Top 10 Historical Predictions That Turned Out to be False

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

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Keywords: predictions, history, prophecy, wrong, false, funny, Charles Darwin, Lord Kelvin, Robert Milikan, Dr. Lee, mars, Irving Fisher, Margaret Thatcher, WWII, Kaiser Wilhelm, William H. Stewart, John Langdon-Davies, Democracy, Mayan Calendar, Prediction (Quotation Subject), Ancient, Culture

Id: 34EJmyIQe3A

Length: 12min 24sec (744 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 21 2014