Fear of the number 13 has a proper name — triskaidekaphobia — and it's baked into the buildings around you. In 2002, an Otis Elevator executive estimated that among buildings with 13 or more floors and Otis elevators, 85% had no floor labeled the 13th. The number is simply skipped, so the button marked 14 opens onto the actual thirteenth floor.
A 2007 Gallup poll found 13% of American adults would be bothered by a hotel room on the 13th floor, and 9% would ask to move. The earliest known record of 13 being unlucky only appears in Europe after the Middle Ages.
Some New Yorkers fought back. In 1881 a Civil War veteran named William Fowler founded the Thirteen Club, whose members sat 13 to a table in Room 13, walked under a ladder to get in, and dined among piles of spilled salt. Five future U.S. presidents joined.
Previously:
• Happy Friday the 13th!
• An investment fund that makes trades based on superstitious beliefs
