Prediction is hard, especially that of the future. Psychicss and would-be prophets often give exact details of what is about to happen and when the day passes, their followers conveniently forgot they ever said anything of the kind, remembering mainly those that happened to come true.
However, would-be psychics are hardly the only people prone to making wrong conclusions — scientists and economists may make inopportune predictions based on faulty data or conservatism.
Science fiction is often set in the future, but is very rarely intended to be an actual prediction of events to come; a timeline of fictional future events is listed elsewhere.
Many predictions have been conventionally vague but that is not the case of the following ones:
- 1761
- April 5: destruction of London according to a soldier named Bell.
- 1844
- October 22: Believed to be the return of Jesus by the Millerites.
- 1899
- "Everything that can be invented has been invented." - attributed to Charles H. Duell, director of the US Patent Office
- 1919
- Conjunction of 6 planets would make sun explode, according to meteorologist Albert Porta
- 1925
- 1943
- "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." - Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM
- 1955
- "Television will never be a medium of entertainment" (David Sarnoff, the General Manager of RCA corporation)
- 1977
- 1981
- 1982
- End of the world according to Pat Robertson.
- Jupiter effect, astronomical alignment of planets on the one side of the sun would cause lethal solar flares - according to US authors John Gribben and Stephen Plagemann.
- 1985
- "(by 1985) Machines will be capable of doing any work Man can do." - Herbert Simon, US Nobel laureate
- 1988
- 1991
- 1998
- 2003
- May 15: end of the world according to Pana Wave Laboratory (later changed to May 22)
