On November 6, 2001, right-wing militia activist William Cooper - who also hosted the short-wave radio program Hour of the Time and Mystery Babylon - was shot and killed at his home in Eagar, AZ by sheriff's deputies attempting to serve an arrest warrant for tax evasion. Among Cooper's UFO and conspiracy theories was the prediction that the end of the world would occur in the year 2000.
***
Also, many Americans may believe today marks a milestone in the progress toward Armageddon, as Barack Obama is re-elected President of the United States (see Jan. 20)
11/05/2012
November 5: Earth Abides
On November 5, 1950, a radio dramatization aired of "Earth Abides", George R. Stewart's classic last-man-on-earth novel which had first been published the year before.
Earth Abides (in two half-hour broadcasts)
Earth Abides (in two half-hour broadcasts)
11/04/2012
November 4: Elijah is Hiding in an Eighteenth-Century French Forest
On November 4, 1792, the Messiah was born in rural France. At least the priest at Saint-Jean Bonnefonds declared as much, such that by November 1794 villagers had begun abandoning their homes to await Elijah in the forests to lead them to Jerusalem.
11/03/2012
November 3: Tycho Brahe and Superova SN1572
Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe died in 1601 after refusing for too long to leave a wild dinner party for a bathroom break. He suffered a kidney rupture which became infected and killed him after 11 days. (Some have theorized the kidney damage could have been primarily from other causes, including poisoning.)
As a younger man, Brahe famously lost his nose in a duel fought over a mathematical formula, and wore a gold one in its place.
The greatest practical astronomer of his day, Brahe's accurate measurements allowed Johannes Kepler to prove the Copernican model of the solar system, and derive from it the laws of planetary motion which would inspire Newton's law of gravity decades later. Brahe's astronomical findings were considered so significant that the King of Denmark granted him the entire island of Hven to build an observation center.
Upon sighting a supernova which erupted overnight on this date in Cassiopeia on November 3 in 1572 - an unprecedented event - Brahe had said it must be a sign of the Second Coming.
As a younger man, Brahe famously lost his nose in a duel fought over a mathematical formula, and wore a gold one in its place.
The greatest practical astronomer of his day, Brahe's accurate measurements allowed Johannes Kepler to prove the Copernican model of the solar system, and derive from it the laws of planetary motion which would inspire Newton's law of gravity decades later. Brahe's astronomical findings were considered so significant that the King of Denmark granted him the entire island of Hven to build an observation center.
Upon sighting a supernova which erupted overnight on this date in Cassiopeia on November 3 in 1572 - an unprecedented event - Brahe had said it must be a sign of the Second Coming.
11/02/2012
November 2: Dame Christabel Pankhurst
Today in 1917 the UK's Balfour Declaration made support of a Jewish state in Palestine into official policy. Dame Christabel Pankhurst, a prominent activist and suffragette, saw the coming of a new Israel as prophetic. She also identified the Bolshevik state with the Satanic forces of Gog and Magog, while announcing "the promised return of Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords."
In later years, still attempting to connect world events with Biblical prophecy, Pankhurst identified Mussolini as the Antichrist. (Informed of this by some Belgian visitors, the attribution visibly pleased Mussolini.)
In later years, still attempting to connect world events with Biblical prophecy, Pankhurst identified Mussolini as the Antichrist. (Informed of this by some Belgian visitors, the attribution visibly pleased Mussolini.)
11/01/2012
November 1: Day of the Dead, and Day of Wrath
Today, in addition to being the Day of the Dead, was the date in 1265 when Thomas of Celano died. This Franciscan monk authored the "Dies Irae", or Day of Wrath, a poem on Judgment Day which was later adopted as a Gregorian chant and incorporated into the Roman Requiem Mass.
The "Dies Irae" melody has made a number of noteworthy cameos in classical music, including in the work of Berlioz ("Symphonie Fantastique") and Liszt ("Totentanz"). A more modern appearance was in the opening titles of the horror film The Shining:
On a lighter note, November 1 also saw the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, killing as many as 100,000 people - but inspiring Voltaire's rollicking paen to pessimism Candide.
The "Dies Irae" melody has made a number of noteworthy cameos in classical music, including in the work of Berlioz ("Symphonie Fantastique") and Liszt ("Totentanz"). A more modern appearance was in the opening titles of the horror film The Shining:
On a lighter note, November 1 also saw the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, killing as many as 100,000 people - but inspiring Voltaire's rollicking paen to pessimism Candide.
10/31/2012
October 31: Martin Luther's Launch of Protestantism
On Halloween of 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses against the Catholic Church, launching the Protestant revolution. With his movement came a series of wars whose unfolding in Europe over the succeeding century and more were widely seen as apocalyptic.
10/30/2012
October 30: Mars Attacks!
October 30 saw the invasion of Earth by Mars in 1938, beginning with an attack on New Jersey as reported by Orson Welles by radio broadcast.
10/28/2012
October 28: 1000 Years of Christian Rule; and Hyoo-Go
It's hard to trace the official adoption of Christianity by the Roman Empire to one event, but a good candidate is the Battle of the Milvian Bridge on October 28 - in the year 312. On that day, Constantine the Great consolidated control over the empire by defeating the rival Emperor Maxentius. On the eve of battle, Constantine had received a vision in which he was promised victory if he used the cross as his battle standard.
1000 years later, beliefs sprang up that one millennium of Christian rule meant Christ would soon be returning to Earth.
***
A Korean Christian group named Mission for the Coming Days believed that Hyoo-Go - the Rapture - would occur in 1992. They placed billboard ads and a spread in USA Today on October 28 of that year announcing the end of the world.
1000 years later, beliefs sprang up that one millennium of Christian rule meant Christ would soon be returning to Earth.
***
A Korean Christian group named Mission for the Coming Days believed that Hyoo-Go - the Rapture - would occur in 1992. They placed billboard ads and a spread in USA Today on October 28 of that year announcing the end of the world.
10/26/2012
October 26: 1895, Predicted Early in the Century
Robert Reid of Erie, Pennsylvania - one of the numerous early-nineteenth-century American doomsday preachers - held that the return of Christ would fall in 1895.
10/25/2012
October 25: Buffalo Bill's House of Yahweh
Yisrayl "Buffalo Bill" Hawkins founded the House of Yahweh in Abilene in 1974. Hawkins claimed that unless Biblical law were universally obeyed, a nuclear war would kill 80% of humanity sometime between this month of October 2000 and midway through the year after. Later the date was advanced to September 12, 2006, June 12, 2007, October 13, 2007, and June 12, 2008.
In the latter 2000s, several allegations of child mistreatment were made against the House of Yahweh's leadership. Yisrayl pled guilty to child labor violations in exchange for dismissal of bigamy charges. The church's second in command, Yedidiyah Hawkins, is now serving a 30-year sentence for sexual abuse of his stepdaughter beginning when she was 8. And one HOY member pled guilty to criminal negligence for killing her 7-year-old daughter in an attempt to perform a home surgery.
The church was formed as a spliter group from Herbert Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God (see Jan. 7).
In the latter 2000s, several allegations of child mistreatment were made against the House of Yahweh's leadership. Yisrayl pled guilty to child labor violations in exchange for dismissal of bigamy charges. The church's second in command, Yedidiyah Hawkins, is now serving a 30-year sentence for sexual abuse of his stepdaughter beginning when she was 8. And one HOY member pled guilty to criminal negligence for killing her 7-year-old daughter in an attempt to perform a home surgery.
The church was formed as a spliter group from Herbert Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God (see Jan. 7).
10/24/2012
October 24: The Stock Market Crash
Black Thursday was on this date in 1929. An 11% total slide in US stock values was brought to a rest during the day by the action of a consortium of wealthy investors. Their purchases of blue chip stocks at above-market-value rates held investor fears at bay by the closing bell. However, the slide continued the following Monday the 28th and Tuesday the 29th (Black Tuesday), in which the market lost a further 12% and 13%, respectively.
10/23/2012
October 23: Happy 6015th Birthday!
From Inherit the Wind:
Matthew Harrison Brady: A fine biblical scholar, Bishop Ussher, has determined for us the exact age and hour of the creation. It occurred in the year 4004 BC.
Henry Drummond: Well, that's Bishop Ussher's opinion.
MHB: It's not an opinion. It is a literal fact, which the good Bishop arrived at through careful computation of the ages of the prophets as set down in the Old Testament. In fact, he determined that the Lord began the creation on the 23rd of October, 4004 BC, at 9am.
HD: Is that Eastern Standard Time, or Rocky Mountain Time? It wasn't Daylight Savings Time, was it, because the Lord didn't make the sun until the fourth day.
--According to James Ussher (Archbishop and Primate of the Church of Ireland in the 17th century) the universe's 6015th birthday is today. Many scholars over time have thought that the advent of Jesus' return, to preside over a seventh "sabbath" millennium of rule on Earth, would occur in the world's 6000th year: in Ussher's popular scheme, this date in 1997.
Matthew Harrison Brady: A fine biblical scholar, Bishop Ussher, has determined for us the exact age and hour of the creation. It occurred in the year 4004 BC.
Henry Drummond: Well, that's Bishop Ussher's opinion.
MHB: It's not an opinion. It is a literal fact, which the good Bishop arrived at through careful computation of the ages of the prophets as set down in the Old Testament. In fact, he determined that the Lord began the creation on the 23rd of October, 4004 BC, at 9am.
HD: Is that Eastern Standard Time, or Rocky Mountain Time? It wasn't Daylight Savings Time, was it, because the Lord didn't make the sun until the fourth day.
--According to James Ussher (Archbishop and Primate of the Church of Ireland in the 17th century) the universe's 6015th birthday is today. Many scholars over time have thought that the advent of Jesus' return, to preside over a seventh "sabbath" millennium of rule on Earth, would occur in the world's 6000th year: in Ussher's popular scheme, this date in 1997.
10/22/2012
October 22: The Great Disappointment of 1844
Today was the date of the Great Disappointment in 1844, a landmark event in American Christianity.
In a wave of publications and public events taking in tens of thousands of believers, the independent Baptist scholar William Miller had predicted the world would end on February 28, 1844, and then April 18. Despite the failure of Miller's second prophecy, the movement bearing his name had gathered its own head of steam. In August 1844, a Millerlite named Samuel Snow proposed Jesus would return on October 22, and this prediction proved the most popular of all.
The dismay of Millerites across America after the Great Disappointment led to a flurry of other suggested end dates. One group believed per Revelation 14:14 that Jesus was stuck on some kind of a cloud, and needed to be "prayed down"; another concluded, after Mark 10:15, that Christ's followers needed literally to act like children to bring on the apocalypse.
Most importantly, the Adventist movement began, which led to a number of new American denominations including the Seventh-Day Adventists, Davidians, and Branch Davidians. Adventism also influenced Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses.
In a wave of publications and public events taking in tens of thousands of believers, the independent Baptist scholar William Miller had predicted the world would end on February 28, 1844, and then April 18. Despite the failure of Miller's second prophecy, the movement bearing his name had gathered its own head of steam. In August 1844, a Millerlite named Samuel Snow proposed Jesus would return on October 22, and this prediction proved the most popular of all.
The dismay of Millerites across America after the Great Disappointment led to a flurry of other suggested end dates. One group believed per Revelation 14:14 that Jesus was stuck on some kind of a cloud, and needed to be "prayed down"; another concluded, after Mark 10:15, that Christ's followers needed literally to act like children to bring on the apocalypse.
Most importantly, the Adventist movement began, which led to a number of new American denominations including the Seventh-Day Adventists, Davidians, and Branch Davidians. Adventism also influenced Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses.
10/21/2012
October 21: Anniversary of Camping's Judgment Day
Judgment Day occurred one year ago today, according to the predictions of Harold Camping of Family Radio in Oakland, CA. In a national advertising campaign, his ministry aggressively promoted a prophecy that the Rapture would occur on May 21, 2011, with the final judgment of God falling six months after.
When his May 21 Rapture prediction failed, Camping held a press conference in which he confessed to a little bafflement. But he asserted that the Rapture had taken place "spiritually", and that the end of the world should still be on track for October 21. Not long after that prediction, too, failed, Camping suffered a stroke and has been out of public view since.
When his May 21 Rapture prediction failed, Camping held a press conference in which he confessed to a little bafflement. But he asserted that the Rapture had taken place "spiritually", and that the end of the world should still be on track for October 21. Not long after that prediction, too, failed, Camping suffered a stroke and has been out of public view since.
10/20/2012
October 20: Notes from My Apocalypse Journal
From recent readings:
"In examplary dualist worldviews, contemporary sociopolitical or socioreligious forces are transmogrified into absolute contrast categories embodying moral, eschatological, and cosmic polarities upon which hinge the millennial destiny of humankind."
(Anthony and Robbins, "Religious Totalism, Exemplary Dualism, and the Waco Tragedy", 1997)
Translation: Apocalypse-obsessed people believe in good versus evil?
***
And a bit of entertainment news I ran into:
The makers of the three "Left Behind" films, starring Kirk Cameron, are mounting a remake of the series, apparently believing that the first time around it didn't generate the mainstream crossover appeal they had hoped for. The star of the new series is shaping up to be Nicholas Cage.
Nicholas Cage Likely Replacing Kirk Cameron in the "Left Behind" Reboot
"In examplary dualist worldviews, contemporary sociopolitical or socioreligious forces are transmogrified into absolute contrast categories embodying moral, eschatological, and cosmic polarities upon which hinge the millennial destiny of humankind."
(Anthony and Robbins, "Religious Totalism, Exemplary Dualism, and the Waco Tragedy", 1997)
Translation: Apocalypse-obsessed people believe in good versus evil?
***
And a bit of entertainment news I ran into:
The makers of the three "Left Behind" films, starring Kirk Cameron, are mounting a remake of the series, apparently believing that the first time around it didn't generate the mainstream crossover appeal they had hoped for. The star of the new series is shaping up to be Nicholas Cage.
Nicholas Cage Likely Replacing Kirk Cameron in the "Left Behind" Reboot
10/19/2012
October 19: A Little Book of Arithmetic on the Antichrist
A German mathematician and monk named Michael Stifel - a friend and associate of Martin Luther's - wrote in "A Little Book of Arithmetic on the Antichrist: A Relevation of Revelation" (1532) that on October 19, at 8am, in the year 1533, the apocalypse would strike. When the prediction failed, he was forcibly taken to nearby Wittenburg by angry peasants and sued. 20 years later Stifel would retract the calculation in another pamphlet.
Martin Luther himself is reported to have believed the apocalypse would fall later than Stifel predicted, but still before the year 1600.
As a parting note, in Stifel's mathematical life he coined the term "exponent"; created the algebraic convention of representing multiplication without a symbol (IE, 2x = "two times x"); and furthered the study of negative numbers, which he still referred to at the time as "numeri absurdi".
Martin Luther himself is reported to have believed the apocalypse would fall later than Stifel predicted, but still before the year 1600.
As a parting note, in Stifel's mathematical life he coined the term "exponent"; created the algebraic convention of representing multiplication without a symbol (IE, 2x = "two times x"); and furthered the study of negative numbers, which he still referred to at the time as "numeri absurdi".
10/18/2012
October 18: Destruction of the Holy Sepulchre
Today in the year 1009, the Fatimid Caliph Al Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the destruction in Jerusalem of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which stood at Golgotha, the site of Jesus' crucifixion and burial. Mysteriously, many clerics in Europe chose to blame Jews for this desecration, inciting pogroms and driving Jewish communities out of some cities in France.
Simmering rage over the destruction of the church stimulated the movement to conquer and secure the Holy Land, which would develop into the First Crusade later that century. (See "Armies of Heaven: The First Crusade and the Quest for Apocalypse", Jay Rubenstein, 2011)
Simmering rage over the destruction of the church stimulated the movement to conquer and secure the Holy Land, which would develop into the First Crusade later that century. (See "Armies of Heaven: The First Crusade and the Quest for Apocalypse", Jay Rubenstein, 2011)
10/16/2012
October 16: Million Man March
On October 16, 1995, Tynetta Muhammad addressed the Million Man March in Washington, DC. The mother of four children with Elijah Muhammad, and author of the column "Unveiling the Number 19" in the Nation of Islam's newspaper "The Final Call", Tynetta has asserted from numerological analysis of the Koran that the world was to end in 2001.
10/15/2012
October 15: Elizabeth Clare Prophet
Three years ago today, Elizabeth Clare Prophet died in Bozeman, Montana at age 70. Founder of the Church Universal and Triumphant in 1975 - which eventually boasted as many as 50,000 adherents - Prophet used Theosophical and spiritualist ideas to blend Christianity with Buddhism and Hinduism.
Claiming that a nuclear armageddon would occur in 1989, a couple thousand of Prophet's followers took to fallout shelters they had stocked with food and weapons at the edge of Yellowstone Park. A tense situation with area residents and the Federal government eventually subsided as no nuclear war appeared to be forthcoming, and disappointed believers started returning home.
Before succumbing to Alzheimer's disease in the late 90s, Prophet had claimed she had been Nefertiti, Marie Antoinette, Saint Theresa of Avila, and (the fictional) Queen Guinevere of Camelot in her previous lives. Along with other date-setting apocalypticists, Prophet was awarded a posthumous Ig Nobel Prize in 2011 for her predictions.
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