Century after century are changing epochs and people. However fascinating the idea of the end of the world - the mass death of humanity remains the same, changing only predictions.

The expression "end of the world" has already become popular and is used in cases, when people's lives, not to mention the lives of all mankind, is in no danger. Failure on the entrance exams, the loss of a favorite team or the loss of a mobile phone - all "end of the world".

In Mark said, "the Lord Said to His disciples: heavens and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away. But of that day or hour no one knows, neither the Angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father". The words of Scripture can be interpreted as the fact that people have to live without fear, because they can expect eternal life. However, the fear associated not only with the inevitable personal end of the same person, but with simultaneous destruction of all humanity, continues to haunt the minds of people, armed with the latest knowledge.

According to popular belief, the Mayans predicted the end of the world on December 21, 2012. And explanation of the scientists that this date is simply marks the end of one and the beginning of another era years on the Mayan calendar, many are not convinced.

Only for the last two thousand years were hundreds of predictions related to the end of the world. Remember some of unfulfilled prophecies of the end of the world.

Sylvester II predicted the end of the world in the year 1000.

Pope Sylvester II, he Herbert Orlanski, he Herbert Reims, famous medieval scientist and the religious figure, the name of which is covered with legends.

He predicted the end of the world 1 January of the year 1000. The world did not end, but it's so expected. In the next year as a result of rebellion in Rome, the Pontiff, who together with Emperor were expelled in Ravenna. After his return to Rome, the Pope spent a short time and in 1003 died.

In the opinion of many contemporaries Sylvester II, the Pope made an inaccurate prediction, and by the end of the world would be in the Millennium is not the birth and death of Jesus Christ. That is the date of the second coming of Christ was to be 1033 year.

About predicting those who have done it, after 1033-th years preferred not to remember.
Prediction of Pope innocent III, and 1666.

Being a Dad at the XII and XIII centuries, innocent III, the end of the world decided to link not only with Christianity, but with the growth of Islam. He called the end of the world 1284 year. The combination of the Holy father was simple.
This year - 666-th after the establishment of Islam. His prediction Daddy did in the Crusades, the times of religious strife. The Pope himself up to his prediction did not survive. And if he lived, he would have witnessed the fall of the power of the crusaders in the East.

The number 666 on the known reasons Christians liked to add to the other figures and dates and making gloomy predictions. With special fear, for example, expecting the approximation of 1666. In Europe, the closer this year was growing panic associated with a date, containing "the number of the beast". In England fear intensified after what happened in that year in London terrible fire. But then, as we know, has come 1667.

Solar theory Tommaso Campanella.

In Soviet times Tommaso Campanella the loved how the author of the Communist utopia "city of the Sun".
Die Earth, in his opinion, was due to the Sun. Thought Campanella, the Sun was going to collide with the Earth in 1603. The collision happened, and predicted Campanella communism - at least the way it saw humanist did not come. A collision with the Sun and the creation of a world state with shared wives and four-hour working day, about whom he wrote Campanella, in the near future is not expected.

The theory of collisions with the heavenly bodies is generally one of the most popular subjects of the end of the world.
A special place in these theories is bright short-period comet Halley, returning to the Sun every 75-76 years. The recent passage of a comet through the perihelion was in February of 1986, and the following is expected in the year 2061.

The passage of a comet observed than one Millennium, with it connected many tragic events: the epidemic, the death of the rulers, disease and hunger.

Possible collision with the comet popularized in the articles and in the novel "end of the world" French astronomer Camille of Flamarion. He was sure that the comet will destroy all life on the planet in 1910.
Then comet really was relatively close to the Earth at a distance of 0.15 astronomical units (one astronomical unit is approximately equal to the distance from the earth to the Sun).

In the subsequent years to the mid-twentieth century the mankind with small breaks was passionate about the world wars. Indeed, the end of the world. Moreover, in the destruction of tens of millions of their kind to people did not need the help of celestial bodies and natural disasters. Then the end of the world have come to expect more than the world Cup.

But back to the heavenly bodies. The members of the sect "the gates of Heaven" believed that the approach of comet Hale-BOPP heralds the end of the Earth. Suicide was supposed to help the members of the sect to go on a space journey. They made one of the most mass suicides in history of the XX century.

In the spring of 1997, the police called in a luxurious mansion in Rancho Santa Fe California - found 39 corpses. Each member of the sect was lying on my bed with their arms along the body. Everyone was dressed in a black shirt, black trousers and black sneakers. On the head of each was a plastic bag, and the face and upper body were covered with purple cloth.

When the earth became visible comet Hale-BOPP, the Internet began to report that comet's tail is hiding a huge spaceship. The cult members felt that came their time, and they need "dive on the aeronef". The solution of barbiturates, which washed down with vodka, helped "space travelers" go to the last path.

The world 1999-2000. These years it was impossible to bypass fans to make predictions of the end of the world. How does the end of the second Millennium and the beginning of the third.

Almost as often other predictors are called in this connection, the name of the French astrologer and alchemist Nostradamus, who was fond of prophecy.

Possible end of the world as a result of collision of an asteroid with the Earth was to take place in mid-August in the area of Donbass, according to the interpretation of Nostradamus writer Alexander Kazantsev.

Another interpreter Nostradamus - the astrologer Steven Poles is believed that on September 23, 1999, global cataclysms will begin in the fall of the comet in the Atlantic and a subsequent event of nuclear war.

The end of the world, according to the Japanese sect "AUM Shinrikyo", also had to happen in September 1999. Up to this point itself sect did not survive, as some victims her a terrorist surikovoy attacks on Japanese subway in 1995.

Not fewer predictors were fascinated by the figure of 2000. This year was expecting a mass failure of the computer because of the so-called "errors 2000" and associated with this world collapse. The cause of the Apocalypse had also become earth's collision with a comet (nothing new), the parade of the planets, the absorption of the Earth into a black hole.

In 2008 was launched Large hadron Collider. Before launch, some people, including representatives of the scientific world, argued that the particle accelerator is able to create "black hole", which will destroy the Earth. The creators of the accelerator of charged particles set another goal is to simulate the conditions of the Big Bang.

I must say that in the scientific world the idea of occurrence of "the black hole" was not popular, but nevertheless in many believed it, every time perceiving, relieved the news of the postponement of the launch of the Collider.

Supporters of apocalyptic prophecies pointed to the fact that the Large hadron Collider would not have to hide at a depth of 100 meters, if it were not for fears. Experiments at the LHC are continuing, and the apocalyptic interest to the object is clearly diminished. In 2008 were extremely fashionable t-shirts with slogans like"I survived the launch of the Large hadron Collider".

Now fashion Maya. But if you expect the end of the world and on December 21, 2012 and it will not wait, do not despair. This date is clearly not the last. Humanity will cease to play this exciting game only when it happens the end of the world.

It will happen in 5 billion years, when the Sun will become a red giant, its radius reaches the Earth's orbit and the Sun will absorb it.

Until that time, the population of the planet can destroy the deadly and incurable virus, eruption of volcano, nuclear war, clash with the heavenly bodies, the robots rebellion and so on: your imagination will prompt to you likely scenario. As for the date, as history shows - any will do. On it informs BBC.