Today, the phrase "Friday the 13th" rolls off the tongue, instinctively linked to bad luck, strange happenings and a hockey-masked murderer in a slasher flick of the same name. But before Jason Voorhees made his mark in 12 films about the infamous day, how did the superstition come to exist?
No expert can verify the origins of Friday the 13th. But the first written references to its wickedness appear around the mid-19th century when William Fowler, a U.S. Army captain, founded the Thirteen Club — a group of 13 men in Manhattan devoted to proving the superstitions were false. The Club grew and at some point apparently included five former U.S. presidents as honorary members.
The men gathered for the first time on Friday, Jan. 13, 1881, and their exploits — described in newspapers of the time — included walking under ladders, breaking mirrors and dining as a group in room 13.