[ih] 13 the unlucky number

[Alex McKenzie]

 Alejandro,
I don't think any of us can speak for Jon Postel, who assigned the numbers, and sadly he is no longer with us to speak for himself.  I knew Jon pretty well and he showed no evidence of being a superstitious person.  I think Steve Crocker's explanation that the number was assigned to an entity that could not yet be made public on the date RFC 790 was released is the most likely answer.
For what its worth,Alex McKenzie

    On Tuesday, August 11, 2020, 9:08:58 AM EDT, Alejandro Acosta via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:  
 
 Hello list,

   I have a question and one more time I believe this a good place to ask.

   During the weekend I read the old RFC 790 (ASSIGNED NUMBERS). When 
reading it I noticed the following:

{...}

       009.rrr.rrr.rrr   BRAGG-PR      Ft. Bragg Packet Radio Net [JEM]
       010.rrr.rrr.rrr   ARPANET       ARPANET [17,1,VGC]
       011.rrr.rrr.rrr   UCLNET        University College London     [PK]
       012.rrr.rrr.rrr   CYCLADES      CYCLADES [VGC]
       013.rrr.rrr.rrr                 Unassigned [JBP]
       014.rrr.rrr.rrr   TELENET       TELENET [VGC]
       015.rrr.rrr.rrr   EPSS          British Post Office EPSS      [PK]
       016.rrr.rrr.rrr   DATAPAC       DATAPAC [VGC]
       017.rrr.rrr.rrr   TRANSPAC      TRANSPAC [VGC]
       018.rrr.rrr.rrr   LCSNET        MIT LCS Network [43,10,DDC2]

{...}


   As you can see the 013.rrr.rrr.rrr was unassigned but some subsequent 
prefix were (014, 015 ..... ). Is there any reason for it?. I know 013 
was later assigned to XEROX-NET.

   I wonder if 013 was skipped because some sort of superstitions?.


Thanks,


Alejandro,



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