Prophetic Goofs
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.”