10 Failed Doomsday Predictions

&quot;The Condemned in Hell,&quot; fresco by Luca Signorelli, 1500-02; in the chapel of S. Brizio, Orvieto, Italy
The Condemned in Hell, fresco by Luca Signorelli, 1500–02; in the Chapel of San Brizio in the cathedral at Orvieto, Italy.SCALA/Art Resource, New York
Religious leaders, scientists, and even a hen (or so it seemed) have been making predictions for the end of the world almost as long as the world has been around. They’ve predicted the destruction of the world through floods, fires, and comets—luckily for us, none of it has come to pass.

  • 2012 Maya Apocalypse

    The corn god (left) and the rain god, Chac. Drawing from the Madrid Codex (Codex Tro-Cortesianus), one of the Mayan sacred books. In the Museo de America, Madrid.
    The corn god (left) and the rain god, Chac, drawing from the Madrid Codex (Codex Tro-Cortesianus), one of the Mayan sacred books; in the Museo de América, Madrid.Courtesy of the Museo de America, Madrid

    December 21, 2012, marked the end of the first “Great Cycle” of the Maya Long Count calendar. Many misinterpreted this to mean an absolute end to the calendar, which tracked time continuously from a date 5,125 years earlier, and doomsday predictions emerged. End-of-the-world scenarios included the Earth colliding with an imaginary planet called Nibiru, giant solar flares, a planetary alignment that would cause massive tidal catastrophes, and a realignment of Earth’s axis. Preparations for the end of the world as we know it included a modern-day Noah’s ark built by a man in China and extensive sales of survival kits.

  • Harold Camping

    12 solar X-ray images (Yohkoh)shown were obtained between 1991 and 1995, and show the decrease in solar coronal brightness (by about a factor of 100) as the sun goes from an &quot;active&quot; state to a less active state.
    Twelve solar X-ray images obtained by Yohkoh between 1991 and 1995. The solar coronal brightness decreases by a factor of about 100 during a solar cycle as the Sun goes from an "active" state (left) to a less active state (right).G.L. Slater and G.A. Linford; S.L. Freeland; the Yohkoh Project

    Among the most prolific modern predictors of end times, Harold Camping has publicly predicted the end of the world as many as 12 times based his interpretations of biblical numerology. In 1992, he published a book, ominously titled 1994?, which predicted the end of the world sometime around that year. Perhaps his most high-profile predication was for May 21, 2011, a date that he calculated to be exactly 7,000 years after the Biblical flood. When that date passed without incident, he declared his math to be off and pushed back the end of the world to October 21, 2011.

  • True Way

    Taiwanese religious leader Hon-Ming Chen established Chen Tao, or True Way, a religious movement that blended elements of Christianity, Buddhism, UFO conspiracy theories, and Taiwanese folk religion. Chen preached that God would appear on U.S. television channel 18 on March 25, 1988, to announce that he would descend to Earth the following week in a physical form identical to Chen. The following year, he prophesized, millions of devil spirits, together with massive flooding, would result in a mass extinction of the human population. Followers could be spared by buying their way aboard spaceships, disguised as clouds, sent to rescue them.

  • Halley’s Comet Panic

    Comet P/Halley (Comet Halley, Halley&#39;s Comet) as taken March 8, 1986 by W. Liller, Easter Island, part of the International Halley Watch (IHW) Large Scale Phenomena Network.
    Halley's Comet, 1986.NASA/National Space Science Data Center

    Halley’s comet passes by the Earth approximately every 76 years, but the nearness of its approach in 1910 created fear that it would destroy the planet, either by a celestial collision or through the poisonous gasses it was rumoured to contain. A worldwide panic ensued, stoked by the media and such newspaper headlines as “Comet May Kill All Earth Life, Says Scientist.” A group in Oklahoma tried to sacrifice a virgin to ward off impending doom, and bottled air became a hot commodity. The Earth probably did pass through part of the comet’s tail, but with no apparent effect.

  • Millerism

    Religious leader William Miller began preaching in 1831 that the end of the world as we know it would occur with the second coming of Jesus Christ in 1843. He attracted as many as 100,000 followers who believed that they would be carried off to heaven when the date arrived. When the 1843 prediction failed to materialize, Miller recalculated and determined that the world would actually end in 1844. Follower Henry Emmons wrote, “I waited all Tuesday, and dear Jesus did not come … I lay prostrate for 2 days without any pain—sick with disappointment.”

  • Joanna Southcott

    Thunderstorm cloud-to-ground lightning discharge with cumulonimbus clouds in field. weather storm thunderstorm atmospheric disturbance cumulonimbus clouds thunder and lightning Homepage blog 2011, science and technology
    lightning: cloud-to-groundCloud-to-ground lightning discharge in a field from a cumulonimbus cloud.© Hemera/Thinkstock

    Beginning when she was 42 years old, Joanna Southcott reported hearing voices that predicted future events, including the crop failures and famines of 1799 and 1800. She began publishing her own books and eventually developed a following of as many as 100,000 believers. In 1813, she announced that in the following year she would give birth to the second messiah, whose arrival would signal the last days of the Earth—despite being 64 years old and, as she told her doctors, a virgin. She died before a baby could be born.

  • The Prophet Hen of Leeds

    Barred Plymouth Rock hen.
    Barred Plymouth Rock hen.© Larry Lefever/Grant Heilman Photography, Inc.

    In 1806, a domesticated hen in Leeds, England, appeared to lay eggs inscribed with the message “Christ is coming.” Great numbers of people reportedly visited the hen and began to despair of the coming Judgment Day. It was soon discovered, however, that the eggs were not in fact prophetic messages but the work of their owner, who had been writing on the eggs in corrosive ink and reinserting them into the poor hen’s body.

  • Great Fire of London

    Because the Bible calls 666 the number of the Beast, many Christians in 17th-century Europe feared the end of the world in the year 1666. The Great London Fire, which lasted from September 2 to September 5 of that year, destroyed much of the city, including 87 parish churches and about 13,000 houses. Many saw it as a fulfillment of the end of the world prophecy. Given such a large amount of property damage, though, the death toll of the fire was remarkably low, reportedly only 10 people--not quite the end of the world.

  • The Great Flood

    Artist&#39;s concept illustrates a solar system that is a much younger version of our own. Dusty disks, like the one shown here circling the star, are thought to be the breeding grounds of planets, including rocky ones like Earth. Dated 2005.
    solar systemArtist's conception of a young version of the solar system depicting the dusty disks thought to be the breeding grounds of planets. NASA/JPL

    Johannes Stöffler, a respected German mathematician and astrologer, predicted that a great flood would cover the world on February 25, 1524, when all of the known planets would be in alignment under Pisces, a water sign. Hundreds of pamphlets announcing the coming flood were issued and set in motion a general panic; Count von Iggleheim, a German nobleman, went so far as to build a three-story ark. Though there was light rain on the day of the predicted flood, no actual flooding materialized.

  • Montanism

    The Angel Shows John the Heavenly Jerusalem, from the Apocalypse of St. John, c. 1020; in the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg, Germany (MS. 140)
    Angel showing John the heavenly Jerusalem, manuscript illumination from the Revelation to John, c. 1020; in the Staatsbibliothek in Bamberg, Germany.Courtesy of the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg, Germany

    Montanism, a 2nd century schismatic movement of Christianity, began in Phrygia (modern Turkey). Based on the visions of Montanus, who claimed to speak under the influence of the Spirit, Montanists believed the second coming of Christ to be imminent. Many Christian communities were almost abandoned when believers left their homes and migrated to a plain between the two villages of Pepuza and Tymion in Phrygia, where Montanus claimed the heavenly Jerusalem would descend to Earth.

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