only time will tell
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re
counting down our picks for the top ten
historical predictions that turned out
to be false for this list we’re looking
at prophecies guesses or projections
that were made in history that turned
out to be painfully painfully false
these include some of the worst future
forecasts by notable individuals
regarding significant historic events be
at the end of the world medicine science
war or politics we’re also taking into
account who supposedly made the
prediction because if it’s someone who
should have known better
it makes the fail that much worse it’s
very difficult to fall see what may
happen many many years ahead number 10
this book shouldn’t shock anyone’s
religious sensibilities Charles Darwin
on on the Origin of Species Darwin was
unleashing a new vision of nature less
species evolved independently from the
guiding hand of a creator
science versus religion evolution versus
creationism it’s an ongoing debate that
may never truly be settled but Charles
Darwin really rocked the boat shouldn’t
men of science be free to investigate
each and every means by which new
species come into being if by that you
mean wild accusations about man’s
ancestry the answer is no to destroy
man’s unique status is to open the
floodgates to anarchy this
groundbreaking book suggested all beings
were descended from the same ancestors
scientifically describing the theory of
evolution to say he saw no good reason
why the views given in this volume
should shock the religious sensibilities
of anyone was a pipe dream Darwin
certainly didn’t think that evolution
spoke either for or against the
unprovable existence of God or a form of
God Darwin’s On the Origin of Species
not only presented mankind with another
point of view on life and existence it
also challenged religious beliefs
shocking
in Italy that’s a very great assumption
Charles well if I’m wrong about that I’m
wrong about everything number 9 I have
no faith in aerial navigation other than
ballooning William Thompson the Lord
Kelvin Civil Aviation is in the news as
one of the new empire flying boat zooms
over the fairy airfield it gives a
rolling send-off to this year’s Royal
Aeronautical Society’s garden party in
which Amy Johnson demonstrates a new
glider air travel has received plenty of
scrutiny over the years but one of the
most famous cynics was the late
mathematical physicist the Lord Kelvin
he actually replied to an invitation
from the Royal Aeronautical Society to
join their ranks by saying I have not
the smallest molecule of faith in aerial
navigation other than ballooning or of
expectation of good results from any of
the trials we hear of as we all know
aircraft have become incredibly
important to world travel so this one
was proven most definitely false I
believe that over time we will all move
around the planet in a very different
way
selling planes to rich people is more
fun than rock and roll this is buck and
well for grown arms number eight there
is no likelihood man can ever tap the
power of the atom Robert Millikan winner
of the Nobel Prize for Physics when
things break apart they tend to release
the energy stored in whatever was
holding them together
now it doesn’t matter whether that’s an
atom or a stretched elastic band
although the atom was split back in 1917
harnessing its energy was a different
thing altogether with many brain boxes
working on the ins and outs of it one
physicist Robert Millikan claimed that
man would never fully harness its power
well it may have been a scattered time
line of progression with the first
nuclear bomb test in 1945 and the first
nuclear power station in 1954 but it was
finally accomplished and voila
electricity on demand and Nobel Prize
winner taken down a peg and why I end up
with is two smaller high-energy elements
flying off in opposite directions now
when that’s an atom those two smash into
their surroundings warming things up
number seven I do not foresee spaceships
to the Moon or Mars
dr. lee deforest an American inventor
space exploration a subject packed with
interesting foreshadowing the way the
situation is like that in Europe the
core 1492 the general consensus in the
early 20th century was that man might
never reach the moon but DeForest took
that thought further saying that to
place a man in a multi-stage rocket and
project him into the controlling
gravitational field of the Moon all that
constitutes a wild dream worthy of Jules
Verne I am bold enough to say that such
a man made voyage will never occur
regardless of all future advances this
theory was of course smashed to
smithereens following the space race and
a subsequent moon landing in 1969 upon
all fair plan
on biathlete number six stock prices
have reached a permanently high plateau
Irving Fisher and American economist the
stock market is unpredictable so the
last thing you want to do is bet your
reputation on whether it’s going to
thrive or plummet stocks have fallen in
a weak 30% and a week ago they had
fallen some 10% from the previous high
of this year unfortunately that’s
exactly what economist Irving Fisher did
in October 1929 October 24th 1929 Black
Thursday is often considered to be the
beginning of the crash he claimed the
market had reached what looked like a
permanently high plateau three days
later the stock market famously crashed
leading to the Great Depression it was a
while before people listened to fishers
to sense again and it was also a while
before he had to sense again as he lost
his fortune in the crash possibly in the
end this experience to some people may
be a blessing in disguise number five
there will not be a woman prime minister
in my time Margaret Thatcher the UK’s
first female prime minister and would
you like to see a woman Prime Minister I
think it depends upon who the person is
I don’t think there will be a woman
Prime Minister in my lifetime even in
her political career Thatcher was tapped
as a potential United Kingdom prime
minister but not if you asked her famous
for her ballsy attitude the Iron Lady
was determined to make her views known
on the topic saying there will not be a
woman Prime Minister in my lifetime the
male population is too prejudiced well
this was proven wrong in 1979 when a
woman finally took office and it was
none other than that herself
we bet she was happy to be wrong you see
you might be in for one Parliament and
out for the next now that’s why it’s
important that you should also have
another career to turn to so that when
you’re thrown out you can earn your
living straight away in some other way
number four you will be home before the
leaves for
from the trees kaiser wilhelm ii two
German soldiers in World War one
rallying troops to boost morale is one
thing but be careful of making promises
someone should have told that to Kaiser
Wilhelm the second before he spoke to
his troops in 1914 suggesting that the
first world war would be over before the
end of the autumn months the German
emperor must have had hopes high among
his soldiers who could know the war
would last another four years not the
Kaiser that’s for sure please be God’s
help you are winning a glorious victory
for the fatherland number three it is
time to close the book on infectious
diseases William H Stewart the Surgeon
General of the United States it’s with
great dismay that we deny the truth of
this quote credited to Surgeon General
William H Stewart though he claims never
to have said it the quote suggests that
all infection had been eradicated from
the US for good by the late 1960s of
course that’s slightly more out there
than professor Pierre Pasha’s 1872
speculation that Louis Pasteur’s theory
of germs is ridiculous fiction not only
are germs not endangered and resistant
to antibiotics while many infections
such as AIDS arose in the years since
this hypothesis was made number 2
democracy will be dead by 1950 John
Langdon Davies a British journalist this
little ditty comes from British
journalist and author John Langdon
Davies a famed war correspondent Langdon
Davies was prone to comment on fascism
and war but his statement about the
imminent death of democracy is one
prophecy that really stands out in his
1936 book a short history of the future
the author states that in a battle
between dictatorships and democracies
the totalitarian regimes are going to
win plain and simple of course 1950 came
and went and democracy was as strong as
ever
why are you guys so anti dictators
imagine if America was a dictatorship
you could let 1% of the people have all
the nation’s wealth you could help your
rich friends
get richer by cutting their taxes and
bailing them out when they gamble and
lose before we reveal our number one
prediction fail in history here are a
few honorable mentions now let’s examine
the dial itself for just a moment for
convenience in dialing the letters go
around the dial in alphabetical order
and the numbers are in numerical order
well you’re on today apparently a woman
rang the BBC and said you heard that as
a hurricane on the way well if you’re
watching don’t worry there isn’t for the
next few hours you see that purple line
that’s our PI on its journey headed for
Memphis Tennessee on March 1st of 2010
the Oxford Eagle made a very special
delivery its new website which took five
months and a professional website
designer to develop as possible are
sterling Camille I try to do my best to
ensure the drilling is done in the most
safe efficient and environmentally sound
way drilling projects are more and more
complex as the search for oil and gas
and harsh environments become more
common number one December 21st 2012
will mark the end of the world
conspiracy theorists interpreting the
Mayan calendar the Mayan calendars don’t
end they reset we’re about to begin a
whole new great cycle and it’s actually
a period of celebration rebirth and good
luck throughout history many people have
prophesized the end of the world and
when someone says the world will end on
a specific date people listen especially
if the source is a 5,000 year old
Mesoamerican calendar said if Mayan Long
Count calendar suggested that a big
change would befall the earth on
December 21st 2012 and while some
interpreted that in a positive way glass
half-empty folks thought it spelled the
end of civilization as we know it with
the date looming people in many
Mesoamerican countries got together for
festive commemorations the apocalypse
was a no-show in this crazy was the
culture when something go to the end is
come negative predictions like the
ancient in the destruction or many
ladies but not in the Mayan culture do
you agree with our list
which historical forecasts do you think
we’re way off the mark
for more head scratching top 10s
published every day be sure to subscribe
to watchmojo.com well there may be
primitive life in our region of the
galaxy there don’t seem to be any
advanced intelligent beings
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re
counting down our picks for the top ten
historical predictions that turned out
to be false for this list we’re looking
at prophecies guesses or projections
that were made in history that turned
out to be painfully painfully false
these include some of the worst future
forecasts by notable individuals
regarding significant historic events be
at the end of the world medicine science
war or politics we’re also taking into
account who supposedly made the
prediction because if it’s someone who
should have known better
it makes the fail that much worse it’s
very difficult to fall see what may
happen many many years ahead number 10
this book shouldn’t shock anyone’s
religious sensibilities Charles Darwin
on on the Origin of Species Darwin was
unleashing a new vision of nature less
species evolved independently from the
guiding hand of a creator
science versus religion evolution versus
creationism it’s an ongoing debate that
may never truly be settled but Charles
Darwin really rocked the boat shouldn’t
men of science be free to investigate
each and every means by which new
species come into being if by that you
mean wild accusations about man’s
ancestry the answer is no to destroy
man’s unique status is to open the
floodgates to anarchy this
groundbreaking book suggested all beings
were descended from the same ancestors
scientifically describing the theory of
evolution to say he saw no good reason
why the views given in this volume
should shock the religious sensibilities
of anyone was a pipe dream Darwin
certainly didn’t think that evolution
spoke either for or against the
unprovable existence of God or a form of
God Darwin’s On the Origin of Species
not only presented mankind with another
point of view on life and existence it
also challenged religious beliefs
shocking
in Italy that’s a very great assumption
Charles well if I’m wrong about that I’m
wrong about everything number 9 I have
no faith in aerial navigation other than
ballooning William Thompson the Lord
Kelvin Civil Aviation is in the news as
one of the new empire flying boat zooms
over the fairy airfield it gives a
rolling send-off to this year’s Royal
Aeronautical Society’s garden party in
which Amy Johnson demonstrates a new
glider air travel has received plenty of
scrutiny over the years but one of the
most famous cynics was the late
mathematical physicist the Lord Kelvin
he actually replied to an invitation
from the Royal Aeronautical Society to
join their ranks by saying I have not
the smallest molecule of faith in aerial
navigation other than ballooning or of
expectation of good results from any of
the trials we hear of as we all know
aircraft have become incredibly
important to world travel so this one
was proven most definitely false I
believe that over time we will all move
around the planet in a very different
way
selling planes to rich people is more
fun than rock and roll this is buck and
well for grown arms number eight there
is no likelihood man can ever tap the
power of the atom Robert Millikan winner
of the Nobel Prize for Physics when
things break apart they tend to release
the energy stored in whatever was
holding them together
now it doesn’t matter whether that’s an
atom or a stretched elastic band
although the atom was split back in 1917
harnessing its energy was a different
thing altogether with many brain boxes
working on the ins and outs of it one
physicist Robert Millikan claimed that
man would never fully harness its power
well it may have been a scattered time
line of progression with the first
nuclear bomb test in 1945 and the first
nuclear power station in 1954 but it was
finally accomplished and voila
electricity on demand and Nobel Prize
winner taken down a peg and why I end up
with is two smaller high-energy elements
flying off in opposite directions now
when that’s an atom those two smash into
their surroundings warming things up
number seven I do not foresee spaceships
to the Moon or Mars
dr. lee deforest an American inventor
space exploration a subject packed with
interesting foreshadowing the way the
situation is like that in Europe the
core 1492 the general consensus in the
early 20th century was that man might
never reach the moon but DeForest took
that thought further saying that to
place a man in a multi-stage rocket and
project him into the controlling
gravitational field of the Moon all that
constitutes a wild dream worthy of Jules
Verne I am bold enough to say that such
a man made voyage will never occur
regardless of all future advances this
theory was of course smashed to
smithereens following the space race and
a subsequent moon landing in 1969 upon
all fair plan
on biathlete number six stock prices
have reached a permanently high plateau
Irving Fisher and American economist the
stock market is unpredictable so the
last thing you want to do is bet your
reputation on whether it’s going to
thrive or plummet stocks have fallen in
a weak 30% and a week ago they had
fallen some 10% from the previous high
of this year unfortunately that’s
exactly what economist Irving Fisher did
in October 1929 October 24th 1929 Black
Thursday is often considered to be the
beginning of the crash he claimed the
market had reached what looked like a
permanently high plateau three days
later the stock market famously crashed
leading to the Great Depression it was a
while before people listened to fishers
to sense again and it was also a while
before he had to sense again as he lost
his fortune in the crash possibly in the
end this experience to some people may
be a blessing in disguise number five
there will not be a woman prime minister
in my time Margaret Thatcher the UK’s
first female prime minister and would
you like to see a woman Prime Minister I
think it depends upon who the person is
I don’t think there will be a woman
Prime Minister in my lifetime even in
her political career Thatcher was tapped
as a potential United Kingdom prime
minister but not if you asked her famous
for her ballsy attitude the Iron Lady
was determined to make her views known
on the topic saying there will not be a
woman Prime Minister in my lifetime the
male population is too prejudiced well
this was proven wrong in 1979 when a
woman finally took office and it was
none other than that herself
we bet she was happy to be wrong you see
you might be in for one Parliament and
out for the next now that’s why it’s
important that you should also have
another career to turn to so that when
you’re thrown out you can earn your
living straight away in some other way
number four you will be home before the
leaves for
from the trees kaiser wilhelm ii two
German soldiers in World War one
rallying troops to boost morale is one
thing but be careful of making promises
someone should have told that to Kaiser
Wilhelm the second before he spoke to
his troops in 1914 suggesting that the
first world war would be over before the
end of the autumn months the German
emperor must have had hopes high among
his soldiers who could know the war
would last another four years not the
Kaiser that’s for sure please be God’s
help you are winning a glorious victory
for the fatherland number three it is
time to close the book on infectious
diseases William H Stewart the Surgeon
General of the United States it’s with
great dismay that we deny the truth of
this quote credited to Surgeon General
William H Stewart though he claims never
to have said it the quote suggests that
all infection had been eradicated from
the US for good by the late 1960s of
course that’s slightly more out there
than professor Pierre Pasha’s 1872
speculation that Louis Pasteur’s theory
of germs is ridiculous fiction not only
are germs not endangered and resistant
to antibiotics while many infections
such as AIDS arose in the years since
this hypothesis was made number 2
democracy will be dead by 1950 John
Langdon Davies a British journalist this
little ditty comes from British
journalist and author John Langdon
Davies a famed war correspondent Langdon
Davies was prone to comment on fascism
and war but his statement about the
imminent death of democracy is one
prophecy that really stands out in his
1936 book a short history of the future
the author states that in a battle
between dictatorships and democracies
the totalitarian regimes are going to
win plain and simple of course 1950 came
and went and democracy was as strong as
ever
why are you guys so anti dictators
imagine if America was a dictatorship
you could let 1% of the people have all
the nation’s wealth you could help your
rich friends
get richer by cutting their taxes and
bailing them out when they gamble and
lose before we reveal our number one
prediction fail in history here are a
few honorable mentions now let’s examine
the dial itself for just a moment for
convenience in dialing the letters go
around the dial in alphabetical order
and the numbers are in numerical order
well you’re on today apparently a woman
rang the BBC and said you heard that as
a hurricane on the way well if you’re
watching don’t worry there isn’t for the
next few hours you see that purple line
that’s our PI on its journey headed for
Memphis Tennessee on March 1st of 2010
the Oxford Eagle made a very special
delivery its new website which took five
months and a professional website
designer to develop as possible are
sterling Camille I try to do my best to
ensure the drilling is done in the most
safe efficient and environmentally sound
way drilling projects are more and more
complex as the search for oil and gas
and harsh environments become more
common number one December 21st 2012
will mark the end of the world
conspiracy theorists interpreting the
Mayan calendar the Mayan calendars don’t
end they reset we’re about to begin a
whole new great cycle and it’s actually
a period of celebration rebirth and good
luck throughout history many people have
prophesized the end of the world and
when someone says the world will end on
a specific date people listen especially
if the source is a 5,000 year old
Mesoamerican calendar said if Mayan Long
Count calendar suggested that a big
change would befall the earth on
December 21st 2012 and while some
interpreted that in a positive way glass
half-empty folks thought it spelled the
end of civilization as we know it with
the date looming people in many
Mesoamerican countries got together for
festive commemorations the apocalypse
was a no-show in this crazy was the
culture when something go to the end is
come negative predictions like the
ancient in the destruction or many
ladies but not in the Mayan culture do
you agree with our list
which historical forecasts do you think
we’re way off the mark
for more head scratching top 10s
published every day be sure to subscribe
to watchmojo.com well there may be
primitive life in our region of the
galaxy there don’t seem to be any
advanced intelligent beings
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