Black Friday (shopping) corner the gold market. When President Grant learned of this manipulation, he ordered the Treasury to release a large supply of gold, which halted the run and caused prices to drop by eighteen percent. Fortunes were made and lost in a single day, and the president's own brother-in-law, Abel Corbin, was ruined. The earliest known use of "Black Friday" to refer to the day after Thanksgiving occurs in the journal, "Factory Management and Maintenance", for November 1951, and again in 1952. Here it referred to the practice of workers calling in sick on the day after Thanksgiving, in order to
Friday the 13th ("I have lived", implying death in the present), an omen of bad luck. In fact, in Italy, 13 is generally considered a lucky number. However, due to Americanization, young people consider Friday the 13th unlucky as well. The 2000 parody film "Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth" was released in Italy with the title "Shriek – Hai impegni per venerdì 17?" (""Shriek – Do You Have Something to Do on Friday the 17th?""). Friday the 17th occurs on a month starting on Wednesday. According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North