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Showing posts with label Nostradamus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nostradamus. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

World War III

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 
A nuclear holocaust is often associated with World War III.
 
World War III (also called WWIII or the Third World War) is a hypothetical successor to World War II (1939–1945). In the wake of World War I, World War II, the commencement of the Cold War and the development, and testing and use of nuclear weapons, there was early widespread speculation as to the next global war. This war was anticipated and planned for by military and civil authorities, and explored in fiction in many countries. Scenarios ranged from conventional warfare, over the limited or full-blown use of nuclear weapons to the destruction of the planet.
World War III is often used as a plot device in fiction.

Military scenarios and planning

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was concerned that, with the enormous size of Soviet forces deployed in Europe at the end of the war and the perception that the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was unreliable, there was a serious threat to Western Europe. In April–May 1945, British Armed Forces developed Operation Unthinkable, the Third World War plan; its primary goal was "to impose upon Russia the will of the United States and the British Empire."[1] The plan was rejected by the British Chiefs of Staff Committee as militarily unfeasible.

Historical close calls

Cold War

With the development of the arms race, before the collapse of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War, an apocalyptic war between the United States and the Soviet Union was considered possible. Among the historical events considered potential triggers for such a conflict are:
  • June 25, 1950 – July 27, 1953: Before and after the entry of Chinese reinforcements into the Korean War, with the pushback of South Korean and UN forces, orders and scenarios were developed for the use of nuclear weapons. Supreme Commander MacArthur went so far as to declare he would invade and bomb China to eliminate the threat of communism in East Asia – one of the reasons he was removed from command by President Harry S. Truman.[citation needed]
  • July 26, 1956 – March, 1957: In the Suez Crisis, the Soviet Union threatened to intervene on behalf of Egypt in its confrontation with France, the United Kingdom, and Israel over its nationalization of the Suez Canal. Pressure was applied on the three allies by Canadian UN ambassador and future Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson (for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize), and the Eisenhower administration (which threatened to create a currency crisis by dumping US holdings of British debt and to impose sanctions on Israel).[citation needed]
  • June 4 – November 9, 1961: Berlin Crisis of 1961 where the Soviets demanded a withdrawal of western troops from Berlin. It culminated in the construction of the Berlin Wall.[citation needed]
  • October 15–28, 1962: The Cuban missile crisis, a confrontation on the stationing of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, is often considered as having been the closest to a nuclear exchange. The crisis peaked on October 27, when a U-2 was shot down over Cuba and another almost intercepted over Siberia, after Curtis LeMay (U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff) had neglected to enforce Presidential orders to suspend all overflights, and a Soviet submarine nearly launched a nuclear-tipped torpedo in response to depth charges (with the launch being prevented by an officer named Vasili Arkhipov).
  • According to historian Liu Chenshan, in 1969, at the height of the Sino-Soviet border conflict, Soviet officials drew up plans for a nuclear attack against China.[2] The United States, however, refused to remain neutral in such a conflict, threatening to launch a full-attack against the Soviet Union in such an event.[3]
  • October 24, 1973: As the Yom Kippur War wound down, a Soviet threat to intervene on Egypt's behalf caused the United States to go to DEFCON 3.[citation needed]
  • November 9, 1979: The United States made emergency retaliation preparations after NORAD saw on-screen indications that a full-scale Soviet attack had been launched.[4] No attempt was made to use the "red telephone" hotline to clarify the situation with the USSR and it was not until early-warning radar systems confirmed no such launch had taken place that NORAD realized that a computer system test had caused the display errors. A senator inside the NORAD facility at the time described an atmosphere of absolute panic. A GAO investigation led to the construction of an off-site test facility to prevent similar mistakes.[citation needed]
  • September 26, 1983: A false alarm occurred on the Soviet nuclear early warning system, showing the launch of American Minuteman ICBMs from bases in the United States. The potential for an erroneous retaliatory nuclear attack on the United States and its Western allies was prevented by Stanislav Petrov, an officer of the Soviet Air Defence Forces, who intuited the scale and recent system upgrades meant the system had simply had a malfunction (which was borne out by later investigations).[5][6]
  • November 2–11, 1983: Amid deteriorating relations between the Soviet Union and the United States and the lack of a functioning General Secretary in the Soviet Politburo (due to Yuri Andropov's failing health), the Able Archer 83 military drill for NATO's nuclear-release procedures was thought of by some Politburo members as a ruse of war. Nuclear weapons and air forces were placed on alert in East Germany and Poland before the exercise ended.[citation needed]

Post–Cold War period

  • January 25, 1995: A team of Norwegian and American scientists launched a Black Brant XII four-stage sounding rocket from the Andøya Rocket Range, with the goal of studying the aurora borealis. The rocket, which bore resemblance to a US Navy submarine-launched Trident missile, was detected by the Olenegorsk early warning radar station in Murmansk Oblast, Russia. The rocket's predicted trajectory, as well as its overall shape and appearance, led the Russian military to believe it was in fact a Trident nuclear missile launched from a US Navy submarine and aimed at Moscow. Russian nuclear forces were put on high alert, and Russian submarine commanders were ordered to go into a state of combat readiness and prepare for nuclear retaliation. The nuclear weapons command briefcase was brought to Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who in turn activated his "nuclear keys" in preparation for a response strike. However, after a few minutes, Russian observers were able to determine that the rocket was heading away from Russian airspace and was not a threat, leading Russian military officials to demobilize. This incident was the first and only time in which a nuclear weapons state activated its nuclear briefcase and prepared to launch an attack.[7]
  • December 13, 2001 – June 10, 2002: India and Pakistan engaged in a standoff prompted by a mass shooting at the Indian Parliament in New Delhi, which the Indian government blamed on Islamic militant groups located in Pakistan. Following the shooting, more than 500,000 Indian troops were deployed along the Kashmiri Line of Control, which separated Indian and Pakistani sectors of the region. Pakistan responded by deploying more than 300,000 of its troops along the Line of Control. For months, tensions simmered, until May when a series of militant attacks and clashes between Indian and Pakistani soldiers increased tensions. On May 22, the Indian Prime Minister warned his troops to prepare for a "decisive battle". The United States ordered all non-essential citizens to leave India on May 31 and a summit called by Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to yield an agreement. The situation reached a fever pitch on June 5, when Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Pakistan would not renounce its right to strike first with nuclear weapons. On June 10, however, an agreement was reached and both sides began a process of demobilization over the next few months ahead, with India removing its warships from Pakistan's coastline and Musharraf pledging to rein in Islamic militants in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.[citation needed]

Alternative views

Norman Podhoretz has suggested that the Cold War can be identified as World War III because it was fought, although by proxy, on a global scale, with the main combatants, the United States and later NATO, and the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries providing political, military and economic support while not engaging in direct combat.[citation needed]
Eliot Cohen, the director of strategic studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, declared in The Wall Street Journal, a month after the September 11 attacks, that the struggle against terrorism was more than a law-enforcement operation, and would require military conflict beyond the invasion of Afghanistan. Cohen, like Marenches, considered World War III to be history. "A less palatable but more accurate name is World War IV," he wrote. "The Cold War was World War III, which reminds us that not all global conflicts entail the movement of multi-million-man armies, or conventional front lines on a map."[8] In a 2006 interview, U.S. President George W. Bush labeled the ongoing War on Terror as "World War III".[9]
On the July 10, 2006 edition of Fox News' The Big Story, host John Gibson interviewed Michael Ledeen, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute For Public Policy Research (AEI), and said "some are calling the global war on terror something else, something more like World War III." But Ledeen responded that "it's more like World War IV because there was a Cold War, which was certainly a world war." Ledeen added that "probably the start of it [World War IV] was the Iranian revolution of 1979." Similarly, on the May 24, 2011 edition of CNBC's Kudlow and Company, host Lawrence Kudlow, discussing a book by former deputy Under-Secretary of Defense Jed Babbin, said "World War IV is the terror war, and war with China would be World War V."[10]
In 1989, CIA original operative, Miles Copeland, wrote that in the future, World War Three would occur when "Soviet Russia" dupes the United States and Israel into waging a self-destructive war with the Muslim/Arab world.[11]

Popular culture

Main article: World War III in popular culture
World War III is also a common theme in popular culture. Who might start World War III and how it might start are perennial topics of discussion in press. A vast apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic science fiction literature exists describing the postulated execution and aftermath of World War III, several notable movies have been made based on World War III, and it is the topic of various comics, video games, songs, magazines, radio programs, newspapers and billboards.
World War III has been the topic of countless games, movies, and books. World War III and its predicted aftermath continues to be portrayed in popular media around the world such as in recent video games Violent Storm, Metro 2033, Fallout, Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Homefront, ARMA 3, and APOX and in anime such as the Ghost in the Shell and Mobile Suit Gundam 00 metaseries.
Albert Einstein was often quoted as saying "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."[12]

See also

Wikinews has related news: Bush and Putin suggest potential for World War III
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List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of predicted dates for apocalyptic events such as the Rapture, Last Judgment, or any other event that would result in the end of humanity, civilization, the planet, or the entire universe. The list shows the dates of predictions from notable groups or individuals of when the world was, or is, forecast to end.

Past predictions

Date (BCE)/(CE) Claimant Description Reference(s)
634 BCE Various Romans Many Romans feared that the city would be destroyed in the 120th year of its founding. There was a myth that 12 eagles had revealed to Romulus a mystical number representing the lifetime of Rome, and some early Romans hypothesized that each eagle represented 10 years. [1]
389 BCE Various Romans Some Romans believed that the mystical number revealed to Romulus represented the number of days in a year, so they expected Rome to be destroyed around 365 AUC (389 BCE) [1]
66–70 CE Simon bar Giora, Essenes The Essene sect of Jewish ascetics saw the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 66–70 as the final end-time battle. By the authority of Simon, coins were minted declaring the redemption of Zion. [2][3]
365 CE Hilary of Poitiers Announced that the end would happen that year. [4]:30
375–400 CE Martin of Tours Stated that the world would end before 400, writing, "There is no doubt that the Antichrist has already been born. Firmly established already in his early years, he will, after reaching maturity, achieve supreme power." [5][6]:119
500 CE Hippolytus of Rome, Sextus Julius Africanus, Irenaeus All three predicted Jesus would return in the year 500. One prediction was based on the dimensions of Noah's ark. [4]:31[7]:35
793 Apr 6 Beatus of Liébana The Spanish monk prophesied the second coming of Christ and the end of the world that day to a crowd of people. [4]:31
800 Sextus Julius Africanus Sextus Julius Africanus revised the date of Doomsday to 800. [8]:37
799–806 Gregory of Tours Calculated the End occurring between 799 and 806. [9]:48
848 Thiota Declared that the world would end this year. [6]:337
992–995 Various Christians Good Friday coincided with the Feast of the Annunciation; this had long been believed to be the event that would bring forth the Antichrist, and thus the end-times, within 3 years. [10]:236[11]
1000 Jan 1 Pope Sylvester II The Millennium Apocalypse at the end of the Christian Millennium. Various Christian clerics predicted the end of the world on this date, including Pope Sylvester II. Riots occurred in Europe. Pilgrims headed east to Jerusalem. [4]:32[7]:35–36
1033 Various Christians Following the failure of the January 1, 1000 prediction, some theorists proposed that the end would occur 1000 years after Jesus' death, instead of his birth. [4]:31[7]:36[12]
1186 John of Toledo Predicted the end of the world during 1186, based on the alignment of many planets. [4]:32
1260 Joachim of Fiore The Italian mystic determined that the Millennium would begin between 1200 and 1260. [8]:48
1284 Pope Innocent III Pope Innocent III (d. 1216) predicted that the world would end 666 years after the rise of Islam. [5]
1290
1335		 Joachimites The followers of Joachim of Fiore rescheduled the End to 1290 and then 1335 when his 1260 prophecy failed. [13]:58
1346–1351 Various Europeans The black plague spreading across Europe was interpreted by many as the sign of the end of times. [4]:33[14]
1370 Jean de Roquetaillade The Antichrist was to come in 1366 and the Millennium would begin in 1368 or 1370. [9]:55
1378 Arnaldus de Villa Nova This Joachite wrote that the Antichrist was to come in this year. [13]:62
1504 Sandro Botticelli Believed he was living during the Tribulation, and that the Millennium would begin in three and a half years from 1500. [9]:60
1524 Feb 1 London astrologers A group of astrologers in London predicted the world would end by a flood starting in London based on calculations made the previous June. 20,000 Londoners left their homes and headed for higher ground in anticipation. [10]:236–237[15]
1524 Feb 20 Johannes Stöffler A planetary alignment in Pisces was seen by this astrologer as a sign of the Millennium. [10]:236–237
1524–1526 Thomas Müntzer 1525 would mark the beginning of the Millennium, according to this Anabaptist. His followers were killed by cannon fire in an uneven battle with government troops. He died under torture and was beheaded. [16]:48[7]:36
1528 May 27 Hans Hut Predicted the end would occur on this day. [9]:67
1528 Johannes Stöffler Revised date from Stöffler after his 1524 prediction failed to come true. [10]:238
1533 Oct 19 Michael Stifel This mathematician calculated that the Judgement Day would begin at 8:00am on this day. [13]:88
1533 Melchior Hoffman This Anabaptist prophet predicted Christ's Second Coming to take place this year in Strasbourg. He claimed that 144,000 people would be saved, while the rest of the world would be consumed by fire. [8]:59
1534 Apr 5 Jan Matthys Predicted that the Apocalypse would take place on this day and only the city of Münster would be spared. [6]:338
1555 Pierre d'Ailly Around the year 1400, this French theologian wrote that 6845 years of human history had already passed, and the end of the world would be in the 7000th year. [13]:72
1585 Michael Servetus In his book The Restoration of Christianity, the Spanish born reformer claimed that the Devil's reign in this world began in 325 AD, at the Council of Nicea, and will last for 1260 years, thus ending in 1585. [17]
1588 Regiomontanus Predicted the end of the world this year. [10]:239
1600 Martin Luther Predicted the end of the world would occur no later than 1600. [9]:66
1624 Feb 1 London astrologers The same astrologers who predicted the deluge of February 1, 1524 recalculated the date to February 1, 1624 after their first prophecy failed. [10]:236–237[15]
1648 Sabbatai Zevi Using the kabbalah this rabbi from Smyrna, Turkey, figured that the Messiah would come in this year. [10]:239
1654 Helisaeus Roeslin This physician made a prediction that the world would end this year based on a nova that occurred in 1572. [10]:240
1656 Christopher Columbus In his Book of Prophecies (1501), Columbus predicted that the world would end in 1656. [18][19]
1657 Fifth Monarchists This group of radical Christians predicted the final apocalyptic battle and the destruction of the Antichrist were to take place between 1655 and 1657. [8]:67
1658 Christopher Columbus Columbus claimed that the world was created in 5343 BCE, and would last 7000 years. Assuming no year zero, that means the end would come in 1658. [13]:77
1660 Joseph Mede Mede claimed that the Antichrist appeared in 456, and the end would come in 1660. [13]:147
1666 Sabbatai Zevi Following his failed prediction of 1648, Zevi recalculated the end of the earth in 1666. [10]:239
Fifth Monarchists The presence of 666 in the date, the death of 100,000 Londoners to bubonic plague, and the Great Fire of London led to superstitious fears of the end of the world from some Christians. [20]:87[7]:36–37
1673 William Aspinwall This Fifth Monarchist claimed the Millennium would begin by this year. [6]:209
1688 John Napier This mathematician calculated the end of the world would be this year based on calculations from the Book of Revelation. [9]:92
1689 Pierre Jurieu This prophet predicted that Judgement Day would occur this year. [8]:70
1694 John Mason This Anglican priest predicted the Millennium would begin by this year. [8]:72
Johann Heinrich Alsted Predicted the Millennium would begin by this year. [8]:66
Johann Jacob Zimmermann Believed that Jesus would return and the world would end this year. [21]:19–20
1697 Cotton Mather This Puritan minister predicted the world would end this year. After the prediction failed, he revised the date of the End two more times. [6]:338
1700 John Napier After his 1688 prediction failed to come true, Napier revised his end of the world prediction to this year. [9]:92
Henry Archer In his 1642 work, The Personall Reigne of Christ Upon Earth, Archer predicted the second coming of Jesus would occur in approximately this year. [22]
1705
1706
1708		 Camisards Camisard prophets predicted the end of the world would occur in either 1705, 1706 or 1708. [8]:70
1716 Cotton Mather Revised prediction from Mather after his 1697 prediction failed to come true. [6]:338
1719 Apr 5 Jacob Bernoulli This mathematician predicted a comet would destroy the earth on this day. [10]:240
1700–1734 Nicholas of Cusa This Cardinal predicted the end would occur between 1700 and 1734. [13]:73
1736 Oct 16 William Whiston Whiston predicted a comet colliding with the earth this year. [23]
1736 Cotton Mather Mather's third and final prediction for the end of the world. [6]:338
1757 Emanuel Swedenborg Swedenborg claimed that the Last Judgement occurred in the spiritual world this year. [24]
1780 May 19 Connecticut General Assembly members, New Englanders The sky turning dark during the day was interpreted as a sign of the end times. The primary cause of the event is believed to have been a combination of smoke from forest fires, a thick fog, and cloud cover. [25][26]
1789 Pierre d'Ailly 1789 would bring the coming of the Antichrist, according to this 14th-century Cardinal. [9]:59
1792
1794		 Shakers Predicted the world would end in both 1792 and 1794. [6]:338
1795 Nov 19 Nathaniel Brassey Halhed While campaigning for Richard Brothers' release, Halhead proclaimed that the world would end on this day. [13]:310
1793–1795 Richard Brothers This retired sailor stated the Millennium would begin between 1793 and 1795. He was eventually committed to an insane asylum. [13]:73
1805 Christopher Love This presbyterian minister predicted the destruction of the world by earthquake in 1805, followed by an age of everlasting peace when God will be known by all. [20]:101
1806 Mary Bateman In Leeds, England in 1806 a hen began laying eggs on which the phrase "Christ is coming" was written. Eventually it was discovered to be a hoax. The owner, Mary Bateman, had written on the eggs in a corrosive ink so as to etch the eggs, and reinserted the eggs back into the hen's oviduct. [27][28][7]:37
1814 Dec 25 Joanna Southcott This 64-year-old self-described prophet claimed she was pregnant with the Christ child, and that he would be born on Christmas Day, 1814. She died on the day of her prediction, and an autopsy proved she was not pregnant. [29]
1836 John Wesley Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, foresaw the Millennium beginning this year. He wrote that Revelation 12:14 referred to the years 1058–1836, "when Christ should come". [13]:269[7]:37[30]
1843 Apr 28
1843 Dec 31		 Millerites Although it was not officially endorsed by their leadership, many Millerites expected the Second Coming to occur on April 28 or at the end of 1843. [31]:16
1843 Harriet Livermore The first of two years this preacher predicted the world would end. [13]:699
1844 Mar 21 William Miller Miller predicted Christ would return on this day. [31]:17
1844 Oct 22 Millerites After Christ did not return on March 21, 1844, the Millerites then revised William Miller's prediction to October 22, 1844, claiming to have miscalculated Scripture. The realization that the predictions were incorrect resulted in the Great Disappointment. [31]:17[7]:38[32]
1847 Aug 7 George Rapp Rapp, the founder of the Harmony Society, preached that Jesus would return in his lifetime, even as he lay dying on August 7, 1847. [21]:23
1847 Harriet Livermore The second prediction of the end of the world from this preacher. [13]:699
1853–1856 Various Many people[who?] thought the Crimean War was the Battle of Armageddon. [13]:437
1862 John Cumming This Scottish clergyman stated it was 6000 years since Creation in 1862, and that the world would end. [6]:283
1863 John Wroe The founder of the Christian Israelite Church calculated that the Millennium would begin this year. [29]
1873 Jonas Wendell In 1870, Wendell published his views in the booklet entitled The Present Truth, or Meat in Due Season concluding that the Second Advent was sure to occur in 1873. [33]
1874 Charles Taze Russell Predicted the return of Jesus to occur in 1874, and after this date reinterpreted the prediction to say that Jesus had indeed returned in invisible form. [34][35]
1881 Mother Shipton (attrib.) This 15th-century prophet was quoted as saying "The world to an end shall come, In eighteen hundred and eighty one" in a book published in 1862. In 1873 it was revealed to be a forgery; however, this did not stop some people from expecting the end. [10]:243
1890 Wovoka The founder of the Ghost Dance movement predicted in 1889 that the Millennium would occur in 1890. [16]:69
1901 Catholic Apostolic Church This church, founded in 1831, claimed that Jesus would return by the time the last of its 12 founding members died. The last member died in 1901. [36]:87
1910 Camille Flammarion He predicted that the 1910 appearance of Halley's Comet "would impregnate that atmosphere and possibly snuff out all life on the planet", but not the planet itself. "Comet pills" were sold to protect against toxic gases. The comet indicated the Second Coming to many. [37][7]:38
1892–1911 Charles Piazzi Smyth This pyramidologist concluded from his research on the dimensions of the Great Pyramid of Giza that the Second Coming would occur between 1892 and 1911. [21]:94
1914 Charles Taze Russell "...the battle of the great day of God Almighty… The date of the close of that "battle" is definitely marked in Scripture as October 1914. It is already in progress, its beginning dating from October, 1874." [38]
1915 John Chilembwe This Baptist educator and leader of a rebellion in Nyasaland predicted the Millennium would begin this year. [16]:69
1918 International Bible Students Association Christendom shall be cut off and glorification of the Little Flock (The Church) in the Spring of 1918 A. D. [39][40]
1920 Raymond Franz In 1918, Christendom would go down as a system to oblivion and be succeeded by revolutionary governments. God would "destroy the churches wholesale and the church members by the millions." Church members would "perish by the sword of war, revolution and anarchy." The dead would lie unburied. In 1920 all earthly governments would disappear, with worldwide anarchy prevailing. [41]
1925 Feb 13 Margaret Rowen According to this Seventh-day Adventist the angel Gabriel appeared before her in a vision and told her that the world would end at midnight on this date. [6]:45
1935 Sep Wilbur Glenn Voliva This evangelist announced that "the world is going to go 'puff' and disappear" in September 1935. [6]:287
1936 Herbert W. Armstrong The founder of the Worldwide Church of God told members of his church that the Rapture was to take place in 1936, and that only they would saved. After the prophecy failed, he changed the date three more times. [42]:99
1941 Jehovah's Witnesses A prediction of the end from the Jehovah's Witnesses, a group which branched from the Bible Student movement. [42]:72
1943 Herbert W. Armstrong The first of three revised dates from Armstrong after his 1936 prediction failed to come true. [42]:99
1947 John Ballou Newbrough The author of Oahspe: A New Bible foresaw the destruction of all nations and the beginning of post-apocalyptic anarchy in this year. [10]:243
1954 Dec 21 Dorothy Martin The world was to be destroyed by terrible flooding on this date, claimed this leader of a UFO cult called Brotherhood of the Seven Rays. The fallout of the group after the prediction failed was the basis for the 1956 book When Prophecy Fails. [43]
1959 Apr 22 Florence Houteff The 2nd Prophet of the Branch Davidians predicted the apocalypse foretold in the Book of Revelation would proceed on this date. The failure of the prophecy led to the split of the sect into several subsects, the most prominent led by Benjamin and Lois Roden. [44]
1962 Feb 4 Jeane Dixon This psychic predicted a planetary alignment on this day was to bring destruction to the world. [6]:340
1967 Aug 20 George Van Tassel This day would mark the beginning of the third woe of the Apocalypse, during which the southeastern US would be destroyed by a Soviet nuclear attack, according to this UFO prophet, who claimed to have channeled an alien named Ashtar. [45]:145
1967 Jim Jones The founder of the Peoples Temple stated he had visions that a nuclear holocaust was to take place in 1967. [9]:214
1969 Aug 9 George Williams The founder of the Church of the Firstborn predicted the Second Coming of Christ would occur on this day. [46]:77
1969 Charles Manson Manson predicted that an apocalyptic race war would occur in 1969 and ordered the Tate-LaBianca murders in an attempt to bring it about. Manson based his prediction on his interpretation of The Beatles self-titled album. [47]
1972 Herbert W. Armstrong The second of three revised dates from Armstrong after his 1936 and 1943 predictions failed to come true. [42]:99
1973 Jan 11–21 David Berg Berg, the leader of Children of God, predicted that there would be a colossal doomsday event heralded by Comet Kohoutek. [48][49]
1975 Herbert W. Armstrong Armstrong's fourth and final false prediction. [42]:99
Jehovah's Witnesses In 1966 Jehovah's Witnesses published an article which stated that the fall of 1975 would be 6000 years since man's creation. This led some Witnesses to speculate that the end would come in that year. Belief in the prediction was held only by a relatively small number of Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States; whereas most Witnesses were unaware of the prediction. Some subsequent publications either cautioned against the prediction or stressed it was only a possibility, though some continued to affirm that 1975 would "probably" be the end. More details. [50][51]
1977 John Wroe The founder of the Christian Israelite Church predicted this year for Armageddon to occur. [10]:243
William M. Branham This Christian minister predicted the Rapture would occur no later than 1977. [52]
1980 Leland Jensen In 1978 Jensen predicted that there would be a nuclear disaster in 1980, followed by two decades of conflict, culminating in God's Kingdom being established on earth. [53]
1981 Chuck Smith The founder of Calvary Chapel predicted the generation of 1948 would be the last generation, and that the world would end by 1981 at the latest. [54][55]
1982 Apr–Jun Tara Centers Full-page ads in many newspapers April 24–25, 1982, stated that "The Christ is Now Here!" and that he would make himself known "within the next two months". [7]:39
1982 Mar 10 John Gribbin, Stephen Plagemann Stated in their 1974 book The Jupiter Effect that combined gravitational forces of aligned planets would create a number of catastrophes, including a great earthquake on the San Andreas Fault. [6]:62[37]
1982 Jun 21 Benjamin Creme Creme took out an ad in the Los Angeles stating the Second Coming would occur in June 1982 with the Maitreya announcing it on worldwide television. [56]
1982 Pat Robertson In late 1976 Robertson predicted that the end of the world would come in 1982. [57][58]
1984 Oct 2 Jehovah's Witnesses Another prediction of the end from the Jehovah's Witnesses. [59]
1985 Lester Sumrall This minister predicted the end in this year, even writing a book about it entitled I Predict 1985. [6]:99
1987 Apr 29 Leland Jensen Jensen predicted that Halley's Comet would be pulled into Earth's orbit on April 29, 1988, causing widespread destruction. [46]:73, 76
1987 Aug 17 José Argüelles Argüelles claimed that Armageddon would take place unless 144,000 people gathered in certain places in the world in order to "resonate in harmony" on this day. [8]:156
1988 Sep 13
1988 Oct 3		 Edgar C. Whisenant Whisenant predicted in his book 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could Be in 1988 that the Rapture of the Christian Church would occur between 11 and 13 September 1988. After his September predictions failed to come true, Whisenant revised his prediction date to October 3. [6]:93[60]
1989 Sep 30 Edgar C. Whisenant After all his 1988 predictions failed to come true, Whisenant revised his prediction date to this day. [6]:93
1990 Apr 23 Elizabeth Clare Prophet Prophet predicted a nuclear war would start on this day, with the world ending 12 years later, leading her followers to stockpile a shelter with supplies and weapons. Later, after Prophet's prediction did not come to pass, she was diagnosed with epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease. [4]:61[61]
1991 Sep 9 Menachem Mendel Schneerson This Russian-born rabbi called for the Messiah to come by the start of the Jewish New Year. [7]:40
1991 Louis Farrakhan The leader of the Nation of Islam declared that the Gulf War would be the "War of Armageddon which is the final war." [6]:307
1992 Sep 28 Rollen Stewart This born-again Christian predicted the Rapture would take place on this day. [62]
1992 Oct 28 Lee Jang Rim (이장림 or 李長林)
 Lee, the leader of the Dami Mission church, predicted the Rapture would occur on this day. [63]
1993 David Berg Berg predicted the tribulation would start in 1989 and that the Second Coming would take place in 1993. [8]:145
1994 May 2 Neal Chase This Bahá'í sect leader predicted that New York would be destroyed by a nuclear bomb on March 23, 1994, and the Battle of Armageddon would take place 40 days later. [46]:79
1994 Sep 6
1994 Sep 29
1994 Oct 2		 Harold Camping Camping predicted the Rapture would occur on September 6, 1994. When it failed to occur he revised the date to September 29 and then to October 2. [64][6]:95
1995 Mar 31 Harold Camping Camping's fourth predicted date for the end. This would be Camping's last prediction until 2011. [6]:95
1996 Dec 17 Sheldan Nidle California psychic Sheldan Nidle predicted that the world would end on this date, with the arrival of 16 million space ships and a host of angels. [65]
1997 Mar 26 Marshall Applewhite Applewhite, leader of the Heaven's Gate cult, claimed that a spacecraft was trailing the Comet Hale-Bopp and argued that suicide was "the only way to evacuate this Earth" so that the cult members' souls could board the supposed craft and be taken to another "level of existence above human". Applewhite and 38 of his followers committed mass suicide. [66]
1997 Oct 23 James Ussher This 17th-century Irish Archbishop predicted this date to be 6000 years since Creation, and therefore the end of the world. [16]:68
1998 Mar 31 Chen Tao (陳恆明)
 Hon-Ming Chen, leader of the Taiwanese cult God's Salvation Church, or Chen Tao — "The True Way" — claimed that God would come to Earth in a flying saucer at 10:00 am on this date. Moreover, God would have the same physical appearance as Chen himself. Chen chose to base his cult in Garland, Texas, because he thought it sounded like "God's Land." On March 25, God was to appear on Channel 18 on every TV set in the US. [67][7]:43[68]
1999 Jul Nostradamus A prediction attributed to Nostradamus stating the "King of Terror" would come from the sky in "1999 and seven months" led to fears of the end. [69]
1999 Aug 18 The Amazing Criswell The predicted date of the end of the world, according to this psychic well known for false predictions. [6]:43
1999 Sep 11 Philip Berg Berg, dean of the worldwide Kabbalah Centre, stated that on this date "a ball of fire will descend, destroying almost all of mankind, all vegetation, all forms of life." [7]:44
1999 Charles Berlitz This linguist predicted the end would occur in this year. He did not predict how it would occur, stating it may involve nuclear devastation, asteroid impact, pole shift or other earth changes. [8]:194
Hon-Ming Chen (陳恆明)
 Hon-Ming Chen's cult God's Salvation Church, now relocated to upstate New York, preached that a nuclear holocaust would destroy Europe and Asia sometime between October 1 and December 31, 1999.
James Gordon Lindsay This preacher predicted the tribulation would begin before the year 2000. [6]:280
Timothy Dwight IV This President of Yale University foresaw Christ's Millennium starting by 2000. [8]:81
Nazim Al-Haqqani Predicted that the Last Judgment would occur before the year 2000. [70]
2000 Jan 1 Various Predictions of a Y2K computer bug were to crash many computers and would malfunction causing major catastrophes worldwide and that society would cease to function. Year 2000 problem
Credonia Mwerinde, Joseph Kibweteere An estimated 778 followers of this Ugandan religious movement perished in a devastating fire and a series of poisonings and killings that were either a group suicide or an orchestrated mass murder by group leaders after their predictions of the apocalypse failed to come about. [71][72]:21
Jerry Falwell Falwell foresaw God pouring out his judgement on the world on this day. [73]
Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins These Christian authors stated the Y2K bug would trigger global economic chaos, which the Antichrist would use to rise to power. As the date approached however they changed their minds. [74]
2000, April 6 James Harmston The leader of the True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days predicted the Second Coming of Christ would occur on this day. [13]:2496
2000 May 5 Nuwaubian Nation This movement claimed that the planetary lineup would cause a "star holocaust," pulling the planets toward the sun on this day. [45]:121
2000 Peter Olivi This 13th-century theologian wrote that the Antichrist would come to power between 1300 and 1340, and the Last Judgement would take place around 2000. [9]:54
Isaac Newton Newton predicted that Christ's Millennium would begin in the year 2000 in his book Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John. [20]:96
Ruth Montgomery This self-described Christian psychic predicted the Earth's axis would shift and the Antichrist would reveal himself in this year. [8]:156, 195
Edgar Cayce This psychic predicted the Second Coming would occur this year. [75]
Sun Myung Moon The founder of the Unification Church predicted the Kingdom of Heaven would be established in this year. [8]:148
Ed Dobson This pastor predicted the end would occur in his book The End: Why Jesus Could Return by A.D. 2000. [76]
Lester Sumrall This minister predicted the end in his book I Predict 2000. [6]:99, 341
Jonathan Edwards This 18th-century preacher predicted that Christ's thousand-year reign would begin in this year. [9]:171
2001 Tynetta Muhammad This columnist for the Nation of Islam predicted the end would occur in this year. [9]:213
2002 Various Yoruba Yoruba priests predicted dramatic tragedy and crisis in 2002, including coups, war, disease, and flooding. [7]:45
2003 May Nancy Lieder Lieder originally predicted the date for the Nibiru collision as May 2003. According to her website, aliens in the Zeta Reticuli star system told her through messages via a brain implant of a planet which would enter our solar system and cause a pole shift on earth that would destroy most of humanity. [77]
2003 Nov 29 Aum Shinrikyo This Japanese cult predicted the world would be destroyed by a nuclear war between October 30 and November 29, 2003. [45]:98
2006 Sep 12 House of Yahweh Yisrayl Hawkins, Pastor and Overseer, The House of Yahwah, Abilene, Texas in the Feb. 2006 newsletter predicted the start of nuclear war on September 12, 2006. [78]
2007 Apr 29 Pat Robertson In his 1990 book The New Millennium, Robertson suggests this date as the day of Earth's destruction. [6]:138
2008 Sep 10
2010 Mar 30		 Various A number of groups claimed that activation of the Large Hadron Collider experiment would bring about the end of the world through the production of planet-eating micro black holes or strangelets. Similar claims were made about 2010, March 30, when the collider reached 7 TeV, half of its maximum energy. See safety of particle collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. [79]
2010 Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn This order predicted the world would end in this year. [42]:223
2011 May 21 Harold Camping Camping predicted that the Rapture and devastating earthquakes would occur on May 21, 2011 with God taking approximately 3% of the world's population into Heaven, and that the end of the world would occur five months later on October 21. 2011 end times prediction
2011 Sep 29 Ronald Weinland Ronald Weinland stated Jesus Christ would return on this day. He prophesied nuclear explosions in U.S. port cities by July 2008 as the blowing of the Second Trumpet of Revelation. After his prophecy failed to come true he changed the date for the return of Jesus Christ to May 27, 2012. [80][81][82]
2011 Oct 21 Harold Camping When his original date failed to come about, Camping revised his prediction and said that on May 21, a "Spiritual Judgment" took place, and that both the physical Rapture and the end of the world would occur on October 21, 2011. 2011 end times prediction
2011 Aug–Oct Various There were fears amongst the public that Comet Elenin travelling almost directly between Earth and the Sun would cause disturbances to the Earth's crust, causing massive earthquakes and tidal waves. Others predicted that Elenin would collide with Earth on October 16. Scientists tried to calm fears by stating that none of these events were possible. [83]
2012 May 27 Ronald Weinland Ronald Weinland stated Jesus Christ would return and the world would end on this day. [84]
2012 Jun 30 José Luis de Jesús José Luis de Jesús predicted that the world's governments and economies would fail on this day, and that he and his followers would undergo a transformation that would allow them to fly and walk through walls. [85][86]
2012 Dec 21 Various The so-called Mayan apocalypse at the start of the 13th b'ak'tun. The Earth would be destroyed by an asteroid, Nibiru, or some other interplanetary object; an alien invasion; or a supernova. Mayanist scholars stated that no extant classic Maya accounts forecast impending doom, and that the idea that the Long Count calendar ends in 2012 misrepresented Maya history and culture,[87][88][89] Scientists from NASA, along with expert archeologists, stated that none of those events were possible. 2012 phenomenon
2012 Dec 23 Warren Jeffs The president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints predicted from his prison cell that the world would end by December 23. [90][91]
2012 Dec 31 Warren Jeffs When the end failed to occur as he had predicted on December 23, Jeffs blamed it on his followers' "lack of faith", and moved the prediction to December 31. [92]

Future predictions

Date (CE) Claimant Description Reference(s)
2020 Jeane Dixon This psychic claimed that Armageddon would take place in 2020 and Jesus would return to defeat the unholy Trinity of the Antichrist, Satan and the False prophet between 2020 and 2037. Dixon previously predicted the world would end on February 4, 1962. [93]
2021 F. Kenton Beshore Beshore bases his prediction on the prior suggestion that Jesus could return in 1988, i.e., within one Biblical generation (40 years) of the founding of Israel in 1948. Beshore argues that the prediction was correct, but that the definition of a Biblical generation was incorrect and was actually 70–80 years, placing the Second Coming of Jesus between 2018 and 2028 and the Rapture by 2021 at the latest. [94]
2045 Ray Kurzweil Kurzweil predicts a Technological Singularity caused by the compounding effects of exponential technological progress. Kurzweil writes "There will be no distinction, post-Singularity, between human and machine...". [95]
2129 Said Nursî According to abjad interpretation of a hadith, this Sunni Muslim theologian who wrote the Risale-i Nur Collection, a body of Qur'anic commentary exceeding six thousand pages, which expected the end in 2129. [96]
2240 Talmud, Orthodox Judaism According to an opinion on the Talmud in mainstream Orthodox Judaism, the Messiah should come within 6000 years from the creation of Adam, and the world could possibly be destroyed 1000 years later. This would put the beginning of the period of desolation in the year 2240 CE and the end of the period of desolation in the year 3240 CE Year 6000
2280 Rashad Khalifa According to Rashad Khalifa's research on the Quran Code, the world will end in this year. [97]
500,000,000 James Kasting The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will drop, making Earth uninhabitable. [98]
5,000,000,000 Various scientists The end of our Sun's current phase of development, after which it will swell into a red giant, either swallowing the Earth or at least completely scorching it. It is widely accepted by the scientific community that the earth will be destroyed around this time. However, as the Sun grows gradually hotter (over millions of years), the Earth may become too hot for life in only a billion years' time. [98][99]
22,000,000,000 Various scientists The Big Rip theory predicts that the entire universe will eventually be progressively torn apart by its continual expansion. One hypothetical example of the theory places the end in approximately 22 billion years time. Big Rip
10100 Various scientists The heat death of the universe is a suggested ultimate fate of the universe, in which the universe has diminished to a state of no thermodynamic free energy and therefore can no longer sustain motion or life. Heat death of the universe

See also

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