Discover fascinating current events and news briefs from around the world, including key government decisions, medical discoveries and technology breakthroughs. Click Hot Topics on the right side of the page to see an overview of recent headlines, or choose a topic from the list to get started exploring. Each week the Bill of Rights Institute searches for contemporary news articles that explore topics relevant to U.S. History, Government and Civics classrooms, then connects them to BRI resources. Each article includes a suggested search string for finding more information about the event.
This evangelist’s end-time prediction failed, and he revised the date three times. The leader of this cult said that Helter Skelter, an apocalyptic race war, would begin on this day.
Many Christians believed that the Rapture would occur on this date. The founder of this church claimed that a sign in the sky would appear, and that only his followers would be saved.
The founder of this cult wrote that the rapture and Armageddon were imminent, and that his followers could fly and walk through walls. Full-page newspaper ads promoted this claim.
A quatrain from Nostradamus that predicted “the end of the world” was interpreted by some as referring to this year. During and before this time there were widespread predictions of a computer bug at midnight that would cause global catastrophes or other catastrophes. Other predictors cited a solar flare or an asteroid impact. There were also rumors of a pole shift or other Earth changes.