How many of you remember the Mayan Apocalypse that was slated to happen on 12.12.12? Many assumed the world would come to an end on this symbolic day as it marked the end of the Mayan Calender. For all the eager ones, Mayans are an ancient civilization that originated around 2600 BC in the Mesoamerican region. Some of the prophecies made by the Mayas have come true; the Great Fire of London 1666, the French Revolution, 9/11 attack on the US World Trade Center, are some of them. Other than the Mayan Apocalypse, there have been numerous occasions where the world has witnessed Armageddon. Here is a list of Top 10 Times the world nearly ended.
During the Cold War era, the US had put in place Ballistic Missile Early Warning System to detect any incoming enemy missile on the radar. On 24th November 1961, the USA’s strategic air command headquarters was left in a lurch after it failed to establish contact with three of its missile sites. Apprehending the communications blackout as a tactic used by the Russians prior to an attack, the SAC went all out to launch a counter-attack. Fortunately a contact with an orbiting B-52 was established which confirmed no attack had taken place that the US bomber planes were retracted. Remember ‘the year without a summer’, when famines and epidemics ravaged the continents of North America and Europe? The reason behind the climatic abnormalities was the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815 which spewed out about 175 cubic kilometers of dust and rock. The violent eruption sparked a chain of disasters that included destructive whirlwinds and tsunamis and caused large areas in the Northern Hemisphere to freeze. Thus 1816 was named the year without summer. During a scientific expedition the scientists studying Northern Lights launched a rocket from Norway, Russia. The US rocket was launched for research purposes but when the Russian radar intercepted it on their radar, they thought the US had launched an attack on them. The then Russian President Yeltsin was deliberating whether or not to launch a counter attack but thankfully in the meanwhile the rocket fell into the ocean thus abating another nuclear disaster. When Jose Bonilla recorded as many as 450 objects passing in front of the sun in 1883, little did he or the scientific community apprehended the threat these floating objects posed to planet earth. But in 2011 when another researcher discovered the horrifying reality of these flying shards, everyone was left agape. These flying pieces were remnants of a 1 billion metric ton comet that had broken down and a collision with the debris was avoided by a margin of just 600 km breadth. If even one single shard of the debris had collided with the earth the resulting reaction would have been 1000 times more disastrous than a nuclear bomb. Saved by a hairs breadth literally!
How many of these were you aware of? Share it with friends and family if you found these intriguing.
