Famous End of the World Predictions

There are many famous end of the world predictions, both bygone and future dates that evoke nostalgia for the past and curious excitement for the future. At present, the looming December 21, 2012 or the famous end of the world prediction of the Mayans draws our fascination. Before stocking your underground survival shelter with piles of supplies and canned goods, let us review some of the most famous end of the world predictions that we would rather look back with fondness, if only we hadn't panicked.

This year's famous end of the world prediction had people selling their homes to "fulfil their dreams" and giving away their money for donations. Money's not an issue, since the world will end anyway, right? Well it turns out that Harold Camping, an American Christian radio broadcaster of the Family Radio and doomsday prophet, was wrong. His famous end of the world prediction involved the second coming of Jesus Christ which would occur on May 21, 2011, marked by a massive earthquake. This would be followed by five months of catastrophic events featuring fire, pestilence, and brimstone that will claim millions of people on Earth. Alas, May 21 came and went, and people went on with their lives. Harold Camping was quiet for a while, but he had a follow up for his famous end of the world prediction flop: it's on October 21, 2011. Really. We should have learned our lesson after he made famous end of the world predictions more than 20 years ago, when he first said doomsday will be on May 21, 1988. He really didn't stop after September 6, 1994.

1. Jean Dixon

Jean Dixon is an American psychic and astrologer who correctly predicted the assassination of John F. Kennedy, among others. She was the psychic of choice of celebrities and politicians in the course of her career during the 60's to the 80's. Of course she also had her own famous end of the world prediction in 1970, when she foresaw a comet hitting one of Earth's great oceans sometime in the mid-1980's. According to some, it was a "premature" vision since the famous end of the world prediction at the time included comets and meteors crashing on Earth. To immortalize her many flops including this famous end of the world prediction fail, the term Jean Dixon effect was coined. This refers to man's ability to recognize a psychic's rare correct predictions compared to her numerous misses.

1. Y2K or the Millennium Bug

Perhaps next to the Mayan's Doomsday and the Bible's Apocalypse, none had struck such panic and fear in the hearts of logical, modern men than the famous end of the world prediction spawned by the Y2K or Millennium Bug.
The Millennium bug was actually an early computer problem, rooted in the last two digits used in representing the year in computers, i.e. 87 for 1987. As 2000 approached, programmers realized that dates would revert to 00, messing up programs and causing millions of economic losses. Someone must have made a bad joke, resulting to a famous end of the world prediction that had people hording food and supplies from the supermarkets and then hiding in their closets just before January 1, 2000.


Nostradamus
There are a lot of famous end of the world predictions, and then there's Nostradamus. Perhaps it is safe to say that Nostradamus is responsible for modern man's fascination with prophecies and the Armageddon. Next to the prophesied coming of the Antichrist is his famous end of the world prediction. Nostradamus allegedly foretold catastrophic events, from comets and asteroids hitting the Earth in the year 2000. However, Nostradamus' famous end of the world prediction would be in the year 3786 or 3797, as "experts" have not yet agreed.