September 23, 2017, has been pegged as the day the world will be destroyed. Imaginary planet Nibiru is supposedly going to hit Earth and blow it up, bringing an end to our great civilisation, according to Christian numerologist David Meade's YouTube video.
Here are six other instances where doomsday was speculated to happen, but life just went on as normal, apart from leaving behind a few disappointed people.
Prophet Hen
In the year 1806, a domesticated hen in England was said to lay eggs inscribed with messages which read "Christ is coming."
People far and wide reportedly went to visit this hen. This sent out religious panic all through the residents of Leeds, with believers seeking to right wrongs before Judgment Day.
It was only after a visit from a bunch of non-believers who came while she was laying her eggs did they find the real story. After some examination, they realized someone had been inscribing the eggs with a certain type of ink. The eggs were forced back into the hen to perpetuate the ruse.
Great miscalculation
Some Christian authorities believed that the new millennium (2000) would see the second coming of Jesus.
It was after this prediction that many people disposed of their belongings, left their jobs, and even abandoned their houses.
To their dismay, the predicted day arrived and there was no apocalypse. Jesus did not seem to have visited them. It was then that they realised they had miscalculated Jesus' age and decided the world should actually end in A.D. 1033.
Great Fire of London
The Great Fire of London broke out in the year 1666, on September 2.
17th century Christians feared this year as it contained the number of the beast- 666.
When the fire broke out, some thought the End of Days was upon them. The fire destroyed 87 parish churches and 13,000 homes. But only 10 people apparently died. Instead, the damage was financial. The estimated value of the destroyed property is around £1.5 billion in today's money. The world did not end, neither did judgement day happen, but the Great Fire of London gave birth to the insurance industry.
The Great Disappointment
William Miller, an American Baptist preacher, is credited with beginning the mid-19th century North American religious movement known as the Millerites. He tricked thousands of Millerites when he declared that the world would end between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844.
When the year rolled over and nothing happened, the date was moved to October 22, 1844. After the failure of Miller's expectations, the date became known as the Millerites' Great Disappointment. Hiram Edson recorded, "Our fondest hopes and expectations were blasted, and such a spirit of weeping came over us as I never experienced before... We wept, and wept, till the day dawn." Following the Great Disappointment, most Millerites simply gave up their beliefs. Miller also left his belief and went on to form the Seventh-day Adventists.
Halley's Comet Panic
Halley's comet passes by the Earth every 76 years.
In the year 1910 which was close to the approach of the comet, fear struck the people after they believed that it would destroy the planet. The panic was fuelled by the media and newspapers who had bizarre headlines reading "Comet May Kill All Earth Life, Says Scientist."
Oklahoma tried to sacrifice a virgin to ward off the impending doom, and bottled air became a hot commodity. The Earth probably did pass through part of the comet's tail, but with no apparent effect.
21 December Maya Calendar Misinterpretation
The end of the first "Great Cycle" of the Maya Long Count calendar transpired on December 21, 2012. Many mis-speculated that the calendar which tracked time constantly from a date 5,125 years earlier will end and promulgation of doomsday surfaced. The circumstances of the crack of doom included Earth crashing with an imaginary planet called Nibiru, giant solar flares, a planetary alignment and would cause massive tidal disasters, and a realignment of earth's axis. A man in China built a modern-day Noah's ark and comprehensive survival skills to safeguard themselves.
