Six events that everyone was waiting for, but they never happened

People built bunkers in case of the end of the world, imagined meeting with their own clone and longed to meet aliens, but it did not work out. Lifehacker I remembered what expectations of mankind excited the whole world, but never came true.

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The end of the world according to the Mayan calendar

The probability of a planetary catastrophe on December 21, 2012 was not discussed unless by the lazy one. Fears were associated with the end of the Mayan calendar.

There have been several theories about what will happen on the intended date. Some believed that the inhabitants of the Earth will experience a global physical and spiritual transformation. Others were waiting for the catastrophe and death of all living things. Still others believed in a threat from outer space and said that the mythical planet Nibiru, inhabited by living beings, was flying at us. The version of a surge in solar activity of colossal power was also discussed.

While the Sun in its daily routine performed its thermonuclear reactions, people showed abnormal activity. Particularly worried for their lives built bunkers and stocked up on food. Residents of the Chinese province of Sichuan massively bought candles, in Russia canned goods and matches were swept away from store shelves, and the authorities of the French department Languedoc-Roussillon were preparing for an influx of people on Mount Bugaras in the Pyrenees: according to rumors, all the aliens gathered at the peak were to save.

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But on the designated day the apocalypse did not happen, and soon everyone forgot about the Mayan calendar and its prophecies.

The disappearance of Arctic ice by September 2016

Cambridge University professor Peter Wadems has repeatedly predicted the total melting of ice in the Arctic. He made his first forecast in 2007, when over the year the amount of ice decreased by 27%. Wadems assumed that the Arctic cover would completely melt by 2013, but this did not happen. In addition, it turned out that over six years the ice area increased by 25%.

Wadems was not at a loss and shifted the date of the melting of the glaciers by three years. Fortunately, this prophecy did not come true. In October 2016, it became known that the ice in the Arctic was 31% more than it was in 2012. This was confirmed by data from the State Center for the Study of Snow and Ice in the United States.

Making an artificial black hole

In 2015, scientists working with the Large Hadron Collider announced experiments to create small black holes. Many publications on this subject appeared in the media, and the rich imagination of the inhabitants immediately painted monstrous pictures of the Earth's absorption in the gloomy abyss.

In reality, everything was not so scary. The discovery could turn our knowledge in physics upside down. The fact is that in order to create even microscopic black holes it is required that space exist not in three dimensions, as in the present quantum physics, but in 11.

This is described by string theory, which goes beyond the scope of the Standard Model and, although it remains popular, it is still a theory. If the experiment were successful, the black hole would have lived only 10−33 seconds. It is so small that scientists could not fix it. And they would prove the fact of the appearance of a black hole by indirect evidence - left tracks. But this was not necessary: ​​the experience failed.

The development of mass space tourism

Dreams of space travel have always been dazzling futurists, scientists and ambitious entrepreneurs. The first serious steps in this direction were taken in 1986 after the report “Probable economic consequences of the development of space tourism”, which was presented at the International Congress on Astronautics.

In the same year, the first flight of a space tourist could take place. She was going to become an American teacher Christie MacAuliffe. But when the shuttle Challenger was launched, the woman died. The tragic incident significantly slowed the development of space tourism.

Nevertheless, it is possible to get into orbit. Now the end point of the route is the ISS Russian segment. Flights are carried out by Soyuz ships. In 2001, Dennis Tito, an American entrepreneur and multimillionaire, became the first space tourist. He prepared for this historic event for 8 months - he even mastered the basics of controlling a spacecraft and learned to manually dock it with the station in case of automation failure. Dennis Tito spent almost 8 days on the ISS, circled the Earth 128 times and paid $ 20 million for this.

Now the cost of the space tour ranges from $ 30 to $ 40 million. For going into outer space, you will have to pay another $ 3 million. Considering the sky-high price and the complexity of preparing for the flight, this business will not be available soon.

Human cloning

The first successful experience of cloning a mammal - Dolly's sheep - lit a spark in the eyes of scientists and the public. Many then started talking about human cloning, disputes about ethics broke out, religious protests sounded. And the Brazilians, meanwhile, shot a 250-series melodrama, describing what a clone would have to go through, its creator and society as a whole.

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At the moment, human cloning is prohibited worldwide and entails criminal liability. Moreover, such a breeding method has already been tested on fish, frogs, cows, horses, mice, dogs and other living creatures. In 2018, Chinese scientists first reproduced monkeys in the same way as Dolly. But human cloning is still very far away.

Assault on Zone 51

Zone 51 is a military base in the southern United States, in Nevada. For many years, it has attracted interest from conspiracy theorists and ufologists who believe that evidence of the existence of aliens is stored there. Or maybe the aliens themselves even live.

Until 2013, the “Zona-51” was classified, but with the development of satellite technology, it became impossible to hide an object with an area of ​​100 square kilometers. The purpose of the base is still not disclosed, which only heats up the speculation about the presence of extraterrestrial life there.

They were planning to storm the “Zone-51” on September 20, 2019. It all started with a joke on Facebook. California resident Matty Roberts has planned a rally called “Zone 51 Assault.” They cannot stop us all. ” The idea was that a huge crowd should break into the territory of the base, and then the military would have no chance of resistance.

People should have run in the style of “Naruto”: head forward, with arms extended behind their backs. Such a situation would allow attack aircraft to move faster than military bullets. It sounds funny and ridiculous. Nevertheless, the news became viral and more than 2 million people put the “Go” mark. The organizers did not expect such a resonance from a simple joke and hastened to write a refutation on the social network. They also said that they would relieve themselves of responsibility if someone decided to break into the base.

As a result, on the appointed day, only 51 daredevils gathered at the gates of “Zone 75”. They were in funny costumes and holding posters asking them to free the aliens. Only one girl tried to penetrate the military facility. She was quickly detained. I must say that nearby was a large music festival dedicated to the assault. And so he gathered about two thousand people. Many of them dressed up in alien costumes and peacefully had fun.

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