New Delhi: Doomsday predictions never end and conspiracy theorists live for the day when their foretelling comes true and the world as we know it comes to an end.
Since the beginning of recorded history, many conspirators have put forward their prophecies – from aliens, to asteroids to black holes – there isn't a single possibility that they have omitted as a trigger for catastrophe.
However, there certainly seems to be a loophole in all those predictions since none of them have come remotely near enough for one to say that 'it's actually happening'.
But is the complete destruction of mankind a realistic possibility in the foreseeable future? Probably not.
While there are too many predictions to even count, we have compiled a list of five more recent doomsday prophecies that – 'surprisingly' – didn't come true.
Have a look!
September 6, 1994 - Harold Camping
In a book called '1994?', radio broadcaster and evangelical Christian Harold Camping alleged that the return of Christ would come in September 1994. In the book, which was released in 1992, he had based his prediction off numbers and dates found in the Bible.
Despite Camping claiming that he was '99.9 percent certain' of the occurrence, it didn't come true. This made him change his rapture date to October 2, then for a third time to March 31, 1995.
Camping made 12 different prophecies all together, the last of which was October 21, 2011, after which he put his error down to bad maths.
Jan 1, 2000 – Y2K
Possibly one of the most famous doomsday predictions, many people actually believed in the Y2K theory – that when it came time for the turn of the millennium, the world's computer systems would crash.
A computer bug related to the storage of calendar data posed a problem, as up until that point, dates had been recorded using the last two digits of the year only.
Therefore, when the clocks ticked over from 99 to 00, this would, in theory, cause a worldwide crash.
As per the prediction, planes were supposed to drop out of the sky, power plants would shut down and society would cease to function.
But when year 2000 actually arrived, just a handful of computer incidents were reported, most of which were to do with digital clocks displaying the year 1900 rather than 2000.
May 5, 2000 – Richard W. Noone
In his book '5/5/2000: Ice, The Ultimate Disaster', author Richard W Noone claimed that the Earth's final day would be May 5, 2000.
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn would align with Earth for the first time in six thousand years and trigger a series of natural disasters, kicked off by the disruption of Earth's polar caps.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
September 10, 2008 – Large Hadron Collider
It was believed that the Earth would meet its end when the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) would be switched on.
By attempting to recreate a mini version of the Big Bang, a number of theorists thought it would create black holes which would engulf the earth.
A pair of anxious citizens also fired up a lawsuit against the operators of the collider – which required a safety report be submitted before the Collider could be operated.
So far, the LHC hasn't produced any black holes.
December 21, 2012 – The Mayan Apocalypse
Believed to be the most widely followed prediction in the last few decades, the Mayan apocalypse was supposed to begin when the Mayan calendar ended – which was a few days before Christmas 2012.
December 21 marked the end of the calendar's first "Great Cycle", after 5,125 years of continuous tracked time.
This prediction sparked immense panic around the world and triggered further doomsday predictions incuding alien invasion, giant solar flares and monstrous tidal waves following planetary realignment.
One man in China was so convinced the world was coming to an end that he spent more than £100,000 to build his very own apocalypse-proof 'Noah's Ark'.
If this wasn't enough, the latest predictions are sure to turn your head over. A conspiracy theorist by the name of David Meade who claims to have studied astronomy in Kentucky and deciphered the Book of Revelations, predicted that an ominous sign would appear on September 23 and foretell the world's end.
When the 'catastrophe' didn't occur, Meade changed his prediction, announcing that the world would begin to end on October 15, triggered by seven years of natural disasters.
After October 15 came and went uneventfully, the date has now further progressed to November 19, as claimed by another conspirator called Terral Croft.
Well, this will probably be just another date on the failed doomsday predictions list, because scientifically, the main theory this prediction is based on doesn't even exist. Go figure!
