The end of the world as we know it? 10 dates when the world failed to end

Italians are to leave Rome over fears a giant earthquake is coming following a
seismologist's 1915 prediction that "the big one" would hit the
capital on May 11, 2011. Here is a list of end of the world predictions:

Charles Manson believed that simmering racial tensions in the US would erupt into an Apocalyptic race war, after which the 'Manson Family would rule the world Photo: AP

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Flames engulf the Branch Davidian compound in Waco in 1993 Photo: AP

Oct 3 1533 - Michael Stifel, a German associate of Martin Luther, urged his small band of followers to sell all their property after becoming convinced by his mathematical study of the Bible that the end of the world was approaching. On the appointed day he led his followers to the top of a hill so they could be delivered to heaven. A few hours later, with the world very much intact, he hurried down the hill and had to be locked in a localprison for his own protection.

Oct 22 1844 - Millerites, followers of the American Baptist preacher
William Miller, became convinced that the end of the world had been
predicted in Daniel 8:14. After a few false dawns, the date was set as Oct
22 1844. That day is now known, for obvious reasons, as the Great
Disappointment. Most Millerites subsequently rejected their faith.

1914 – Jehovah’s Witnesses have now stopped predicting exact dates for
the end of the world after a string of high-profile failures. Charles Taze
Russell, who founded the Watch Tower magazine, calculated that Jesus Christ
would impose his rule on earth in 1914. The outbreak of the First World War
seemed to lend support to his Armageddon prediction, but there was no Second
Coming.

1969 – Charles Manson believed that simmering racial tensions in the US
would erupt into an Apocalyptic race war, after which his band of criminals
– the “Manson Family” – would rule the world. When no race war erupted, his
gang began a killing spree to “show the blacks how to do it”. Manson is
currently serving life for murder.

1980s – The US evangelist Hal Lindsey believed that Armageddon would
follow the expansion of the EU into a 10 country United States of Europe
ruled by the Antichrist. He never set a date for the end of the world but
hinted that a final battle between good and evil was imminent. He still
broadcasts his biblical prophecies on evangelist networks.

Sept 11-13 1988 - Former Nasa engineer Edgar Whisenant sold 4.5 million copies of his book 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could Be in 1988, mostly to evangelical US Christians. Follow-up works, which revised the prediction for dates in the 1990s, failed to sell as well.

1993 - David Koresh and more than 100 followers barricaded themselves into the Branch Davidian ranch in Waco, Texas, to await the end of the world. They were surrounded by the FBI in a 51-day siege that was only ended by a fire that killed 76 of those inside, including Koresh.

Match 1997 – Members of UFO cult Heaven's Gate believed that the appearance of the Hale-Bopp comet signaled that the Earth was due for imminent destruction. The only way to “survive” the end of the world was to commit suicide so their souls could board a spaceship travelling behind the comet. The bodies of 38 devotees were found in a house in California on March 26.

Jan 1 2000 – Dozens of Christian cults predicted the turn of the millennium would coincide with the Second Coming of Christ and the end of the world. Concerns that the Y2K computer bug would collapse computer systems stoked an atmosphere of impending doom. But, as ever, life went on as normal. Carlos Roa, the Argentine goalkeeper who declined to negotiate a new contract at his Spanish club because he was convinced the world would end, returned later in the season.

May 2008 – Thirty-five members of a cult called the True Russian Orthodox Church spent six months in a cave in anticipation of the apocalypse predicted by their leader Pyotr Kuznetsov. They began to emerge from their makeshift underground home after the roof began to collapse in March. Kuznetsov, who never accompanied his followers into the cave, has been ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment by a Russian court.