WSH-01
Predictions Calendar

End of the world predictions — upcoming doomsday dates and failed apocalypse predictions

A chronological calendar of specific end-of-the-world dates from religious readings, viral discourse, scientific close-approach events, and doomsday folklore. Every entry is classified using the standard schema. We report claims. We do not endorse them.

Editorial statement

NOTE

This is an internet culture project. It is not a prophecy, an emergency information service, a government warning system, or a risk forecast. Inclusion on this calendar is not a forecast. Predictions, satire, religious readings, memes, and scientific risk assessments are labelled distinctly so you know what you are reading. Historical failed predictions are kept on the page so the record does not vanish once a date passes.

Upcoming doomsday dates · 10 on record

MANIFEST · UPCOMING
  1. By end of 2026
    2026-12-31
    Unconfirmed Claim
    Upcoming

    'Rasputin' end-of-world claim for 2026

    Claimant
    Grigori Rasputin (attributed) (Rumor / popular framing)
    Predicted
    A prophecy attributed to Rasputin describes a storm and fire destroying life on Earth by the end of 2026.
    Why it spread
    The Rasputin name carries mystique in popular history; the quote circulates on social media without a verifiable primary source.
    Current status
    Attribution is contested. No verified primary document supports the quote.

    A prophecy widely attributed to Rasputin claims a storm and fire will destroy life on Earth by the end of 2026. No verified primary source exists; the attribution is contested by historians.

    SourcesWikipedia — List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events
  2. 2028
    2028-06-30
    Religious Interpretation
    Upcoming

    Kent Hovind — 2028 candidate year

    Claimant
    Kent Hovind (Individual)
    Predicted
    That 2028 is a candidate year for the end of the current age, based on a young-earth reading of biblical chronology.
    Why it spread
    Hovind's long-running video and podcast output has an established audience among young-earth creationist viewers.
    Current status
    Upcoming; mainstream Christian denominations do not endorse the reading.

    Young-earth creationist Kent Hovind has proposed 2028 as a candidate year for the end of the current age, based on his reading of biblical chronology.

    SourcesWikipedia — List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events
  3. Friday, April 13, 2029
    2029-04-13
    Mostly a Meme
    Upcoming

    Asteroid 99942 Apophis close approach — 13 April 2029

    Claimant
    NASA / ESA (event) vs. viral discourse (framing) (Scientific institution)
    Predicted
    That asteroid 99942 Apophis will pass within roughly 32,000 km of Earth on 13 April 2029 — closer than geostationary satellites.
    Why it spread
    The event is genuine and well-documented; social media reliably re-frames the close approach as an impact each time it resurfaces.
    Current status
    Close approach only. NASA has ruled out any impact for the 2029 pass and for the next 100+ years.

    Apophis will pass within about 32,000 km of Earth on 13 April 2029 — closer than geostationary satellites. NASA has ruled out impact for this and future passes; the 'end-of-world' framing is internet folklore.

    SourcesNASA — Apophis·ESA — Apophis close approach·NASA JPL — Earth safe from Apophis for 100+ years
  4. Around 2033
    2033-04-14
    Religious Interpretation
    Upcoming

    2000-year anniversary of the Crucifixion

    Claimant
    Various millennialist readings (Religious reading)
    Predicted
    That the two-millennia anniversary of the traditional date of the Crucifixion marks the end of the current age.
    Why it spread
    Round-number anniversaries recur in millennialist writing; 2033 aligns with a widely-cited traditional dating of the Crucifixion at 33 CE.
    Current status
    Upcoming; no official denomination endorses it as a prediction.

    Several Christian eschatological writers point to 2033 as a symbolically significant year marking two millennia since the traditional date of the Crucifixion. No official denomination endorses this as a prediction.

    SourcesWikipedia — List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events
  5. Sunday, April 13, 2036
    2036-04-13
    Mostly a Meme
    Upcoming

    Apophis — second close approach in 2036

    Claimant
    Viral discourse (not NASA) (Internet folklore)
    Predicted
    That the 2036 return of Apophis will impact Earth.
    Why it spread
    The 2036 encounter was flagged in early risk tables before more observations refined the orbit; those early figures still recirculate.
    Current status
    Impact ruled out. The 2036 encounter has been removed from every current impact risk list.

    The 2036 follow-up Apophis encounter was studied extensively after its 2029 flyby entered the record. Impact was ruled out by NASA JPL and continues to appear in doomsday roundups regardless.

    SourcesNASA — Apophis risk removed
  6. 2040
    2040-01-01
    Religious Interpretation
    Upcoming

    Jehovah's Witnesses — reported unofficial expectation

    Claimant
    Unofficial community interpretation (Religious reading)
    Predicted
    That the end of the current system may fall around 2040, based on informal community reading.
    Why it spread
    Round-number expectations recirculate periodically within the community; the Watch Tower Society has published no such date.
    Current status
    Upcoming; not an official Watch Tower Society prediction.

    Reported as an unofficial expectation in some Jehovah's Witnesses community discussion; not an official Watch Tower Society publication or prediction.

    SourcesWikipedia — List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events
  7. 2050
    2050-01-01
    General Existential Dread
    Upcoming

    '2050' climate tipping-point framing

    Claimant
    Popular discourse (misreads IPCC) (Rumor / popular framing)
    Predicted
    That 2050 is a doomsday year at which climate change makes the planet uninhabitable.
    Why it spread
    2050 is the most common target year for net-zero policy scenarios and appears in headlines constantly, which social media compresses into 'the deadline'.
    Current status
    The IPCC does not describe 2050 as an end date. It is a policy target year, not an extinction year.

    '2050' circulates online as a doomsday year. The IPCC does not describe 2050 as an end date — it is a common target year for net-zero policy scenarios. The vibes are heavy; the science is more specific.

    SourcesIPCC AR6 Synthesis Report
  8. 2060
    2060-01-01
    Religious Interpretation
    Upcoming

    Isaac Newton's 2060 note

    Claimant
    Isaac Newton (1704 manuscript) (Individual)
    Predicted
    That the world would not end before 2060 — a lower bound Newton set to discourage date-setting, not a prediction that it will end that year.
    Why it spread
    Newton's name carries enormous cultural weight; the note is regularly misreported as a firm 2060 prediction.
    Current status
    Frequently misquoted. Newton's own text explicitly warns against reading it as a fixed date.

    In a 1704 manuscript, Newton calculated that the world would not end before 2060 — often misreported as a prediction that it will end in 2060. He explicitly wrote the note to discourage date-setting.

    SourcesBBC — Newton's 2060 prediction·National Library of Israel — Newton papers
  9. By 2129
    2129-01-01
    Religious Interpretation
    Upcoming

    Said Nursî — end within roughly a century

    Claimant
    Reading of Said Nursî (Religious reading)
    Predicted
    A rough end-of-world window around 2129 extracted from Nursî's writings.
    Why it spread
    Nursî is influential in modern Turkish Islamic thought; the window is derived by later readers, not stated as a firm date by Nursî himself.
    Current status
    Upcoming; Nursî cautioned against precise date-setting.

    Some readers of the 20th-century Turkish theologian Said Nursî extract a rough end-of-world window around 2129 from his writings. Nursî himself cautioned against precise date-setting.

    SourcesWikipedia — List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events
  10. Around 2280
    2280-01-01
    Religious Interpretation
    Upcoming

    Rashad Khalifa — 'code 19' end date

    Claimant
    Rashad Khalifa (Individual)
    Predicted
    That the world will end around 2280, derived from a numerological 'code 19' reading of the Qur'an.
    Why it spread
    Khalifa's writing has a small but persistent online following; the specific date recirculates in doomsday roundups.
    Current status
    Upcoming; the underlying methodology is rejected by mainstream Islamic scholarship.

    Biochemist Rashad Khalifa proposed 2280 as the end of the world based on his numerological 'code 19' reading of the Qur'an. The methodology is rejected by mainstream Islamic scholarship.

    SourcesWikipedia — List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events

Failed apocalypse predictions · 5 on record

MANIFEST · HISTORICAL

World ending predictions by year that came and went without incident. Included so the record persists after each date passes.

  1. Friday, December 21, 2012
    2012-12-21
    Mostly a Meme
    Historical · did not occur

    'Mayan' 2012 prophecy — end of the b'ak'tun

    Claimant
    New Age and pop-culture reinterpretations (Rumor / popular framing)
    Predicted
    That the end of a Maya Long Count b'ak'tun on 21 December 2012 would trigger a cosmic event ending the world.
    Why it spread
    The 2009 film 2012, dozens of trade books, and a wave of documentary programming amplified an idea that Maya scholars themselves consistently rejected.
    Current status
    Did not occur. NASA and Maya specialists issued public statements before and after the date confirming no astronomical or calendrical basis for a cataclysm.

    The 2012 phenomenon claimed that a Maya Long Count cycle ending on 21 December 2012 marked the end of the world. Working Maya scholars and NASA repeatedly rebutted the framing; the day passed uneventfully.

    SourcesNASA — Beyond 2012: Why the world didn't end·Smithsonian Magazine — The Real Story Behind 2012
  2. Saturday, May 21, 2011
    2011-05-21
    Religious Interpretation
    Historical · did not occur

    Harold Camping — 21 May 2011 Rapture prediction

    Claimant
    Harold Camping (Family Radio) (Individual)
    Predicted
    That the Rapture would occur on 21 May 2011 and be followed by the destruction of the world on 21 October 2011.
    Why it spread
    Camping's radio network broadcast the date across the US in multiple languages, backed by billboards, RV caravans, and reported multi-million-dollar advertising spend.
    Current status
    Did not occur. Camping issued a correction, moved the date, then withdrew from date-setting entirely in 2012.

    The evangelical broadcaster Harold Camping used Family Radio and a large billboard campaign to predict a 21 May 2011 Rapture. The day passed without event; a rescheduled October 2011 date also passed. Camping later apologised for date-setting.

    SourcesBBC — Preacher Harold Camping apologises·Reuters — Believers left disappointed after Rapture
  3. Saturday, January 1, 2000
    2000-01-01
    Verified Event
    Historical · did not occur

    Y2K — the year-2000 computer collapse

    Claimant
    Popular press, IT commentators, survivalist media (Rumor / popular framing)
    Predicted
    That two-digit date fields in legacy computer systems would fail at midnight on 1 January 2000 and cause cascading infrastructure collapse.
    Why it spread
    The underlying bug was real and widely reported; a large, well-funded remediation effort by governments and industry primed the public to expect systemic risk on rollover night.
    Current status
    Did not cause societal collapse. Isolated failures were reported and quickly patched. The remediation itself is what most experts credit for the quiet outcome.

    The Y2K bug was a genuine software issue that governments and industry spent an estimated hundreds of billions of dollars remediating in the 1990s. Rollover night saw scattered, minor failures — not the infrastructure collapse popularly forecast.

    SourcesUS GAO — Year 2000 Computing Challenge (retrospective)·BBC — Y2K bug: 20 years on
  4. Wednesday, March 26, 1997
    1997-03-26
    Unconfirmed Claim
    Historical · did not occur

    Heaven's Gate — Hale–Bopp 'departure' of 1997

    Claimant
    Heaven's Gate group (Marshall Applewhite) (Group)
    Predicted
    That a spacecraft trailing Comet Hale–Bopp would collect group members' souls as Earth was 'recycled'.
    Why it spread
    A small, tightly-controlled group combined UFO belief with millenarian Christian imagery; the comet's unusual brightness provided a public focal point that talk radio and early internet amplified.
    Current status
    Did not occur. Thirty-nine group members died by suicide in March 1997; no comet-adjacent object was ever detected.

    In March 1997 the Heaven's Gate group claimed a spacecraft was following Comet Hale–Bopp and that Earth would soon be 'recycled'. No such object existed. The episode ended in a mass suicide and is documented as one of the most harmful modern doomsday claims.

    SourcesEncyclopædia Britannica — Heaven's Gate·New York Times — Death in a Cult (1997)
  5. Tuesday, October 22, 1844
    1844-10-22
    Religious Interpretation
    Historical · did not occur

    The Great Disappointment — Millerite prediction of 1844

    Claimant
    William Miller and the Millerite movement (Religious reading)
    Predicted
    That Jesus Christ would return and the world as it stood would end on 22 October 1844.
    Why it spread
    Miller's decade of published biblical chronology, tent-meeting revivals, and a large periodical network primed tens of thousands of American Christians to expect a specific date.
    Current status
    Did not occur. Known in religious history as the Great Disappointment.

    The Millerite movement predicted Christ's return on 22 October 1844. The day passed without event and is remembered as the Great Disappointment; several later denominations trace their origins to the reaction.

    SourcesEncyclopædia Britannica — Millerite·Wikipedia — Great Disappointment

How this list is maintained

METHOD
  • Every entry uses the site's classification schema so predictions, religious interpretations, memes, and verified events cannot be confused with each other.
  • Sources prefer independent reporting, scientific institutions, and reputable reference works. When a claimant's own source is linked, it is labelled as such — for documentation, not endorsement.
  • Rumours are described as rumours. Nothing is presented as an established fact without a source that supports it.
  • Additions require a specific date (or clear window), a named claimant, and at least one independent or reference source.

Prefer today's read? Return to the daily console or browse the signal archive.