Do you have triskaidekaphobia (fear of Friday the 13th)? Hopefully not, but here are a few random tidbits related to the fateful date anyway:

Famous daredevil Sam Patch, who successfully jumped off a cliff near Niagara Falls in 1829, then jumped from Genesee Falls on a Friday the 13th later that year, and was, shall we say, less successful, according to LiveScience.com (http://tinyurl.com/13fri13).

Discovery.com says that on Nov. 13, 1789, Benjamin Franklin wrote “Everything appears to promise that it will last; but in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes” (http://tinyurl.com/DiscFri13). Truer words were never spoken.

As a parting shot, Discovery reports the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina, says that as many as 21 million people in the U.S. are so frightened by Friday the 13th that $800 to $900 million is lost in business because of it. And that’s really scary.

— Elleda Wilson