Friday, April 13, 2012

Friday the 13th

On Friday, October 13, 1307, Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay and several Templar Knights were arrested by King Phillip of France. Most were eventually tortured to death.

On Friday, July 13, 1821, notorious Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest was born in Tennessee.

On Friday, March 13, 1964, Catherine Susan (Kitty) Genovese was stabbed to death as she was returning to her Queens, New York City home in the early morning hours. She was only 29 years old. Two weeks after the murder, a newspaper article appeared that questioned whether or not neighbors heard the attack and stood by and did nothing to help the girl. The murder of Kitty Genovese and the investigation brought to light a social psychological phenomenon called "diffusion of responsibility" or "the bystander effect".

On Friday, November 13, 1970, a massive storm killed approximately 300,000 people in Chittagong, Bangladesh, and created floods that killed as many as one million in the Ganges Delta.

On Friday, October 13, 1972, a chartered plane carrying 45 rugby team members and their friends and families crashed in the Andes Mountains. Sixteen of the group survived for 72 days while the world thought they were dead, in what would become headline-making acts of cannibalism.

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