolf Hitler and Mussolini meet in Venice, Italy; Mussolini later describes the German dictator as "a silly little monkey".

1935 - In one of the biggest upsets in championship boxing, the 10 to 1 underdog James J. Braddock defeats Max Baer in Long Island City, New York, and becomes the heavyweight champion of the world.

1942 - The United States opens its Office of War Information.

1955 - Mir Mine, the first diamond mine in the USSR, is discovered.

1955 - Mir Mine, the first diamond mine in the USSR, is discovered.

1956 - Real Madrid wins the inaugural European Champion Clubs' Cup final, defeating Stade de Reims 4-3 at the Parc des Princes, Paris.

1966 - The United States Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.

1966 - The Birth of a new child.

1967 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson nominates Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

1970 - "The Long and Winding Road" becomes the Beatles' last Number 1 song.

1971 - Vietnam War: The New York Times begins publication of the Pentagon Papers.

1977 - Convicted Martin Luther King Jr. assassin James Earl Ray is recaptured after escaping from prison three days before.

1978 - Israeli Defense Forces withdraw from Lebanon.

1981 - At the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, a teenager, Marcus Sarjeant, fires six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II.

1982 - Fahd becomes King of Saudi Arabia upon the death of his brother, Khalid.

1983 - Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the solar system.

1994 - A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blames recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages

1995 - French president Jacques Chirac announces the resumption of nuclear tests in French Polynesia.

1996 - The Montana Freemen surrender after an 81-day standoff with FBI agents.

1997 - A jury sentences Timothy McVeigh to the death for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

2000 - President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea meets Kim Jong-il, leader of North Korea, for the beginning of the first ever inter-Korea summit, in the northern capital of Pyongyang.

2000 - Italy pardons Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981.

2002 - The United States of America withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

2005 - A jury in Santa Maria, California acquits pop singer Michael Jackson of molesting 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo at his Neverland Ranch.

I share a birth date with the following individuals:

* 823 - Charles the Bald, Holy Roman Emperor and King of the West Franks (d. 877)
* 1649 - Adrien Baillet, French scholar and critic (d. 1706)
* 1752 - Fanny Burney, English novelist and diarist (d. 1840)
* 1763 - José Bonifácio de Andrade e Silva, Brazilian statesman (d. 1838)
* 1773 - Thomas Young, English scientist (d. 1829)
* 1775 - Antoni Radziwiłł, Polish politician (d. 1833)
* 1786 - Winfield Scott, U.S. general (d. 1866)
* 1822 - Carl Schmidt, German chemist (d. 1884)
* 1831 - James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist (d. 1879)
* 1864 - Rudolf Kjellén, Swedish political scientist (d. 1922)
* 1864 - Dwight B. Waldo, American educator and historian (d. 1939)
* 1863 - Lady Lucy Duff Gordon, English fashion designer (d. 1935)
* 1865 - William Butler Yeats, Irish writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1937)
* 1870 - Jules Bordet, Belgian immunologist and microbiologist, Nobel laureate (d. 1961)
* 1876 - William Sealey Gosset, English chemist, statistician (d. 1937)
* 1884 - Anton Drexler, founder of the German Worker's Party (d. 1942)
* 1884 - Gerald Gardner, British occultist (d. 1964)
* 1884 - Etienne Gilson, French philosopher (d. 1978)
* 1887 - Bruno Frank, German author (d. 1945)
* 1888 - Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese poet (d. 1935)
* 1892 - Basil Rathbone, English actor (d. 1967)
* 1893 - Dorothy L. Sayers, English author (d. 1957)
* 1894 - Dr. Leo Kanner, Austrian-American physician (d. 1981)
* 1894 - Jacques Henri Lartigue, French photographer (d. 1986)
* 1897 - Paavo Nurmi, Finnish runner (d. 1973)
* 1899 - Carlos Chávez, Mexican composer (d. 1978)
* 1901 - Tage Erlander, Prime Minister of Sweden (d. 1985)
* 1903 - Harold 'Red' Grange, American football player (d. 1991)
* 1906 - Bruno de Finetti, Italian mathematician (d. 1985)
* 1910 - Mary Whitehouse, British campaigner (d. 2001)
* 1910 - Gonzalo Torrente Ballester, Galician writer (d. 1999)
* 1910 - Mary Wickes, American actress (d. 1995)
* 1911 - Luis Alvarez, American physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1988)
* 1911 - Erwin Müller, German-born physicist (d. 1977)
* 1912 - Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau, French Canadian poet (d. 1943)
* 1913 - Etienne Leroux, major Afrikaans author.
* 1915 - Don Budge, American tennis player (d. 2000)
* 1917 - Teddy Turner, comedian (d. 1992)
* 1918 - Ben Johnson, American actor (d. 1996)
* 1918 - Helmut Lent, German night fighter pilot (d. 1944)
* 1924 - Percy Rodriguez, Canadian actor (d. 2007)
* 1926 - Paul Lynde, American actor (d. 1982)
* 1928 - John Forbes Nash, American mathematician, Nobel laureate
* 1929 - Alan Civil, English French horn player (d. 1989)
* 1930 - Ryszard Kukliński, Polish colonel (d. 2004)
* 1931 - Irvin D. Yalom , psychotherapist,Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University
* 1933 - Tom King, British politician
* 1933 - Erich Ribbeck, German football soccer trainer
* 1934 - Lady Annabel Goldsmith, English socialite
* 1935 - Christo, Bulgarian artist
* 1935 - Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebonnt, French artist
* 1935 - Samak Sundaravej, Thai Prime Minister
* 1939 - Tom Cheek, American baseball player (d. 2005)
* 1940 - Bobby Freeman, American soul singer
* 1941 - Esther Ofarim, Israeli singer
* 1941 - Marcel Lachemann, American baseball player
* 1943 - Malcolm McDowell, English actor
* 1944 - Ban Ki-moon, the current U.N. Secretary General
* 1945 - Whitley Strieber, American author
* 1947 - A. G. Lafley, American executive director
* 1948 - Garnet Bailey, Canadian ice hockey player and executive (d. 2001)
* 1948 - Joe Roth, American executive, producer and film director
* 1949 - Dennis Locorriere, American singer and guitarist (Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show)
* 1950 - Michael Stark, Australian actor
* 1950 - Gerd Zewe, German footballer
* 1951 - Richard Thomas, American actor
* 1951 - Stellan Skarsgård, Swedish actor
* 1952 - Tony Bruno, American talkshow host
* 1953 - Tim Allen, American comedian and actor
* 1954 - Andrzej Lepper, Polish politician
* 1954 - Rita Cadillac, Brazilian dancer
* 1955 - Alan Hansen, Scottish football pundit
* 1959 - Steve Georganas, Australian politician
* 1959 - Lance Kinsey, Canadian actor
* 1961 - Anders Järryd, Swedish tennis player
* 1962 - Ally Sheedy, American actress
* 1962 - Glenn Michibata, Canadian professional tennis player
* 1962 - Davey Hamilton, American racing driver
* 1963 - Bettina Bunge, German tennis player
* 1963 - Paul De Lisle, American musician (Smash Mouth)
* 1964 - Katherine Lucy Bridget Burke, English actress
* 1964 - Christian Wilhelm Berger, Romanian composer
* 1965 - Lukas Ligeti, Austrian composer and drummer
* 1965 - Infanta Cristina, Duchess of Palma de Mallorca
* 1965 - Lisa Vidal, American actress
* 1966 - Grigori Perelman, Russian mathematician
* 1966 - Naoki Hattori, Japanese racing driver
* 1968 - David Gray, British musician
* 1968 - Denise Pearson, British singer (Five Star)
* 1968 - Fabio Baldato, Italyan cyclist
* 1969 - Svetlana Krivelyova, Russian athlete
* 1969 - Søren Nystrøm Rasted
* 1970 - Chris Cairns, New Zealand cricketer
* 1970 - Rivers Cuomo, American musician (Weezer)
* 1970 - Mikael Ljungberg, Swedish wrestler (d. 2004)
* 1972 - Natalie MacMaster, Canadian musician
* 1973 - Sam Adams, American football player
* 1973 - Mattias Hellberg, Swedish musician (The Hellacopters)
* 1973 - Ville Laihiala, Finnish musician (Sentenced, Poisonblack)
* 1973 - Kasia Kowalska, Polish pop rock singer
* 1974 - Selma Björnsdóttir, Icelandic singer
* 1974 - Steve-O, American television personality
* 1974 - Brande Roderick, American actress
* 1974 - Takahiro Sakurai, Japanese voice actor
* 1974 - Valeri Bure, Russian ice hockey player
* 1975 - Ante Covic, Australian footballer
* 1975 - Johannes Grenzfurthner, Austrian artist, writer, curator and director
* 1975 - Riccardo Scimeca, English footballer
* 1976 - Kym Marsh, English singer, actress, & T.V. presenter
* 1976 - Jason 'J' Brown, English Singer
* 1977 - Alaura Eden, American porn actress
* 1978 - Ethan Embry, American actor
* 1978 - Mathis Künzler, Swiss actor
* 1978 - Jason Michael Carroll, Country musician
* 1978 - Mikako Ichikawa, Japanese actress and model
* 1979 - Nila Håkedal, Norwegian beach volleyball player
* 1980 - Darius Vassell, English footballer
* 1980 - Florent Malouda, French footballer
* 1980 - Markus Winkelhock, German racing driver
* 1980 - Sarah Connor, German singer
* 1981 - Chris Evans, American actor
* 1981 - David Madden, 4th-ranked Jeopardy! champion of all-time
* 1982 - Kenenisa Bekele, Ethiopian athlete
* 1983 - Matt Allison, British racing driver
* 1983 - Jason Spezza Canadian Hockey Player
* 1984 - Nery Castillo, Mexican-Uruguayan footballer
* 1985 - Raz-B, American singer (B2K)
* 1985 - Danny Syvret, Canadian ice hockey player
* 1985 - Filipe Albuquerque, Portuguese racing driver
* 1986 - Kat Dennings, American actress
* 1986 - Ashley Olsen, American actress
* 1986 - Mary-Kate Olsen, American actress
* 1989 - Lisa Tucker, American singer
* 1990 - Aaron Johnson, British actor

I read a few things today about midlife crisis. I guess the common consensus is that it does not exist. Most people who think they are suffering from the malady are generally in the midst of other turmoil or life stresses and are only attributing their problems to midlife crisis. Something more about midlife crisis: such experiences will generally lead to making positive changes to adjust for those aspects of life that are not as desirable.

People who lived before the late 1800s perceived Friday the 13th as a day of special misfortune, no evidence has been found to prove it. It's a fact that no one has been able to document the existence of such beliefs prior to the 19th century.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday to you!! ;) me