A History of Doomsday Predictions

By Scott Adamson

Pipeline Sports Editor

For almost as long as humans have walked this Earth, they have made predictions regarding when the apocalypse would occur. Since we are still here talking about it, I think it’s safe to say none of the predictions have been right so far. Here are some (failed) doomsday predictions from throughout history.

c. 2800 B.C- In 1979, Scientists unearthed a stone tablet from this time period which states, “Our Earth is degenerate in these latter days. There are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end”.

c. 634 B.C- Romans believed the world would end at this time due to a myth that the mythical founder of Rome, Romulus, was shown by 12 eagles, each believed to represent ten years that the world would end 120 years from then, occurring in 754 B.C

1033- Many Christian scholars believed this to be the 1000th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that this would signify the end of the world. They believed that it would occur around Good Friday of that year.

1910- Halley’s Comet’s tail was discovered to be made up by a deadly gas known as cyanogen. Scientists also discovered that Earth would pass through Halley’s Comet’s tail, and many scientists believed this would lead to mass extinction. The news was even posted on the front page of the New York Times, until other scientists refuted the findings.

1997- When the Hale-Bopp Comet appeared in 1997, it was rumored that an alien spacecraft was following the comet and hiding in its trail. The ship would then come to Earth and destroy all its inhabitants.

2000- Many believed that computers would not be able to handle the switch from 1900 dates to 2000 dates, prompting the beginning of the rumors of the feared Y2K bug. The rumor was that this would lead to all of the world’s computer systems to malfunction, leading to vast blackouts and mass nuclear destruction.

2000- Later on that year, author Richard Noone predicted that the Antarctic shelf would grow to be three miles thick, leading to a global ice age, which would eventually lead to the end of all humanity.

2011- Radio preacher Harold Camping predicted that Judgment Day would come on May 21st, as earthquakes ravaged the earth, and a rapture of the faithful, or an ascendance of those who believed in God into Heaven. The official end of the world would be October 21st, after five months of torment. When this prediction didn’t come true, he stated that spiritual earthquakes had ravaged the earth on May 21st, and the actual doomsday would be October 21st. 

2012- Writer Ronald Weinland thought that on May 27th, there would be a total collapse of the United States and the beginning of World War III. After three and a half years of fighting, the world will be destroyed by a nuclear apocalypse.