Date (CE) |
Claimant(s) |
Description |
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. |
1910 |
Camille Flammarion |
Flammarion 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. |
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 somewhere between 1892 and 1911. |
1914 |
Charles Taze Russell |
Russell, who founded the Bible Student movement, said "...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." |
1915 |
John Chilembwe |
This Baptist educator and leader of a rebellion in the British protectorate of Nyasaland predicted the Millennium would begin this year. |
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." |
1920 |
International Bible Students Association |
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. |
13 Feb 1925 |
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. |
1926 |
Spencer Perceval |
This British MP, who was one of the 12 apostles of the Catholic Apostolic Church, believed that the world was growing nearer to the Apocalypse due to what he viewed as the rampant immorality of the times in Europe. |
1934 |
Walter Marks |
Marks, an Australian MP, told the House of Representatives that Armageddon would occur in 1934 and culminate with the Royal Navy bringing Christ's chosen people to Jerusalem. |
Sep 1935 |
Wilbur Glenn Voliva |
This evangelist announced that "the world is going to go 'puff' and disappear" in September 1935. |
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 be saved. After the prophecy failed, he changed the date three more times. |
1941 |
Jehovah's Witnesses |
A prediction of the end from the Jehovah's Witnesses, a group which branched from the Bible Student movement. |
1943 |
Herbert W. Armstrong |
The first of three revised dates from Armstrong after his 1936 prediction failed to come true. |
1947 |
John Ballou Newbrough |
The author of Oahspe: A New Bible predicted the destruction of all nations and the beginning of post-apocalyptic anarchy in this year. |
21 Dec 1954 |
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. |
22 Apr 1959 |
Florence Houteff |
The leader 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. |
1951–1960 |
Johann Gottfried Bischoff |
On December 25, 1951, Bischoff stated the Second Coming would occur before he died. He died on July 6, 1960. |
4 Feb 1962 |
Jeane Dixon, various Indian astrologers |
Dixon predicted a planetary alignment on this day was to bring destruction to the world. Mass prayer meetings were held in India. |
20 Aug 1967 |
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. |
1967 |
Jim Jones |
The founder of the People's Temple stated he had visions that a nuclear holocaust was to take place in 1967. |
9 Aug 1969 |
George Williams |
The founder of the Church of the Firstborn predicted the Second Coming of Christ would occur on this day. |
1969 |
Charles Manson |
Manson predicted that Helter skelter, an apocalyptic race war, would occur in 1969. |
1972 |
Herbert W. Armstrong |
The second of three revised dates from Armstrong after his 1936 and 1943 predictions failed to come true. |
Jan 1974 |
David Berg |
Berg, the leader of Children of God, predicted that there would be a colossal doomsday event heralded by Comet Kohoutek. |
1975 |
Herbert W. Armstrong |
Armstrong's fourth and final prediction. |
Jehovah's Witnesses |
From 1966 on, Jehovah's Witnesses published articles which stated that the fall of 1975 would be 6000 years since man's creation, and suggested that Armageddon could be finished by then. |
1976 |
Brahma Kumaris |
The Brahma Kumaris founder, Lekhraj Kirpalani, has made a number of predictions of a global Armageddon which the religion believes it will inspire, internally calling it "Destruction". During Destruction, Brahma Kumari leaders teach the world will be purified, all of the rest of humanity killed by nuclear or civil wars and natural disasters which will include the sinking of all other continents except India. |
1977 |
John Wroe |
The founder of the Christian Israelite Church predicted this year for Armageddon to occur. |
William M. Branham |
This Christian minister predicted the rapture would occur no later than 1977. |
17 Feb 1979 |
Roch Thériault |
Thériault, who called himself Moïse (Moses), led a commune in the wilderness of eastern Quebec in the late seventies. Formerly a Seventh-Day Adventist, he told his group they would form the center of a new society during God's 1000 year reign following Armageddon. |
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. |
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. Smith identified that he "could be wrong" but continued to say in the same sentence that his prediction was "a deep conviction in my heart, and all my plans are predicated upon that belief." |
10 Mar 1982 |
John Gribbin, Stephen Plagemann |
Gribbin, an astrophysicist, co-authored the 1974 book The Jupiter Effect which predicted that combined gravitational forces of aligned planets would create a number of catastrophes, including a great earthquake on the San Andreas Fault. |
21 Jun 1982 |
Benjamin Creme |
Creme took out an ad in the Los Angeles Times stating that the Second Coming would occur in June 1982 with the Maitreya announcing it on worldwide television. |
1982 |
Pat Robertson |
In late 1976 on his 700 Club TV programme, Robertson predicted that the end of the world would come in this year. |
1985 |
Lester Sumrall |
This minister predicted the end in this year, even writing a book about it entitled I Predict 1985. |
29 Apr 1986 |
Leland Jensen |
Jensen predicted that Halley's Comet would be pulled into Earth's orbit on this day, causing widespread destruction. |
17 Aug 1987 |
José Argüelles |
Argüelles claimed that Armageddon would take place unless 144,000 people gathered in certain places across the world in order to "resonate in harmony" on this day. |
11–13 Sep 1988 3 Oct 1988 |
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 September 11 and 13, 1988. After his September predictions failed to come true, Whisenant revised his prediction date to October 3. |
30 Sep 1989 |
Edgar C. Whisenant |
After all his 1988 predictions failed to come true, Whisenant revised his prediction date to this day. |
23 Apr 1990 |
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. |
9 Sep 1991 |
Menachem Mendel Schneerson |
This Russian-born rabbi called for the Messiah to come by the start of the Jewish New Year. |
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." |
28 Sep 1992 |
Rollen Stewart |
This born-again Christian predicted the rapture would take place on this day. |
28 Oct 1992 |
Lee Jang Rim |
Lee, the leader of the Dami Mission church, predicted the rapture would occur on this day. |
1993 |
David Berg |
Berg predicted the tribulation would start in 1989 and that the Second Coming would take place in 1993. |
2 May 1994 |
Neal Chase |
This Bahá'í sect leader predicted that New York City would be destroyed by a nuclear bomb on March 23, 1994, and the Battle of Armageddon would take place 40 days later. |
6 Sep 1994 29 Sep 1994 2 Oct 1994 |
Harold Camping |
Camping predicted the rapture would occur on 6 September 1994. When it failed to occur he revised the date to the 29th of September and then to the 2nd October. |
31 Mar 1995 |
Harold Camping |
Camping's fourth predicted date for the end. This would be Camping's last prediction until 2011. |
26 Mar 1997 |
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. |
10 Aug 1997 |
Aggai |
The 1st-century bishop of Edessa predicted this date to be the birth date of the Antichrist and the end of the universe. |
23 Oct 1997 |
James Ussher |
This 17th-century Irish archbishop predicted this date to be 6000 years since creation, and therefore the end of the world. |
31 Mar 1998 |
Hon-Ming Chen |
Chen, leader of the Taiwanese cult Chen Tao – "The True Way" – claimed that God would come to Earth in a flying saucer at 10:00 am on this date. |
Jul 1999 |
Nostradamus |
A quatrain by Nostradamus which stated the "King of Terror" would come from the sky in "1999 and seven months" was frequently interpreted as a prediction of doomsday in July 1999. |
18 Aug 1999 |
The Amazing Criswell |
The predicted date of the end of the world, according to this psychic well known for predictions. |
11 Sep 1999 |
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." |
1999 |
Charles Berlitz |
This linguist predicted the end would occur in this year. He did not predict how it would occur, stating that it might involve nuclear devastation, asteroid impact, pole shift or other Earth changes. |
Hon-Ming Chen |
The leader of the cult Chen Tao preached that a nuclear holocaust would destroy Europe and Asia in 1999. |
James Gordon Lindsay |
This preacher predicted the great tribulation would begin before 2000. |
Timothy Dwight IV |
This 19th century president of Yale University predicted Christ's Millennium would start by 2000. |
Nazim Al-Haqqani |
This Sufi Muslim sheikh predicted that the Last Judgment would occur before 2000. |
1 Jan 2000 |
Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God |
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. |
Jerry Falwell |
Falwell predicted God making judgement on the world on this day. |
Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins |
These Christian authors stated that 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. |
Various |
During and before 1999 there was widespread predictions of a Y2K computer bug that would crash many computers on midnight of January 1, 2000 and cause malfunctions leading to major catastrophes worldwide, and that society would cease to function. |
6 Apr 2000 |
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. |
5 May 2000 |
Nuwaubian Nation |
This movement claimed that the planetary lineup would cause a "star holocaust", pulling the planets toward the Sun on this day. |
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. |
Ruth Montgomery |
This self-described Christian psychic predicted the Earth's axis would shift and the Antichrist would reveal himself in this year. |
Edgar Cayce |
This psychic predicted the Second Coming would occur this year. |
Sun Myung Moon |
The founder of the Unification Church predicted the Kingdom of Heaven would be established in this year. |
Ed Dobson |
This pastor predicted the end would occur in his book The End: Why Jesus Could Return by A.D. 2000. |
Lester Sumrall |
This minister predicted the end in his book I Predict 2000. |
Jonathan Edwards |
This 18th-century preacher predicted that Christ's thousand-year reign would begin in this year. |