My Look Back: 1935

View of New York City, 1935
Photo from LIFE Photo Archive

I hope everyone is having a very lucky Friday the 13th today! It's raining cats and dogs here and I'm so happy that I'm indoors.  I'm taking a looksie back to the year 1935 and that year had two lucky number 13 Fridays, Friday, September 13th and Friday, December 13th 1935.  So here's a bit of trivia on 1935 and the number thirteen.

• The number thirteen is one of the only three Wilson Prime numbers. The other two are 5 and 563.
• Amelia Earhart became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California in January of 1935.
• There are 13 loaves in a "Baker's Dozen".
• The first canned beer was sold by the Kruger Brewing Co. of Richmond, Virginia in the form of Krueger Cream Ale. This was also the year that Alcoholic Anonymous was founded.
• A gallon of gas cost 10 cents and the average new car sold for $625.
• The number 13 has been worn by many well-known and high-achieving athletes during their professional careers and Olympic appearances, such as Alex Rodriguez, Dan Marino, Wilt Chamberlain, Yao Ming and Shaquille O'Neal, to name a few.
• It Happened One Night starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert won the Academy Award for Best Picture. See my movie review for it here.
• The board game Monopoly was released by Parker Bros., although it's history can be traced as far back as 1904. In the 1950's three tokens were retired: a lantern, a purse and a rocking horse.
• The moon travels around the earth 13 degrees each day. The 28 days of the lunar cycle can be broken down into 13 days to change from Full Moon to New Moon and back, plus one day of a Full Moon and one day of a New Moon.
• Jerry Lee Lewis, Sonny Bono, Mercedes Sosa, Elvis Presley, Woody Allen, Julie Andrews, Luciano Pavarotti, and the current Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) were born in 1935.
• 13 is considered lucky and sometimes unlucky. In Judaism, 13 is the age when a young boy matures and becomes a Bar Mitzvah (when he bears responsibility for his Jewish faith) and 13 is the number of principles that exist in the Jewish faith.  In the ancient Iranian civilization, the 13th day of a new Iranian year is considered to be sinister and wicked. It is called Sizdah Be-dar and many people celebrate it by taking to the outdoors as a way to get rid of the day.  There are 13 witches in a coven and 13 turns make a traditional hangman's noose (anything less than 13 would not accomplish the task).
• Babe Ruth hit his last home run of his career, which was his 714th.
• Airplanes were no longer allowed to fly over the White House starting in 1935.