I always think of an episode of ‘Animaniacs’ from a time I like to now term - back in the day (rather than put an actual date on it) – and a segment entitled ‘Good Idea, Bad Idea’. It went as such – Good Idea – Finding an Easter Egg on Easter Sunday, Bad Idea – Finding an Easter Egg on Christmas Morning. It struck me as an joke designed not to be laughed at and I loved it, I guess it proved a foreshadowing of the sense of humour I would develop subsequently. This is the earliest point in the year at which Easter can occur bar one day. Obviously enough, the earliest is March 22nd. Easter will not occur at this point for over another 100 years and Easter will not fall on the 22nd for another 200 years. Today, Good Friday is a traditional day of fasting in the Catholic Church marking the sorrow and penitence associated with Christ’s crucifixion on Calvary. It is no surprise that this event somewhat dominates any search of what happened on this day in history, but an interesting anecdote is that the days name is a linguistic accident, originally being referred to as God’s Friday. In history, Friday has proven to be a day of some notable events, some tragic feeding into superstitions surrounding the days luck, while some are deserving of any trivia fueled list.

6. The Olsen Twins were born Friday the 13th 1986 – good or bad thing – decide for yourself.

5. Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 was an airline flight carrying 45 people that crashed in the Andes on Friday October 13, 1972. The event was concluded by December 23, 1972 when the last of 16 survivors were rescued. The survivors infamously were forced to eat the remains of some of their fellow passengers who had perished in the flight in order to avoid starvation.

4. The Good Friday earthquake, occurred in Alaska, in 1964 It was the most powerful earthquake recorded in U.S. and North America history, and the third most powerful ever recorded on a seismograph. 131 deaths are attributed to the earthquake, which also caused a tsunami and the liquification of soils. An earthquake of course also marked the moment at which Christ is said to have died on the cross.

3. Good Friday 1982 saw the first landings of Argentine forces on the Falklands Islands and the eventual failed defensive actions taken by the Falklands military leading to Margaret Thatcher’s to take action on what was seen to be an invasion of British territory by a foreign power.

2. Black Friday is a term used in a number of contexts. One has positive connotations as it is the first Friday following Thanksgiving, marking the beginning of a bouyant shopping period in the States, during which many traders can get out of the red and into the black. Of the list of bad events described a Black Friday (see the full list here) the one I have chosen here is used by The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada to the date 13 October 1944. On that day, during World War II’s Battle of the Scheldt in Belgium near Hoogerheide, the regiment attacked German positions across 1,200 yards of open beet fields and suffered 145 casualties, including 56 dead, among them all four company commanders. Twenty-seven were taken prisoner. One company of 90 men was reduced to just four survivors. It was the regiment’s second single-day disaster, after the Dieppe Raid. There is a world of great stories attached to individual battles within larger struggles.
 

1. Good Friday is forever synonymous with the agreement reached at Stormont in 1997, a landmark move towards the power sharing finally established in Summer 2007. Bloody Friday is however a much darker hour in the North’s troubles in 1972. The year saw over 1, 300 bombings with Bloody Friday seeing the Provisional IRA detonate 22 bombs around Belfast killing 9 people and injuring 130. The brutality of the attacks, with victims on both side of the religious divide drew harsh reactions from all parties. Thirty years later the IRA issued a statement of apology.