The Great Disappointment — Millerite prediction of 1844

That Jesus Christ would return and the world as it stood would end on 22 October 1844.

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.

William Miller and the Millerite movement — religious reading.

Miller's chronology travelled through the Signs of the Times periodical, itinerant preachers, and camp meetings across the north-eastern United States. Estimates put believers in the tens of thousands by 1844.

WHY IT RESONATEDMiller'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.

22 October 1844 passed without any observable event. The movement fragmented; some followers rejected date-setting, while others reinterpreted the date as a heavenly (rather than earthly) event — a reinterpretation that seeded groups including the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The prediction relied on private numerological readings of Daniel and Revelation with no independent evidence, and every previous specific date set by Miller had already failed.

• Encyclopædia Britannica — MilleriteReference work
• Wikipedia — Great DisappointmentReference work

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