The book The World’s Worst Predictions lists some of history’s all-time prophetic goofs.

• King George II said in 1773 that the American colonies had little stomach for revolution.
• An official of the White Star Line, speaking of the firm’s newly built flagship, the Titanic, launched in 1912, declared that the ship was unsinkable.
• In 1939 The New York Times said the problem of TV was that people had to glue their eyes to a screen, and that the average American wouldn’t have time for it.
• An English astronomy professor said in the early 19th century that air travel at high speed would be impossible because passengers would suffocate.
• Marshal Ferdinand Foch in 1911: “Airplanes are interesting toys, but they have no military value.”
• Business Week, 1958: “With over 50 foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn’t likely to carve out a big slice of the U.S. market.”
• Frank Knox, U.S. Secretary of the Navy, on December 4, 1941: “Whatever happens, the U.S. Navy is not going to be caught napping.”
• Economist Irving Fisher on October 16, 1929: “Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.”

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