Thirteen Clubs Defied Every Superstition

In late 19th-century America, people formed "Thirteen Clubs" to demonstrate their lack of superstition. A US Civil War veteran named William Fowler organized the first meeting at 8:13 p.m. on January 13, 1881, when 13 guests dined in Room 13 after walking beneath a ladder and sitting among piles of spilled salt. Similar clubs spread across North America over the next 45 years and included five future US presidents, from Chester A. Arthur to Theodore Roosevelt. The movement eventually disappeared as public interest faded.

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