Thoughts abound for Friday the 13th

  • Evan Smith<br>
  • Monday, March 3, 2008 11:39am

Do you have araskevidekatriaphobia? That’s a fear of Friday the 13th. It’s considered a day of bad luck because, in ancient times, both the sixth day of the week and the number 13 were associated with bad luck.

To observe the day, I’ve looked at the number 13 in history. Here’s my list:

• The 13th State – Rhode Island – When the Constitution took effect in 1788, only 12 states had approved it. Rhode Island held out because the Constitution had no guarantee of freedom of speech or religion. When the First Congress convened in 1789, the representatives of the other 12 states wrote the Bill of Rights; so Rhode Island signed on as No. 13.

• The 13th Congress – 1813-14 – During the second term of James Madison’s presidency, it dealt mainly with financing the War of 1812, approving the treaty that ended the war and demilitarizing the border with Canada.

• The 13th President – Millard Fillmore (1850-53) – Fillmore became president on the death of Zachary Taylor. Taylor, a hero of the Mexican War, had died after 16 months as president. Taylor and William Henry Harrison, a hero of the Indian wars who died one month after his 1841 inauguration, were the only presidents elected from the Whig Party. Fillmore favored the compromise of 1850 and the fugitive slave law. The party didn’t nominate Fillmore for a full term in 1852. Instead, it nominated Gen. Winfield Scott. This time, a historian once said, the general lived, but the party died. Fillmore ran unsuccessfully as the 1856 candidate of the American (no-nothing) Party.

• The 13th Amendment – Abolition of Slavery (1865) – During the Civil War, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation outlawed slavery in the states that had seceded, but slavery was still legal in Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and West Virginia. This post-war amendment made abolition of slavery a matter of federal constitutional law.

• The 13th Olympiad – 1944 – These games were canceled because of World War II. They were supposed to go to Helsinki, Finland, which hosted the games of the 15th Olympiad in 1952.

• The 13th Winter Olympics – 1980, Lake Placid, N.Y. – We remember these games for the “Miracle on Ice,” in which a team of American college hockey players upset the powerful Soviet team and went on to win the gold medal. It also featured American speedskater Eric Heiden’s winning all five men’s speedskating events. The distances ranged from 500 meters to 10,000.

• The 13th Century – 1201-1300 – This was the time of the Magna Carta (1215), in which King John of England agreed to certain civil and political liberties, like limits on his power and trial by jury.

Evan Smith is the Enterprise Forum editor. Send comments to entopinion@heraldnet.com.

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