The sky is falling, the sky is falling! People cannot seem to agree on when we are all going to burn, but there are plenty of choices because throughout history thousands of people have claimed knowledge of the ultimate day. We are still trying to decide if they were right or wrong.

2800 B.C. – An Assyrian clay tablet claimed the end of the world based on the degenerating state of the Earth. This is one of the oldest known claims of apocalyptic destruction. I think they were a bit off.

1033 A.D. – Believed to be the end of the world because it signified the anniversary of the crucifixion of Christ.

1284 A.D. – Claimed to be the end by Pope Innocent the III. He believed it would be 666 days after the rise of Islam. How quaint.

1504 A.D. – Italian artist Sandro Botticelli wrote a caption in Greek on his painting The Mystic Nativity. It suggested that he believed he was living in the tribulation and that the new millennium would begin in three and a half years from 1500.

1688 A.D. – John Napier, the man who discovered logarithms, calculated the date of Doomsday based on the book of Revelation, which he claimed would be 1688.

1700 A.D. – John Napier calculated another Doomsday date based off of the book of Daniel this time.

1892-1911 A.D. – Charles Piazzi Smyth, a pyramidologist, concluded from his research on the dimensions of the Great Pyramid of Giza that the Second Coming would occur between 1892 and 1911.

1935 A.D. – Wiblur Glenn Voliva, a Christian evangelist, announced that “the world is going to go ‘puff’ and disappear.” I guess he didn’t know that the earth doesn’t smoke.

2012 21 Dec. A.D. –The popular belief is that the ending of the Mayan calendar symbolized the end of the world.  There are other theories, however.  Some claim planet alignment, others alien invasion, some even go so far as to say zombie apocalypse. Rule number one: Cardio.

500,000,000 A.D. – The level of carbon dioxide will drop making the earth uninhabitable. Believable, if nothing else.

Sources:

High Beam Research, www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-14770425.html

A Brief History of the Apocalypse, www.abhota.info/end1.htm
Be Prepared for 2012, www.bepreparedfor2012.com/up-coming-apocalyptic-dates-to-watch-out-for