8 Insane Doomsday Predictions That (Unsurprisingly) Didn't Happen

8. Halley’s Comet

These days, we probably get a good, healthy asteroid sacre about once a year. Nothing wrong with that, everyone needs a hobby.

The death-from-space paranoia isn't a modern phenomenon, however as a similar panic shook the public more than 100 years ago back in 1910, when Halley's Comet was due for its 75-yearly pass. In an interesting twist on the genre, people weren't afraid that it would come screaming out of the sky and actually hit the Earth but, rather, the Earth would pass through its tail.

This was true, the Earth did pass through the comet's tail but, as is evident, the world didn't end. The panic came from spectroscopic analysis of the tail revealing the presence of the toxic gas cyanogen, which led the astronomer Camille Flammarion to claim that the gas "would impregnate the atmosphere and possibly snuff out all life on the planet". Nothing like keeping a cool head in a crisis.

The hysteria reached a fever pitch, with people panic buying gas masks and quack "anti-comet pills" and "anti-comet umbrellas" in the hope that these items would save the from the aforementioned obliteration of life on Earth.

Incidentally, the comet is due to put in another appearance in 2061 which will, no doubt, inspire some fresh panic of its own.