10 End-Of-The-World Prophecies That Didn't Come True

7. Y2K

One of the most recent apocalyptic hysterias in recent memory, the Y2K bug stood out because a surprising amount of the population actually believed it. The theory went that computers had a habit of being programmed with a four-digit year being shortened to two digits, in order to save memory space. Which would have made everything go wrong. People thought that not being able to differentiate between 1900 and 2000 would send every computer-controlled device in the world into haywire, with microwave ovens refusing to reheat the large stores of tinned goods people were buying up in case the US lost control of their nukes and the world ended. Despite widespread panic and various world governments sending people into a further tizzy with dark proclamations that they didn't know exactly what might happen at the turn of the New Year, nothing actually happened. 150 slot machines at race tracks in Delaware stopped working, but that's not quite the end times.