Predictions which came true about world

But true to his word, Twain died on April 21, , just a single day after Halley's comet returned. Isaac Asimov , the legendary science fiction author and biochemistry professor, had a few thoughts in about what the world would look like 50 years in the future.

Writing for The New York Times , he told readers that by , "Gadgetry will continue to relieve mankind of tedious jobs. In fact, he seemed fairly certain that the so-called "War to End All Wars" was anything but.

According to Winston Churchill , when Foch learned of the Peace Treaty of Versailles, he was deeply displeased that Germany would be left largely intact and remarked to Churchill, "This is not peace. It is an armistice for 20 years. Turns out, he was pretty darn close: World War II officially began exactly 20 years and 68 days later.

Foch died on March 20, , and therefore never saw his prediction come to pass. Most people remember science fiction writer Robert Heinlein as the author who predicted the Cold War and the nuclear arms race that dominated much of the late 20th century.

Sure, that's pretty impressive, but we're way more impressed with how he inspired the waterbed. His novel Stranger In a Strange Land contained a convincing, detailed description of a mattress filled with water, which he called a "hydraulic bed"—though he never capitalized on actually bringing them to fruition.

Just a decade later, in , art student and inventor Charles Prior Hall secured a patent for the thing. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land is about alien creatures trying to fit in with human society, and within that narrative he creates a "typical" middle-class home of the future that isn't that far off from what we have today, particularly when it came to personal computers.

When a computer, or "stereovision tank," was left unattended, Heinlein wrote, it became "disguised as an aquarium" filled with animated "guppies and tetras" swimming around. Or, as it's more commonly described half-a-century later, a screensaver. More than a hundred years before we learned that Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, Jonathan Swift made an educated guess about the Red Planet. In his novel Gulliver's Travels , he wrote about "two lesser stars, or satellites, which revolve about Mars.

Given that no technology existed yet that would've made Mars visible, how could Swift possibly have known this? There's been a lot of wild speculation, including theories that Swift himself might've been a Martian.

In Aldous Huxley's groundbreaking novel, Brave New World , the London government of makes sure its citizens remain loyal by giving them "Soma," a legal drug that "raised a quite impenetrable wall between the actual universe and their minds. If that sounds like modern antidepressants, you're not the only one to notice. The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons noted in that Huxley's novel "set the stage for our love affair with mind-altering pharmaceuticals.

Laugh In , Dan Rowan and Dick Martin's hugely popular sketch comedy show, had its fair share of political commentary, but they always aimed for punch lines rather than accuracy. Still, they managed to do both in a segment called " News of the Future ," where they predicted not only the future presidency of Ronald Reagan —who at the time was the governor of California and not exactly an obvious candidate for the White House—but also the exact year of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

This all happened in , a full two decades before East and West Germany were reunited. When he was just 11 years old, Colin Kaepernick was given a fourth grade assignment asking him to predict what he'd be doing with his life as a grown-up.

If you expected Kaepernick to write "football player," you'd be close. But no, the future NFL quarterback wasn't about to be that vague. To discover more amazing secrets about living your best life, click here to follow us on Instagram! All Rights Reserved. Open side menu button. The jetpacks weren't spot-on. Writers have also described smartwatches, atomic bombs, and antidepressants before they became a reality.

In , author Jules Verne released "From Earth to the Moon," which described three Americans' mission to launch a spacecraft and land on the moon. Parts of the novel were similar to the first real moon landing, which occurred years later.

The iconic Communicator device on "Star Trek," first shown in , looked a lot like a flip phone. Though engineers were working on developing this technology in the s, it took Motorola until to debut the world's first mobile phone. In , an Australian company claimed it has managed to produce a hologram table that resembles the futuristic holograms from the original "Star Wars" movie.

Scientists are now using 3D printing technology to make objects out of plastic, metal, and glass, though the process is not nearly as fast. The Iron Man suit has become legendary since first appearing in Marvel Comics. People won't be flying around in suits anytime soon, but the US military is developing high-tech suits that will mirror some of Iron Man's capabilities.

Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," which was published in , featured a submarine fully powered by electricity. At the time, only mechanically powered submarines were in use. Verne also predicted that people would one day listen to news instead of just reading the newspaper.

He made the prediction in , but the first radio broadcast didn't occur until the s. Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," a dystopian novel published in , features a mood-altering pill called Soma that acts as an antidepressant hallucinogen. Two decades after "Brave New World" came out, scientists began researching antidepressants.

Wells, mentions a hand grenade of uranium that "would continue to explode indefinitely. While modern smartwatches don't have this feature, the Jetsons watch had a similar design to what we see today. Nuclear physicist Jack Cover completed the first Taser stun gun in the s. He named the Taser after a novel called "Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle," which features a similar device to the ones used today. Video calling is most often done through platforms like Skype and FaceTime these days, though the method has been featured in movies for decades.

One of the earliest references, the film "Metropolis," showed an analog videophone mounted on the wall.

The first use of the term "credit card" goes back to Edward Bellamy's novel, "Looking Backward. In the novel "Fahrenheit ," author Ray Bradbury wrote about "seashells" and "thimble radios" that resemble earbuds and headsets with bluetooth capability. Millions of Americans today listen to songs and take phone calls with Apple's wireless AirPods. Then, he became prime minister of the provisional post-WWII government.

Other than that, this quatrain appears to have little else to do with the famous French politician. Near the gates and within two cities There will be scourges the like of which was never seen, Famine within plague, people put out by steel, Crying to the great immortal God for relief. What happened: In early August the United States dropped two atomic weapons on the island of Japan, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki within two cities.

The cities were devastated, and many survivors of the blast suffered from radiation poisoning crying to the great immortal God for relief. In the wake of the war, Japan also went through a food shortage crisis famine within plague.

The great man will be struck down in the day by a thunderbolt, An evil deed foretold by the bearer of a petition. According to the prediction, another falls at night time. Conflict at Reims, London and a pestilence in Tuscany. What happened: President John Kennedy great man received numerous death threats petition over the course of his presidency. While visiting Dallas on November 22, , the president was gunned down thunderbolt.

The assassination shocked and devastated the nation. His brother Bobby Kennedy was later assassinated just after midnight on June 5, another falls at night time.

The conflict in Reims and London and sickness in Tuscany, however, doesn't fit in with the assassination of the Kennedys. Earthshaking fire from the center of the Earth Will cause tremors around the New City. Two great rocks will war for a long time, Then Arethusa will redden a new river.

What happened: On the morning of September 11, , the two towers two great rocks of the World Trade Center in New York City New City collapsed after al-Qaeda terrorists crashed hijacked passenger planes into the buildings. For you. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options. Get the Insider App. Click here to learn more. A leading-edge research firm focused on digital transformation.

Good Subscriber Account active since Shortcuts. Siri, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and an array of smart tech in the Internet of Things readily exchange data with your other devices and respond to commands.

Schwartz and Leyden predicted that by , "hydrogen would be processed in refinery-like plants and loaded onto cars that can go thousands of miles — and many months — before refueling.

What's the future of the auto industry? Hydrogen cars appear to give way to electric. Not yet: Toyota and Honda lead the hydrogen-powered car market , but it's an uphill battle against competitors peddling battery-powered electric vehicles. In , the Harvard School of Public Health and the World Health Organization predicted that by , the world's top two causes of the global burden of disease — a measurement of the number of healthy life years lost because of sickness, disability or early death — would be ischemic coronary heart disease and unipolar major clinical depression.

At the time, the leading causes were lower respiratory infections such as pneumonia and diarrheal diseases, the study said. Close: In , the most recent year that the data set was published, the five leading causes of the global burden of disease were neonatal disorders, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, lower respiratory infections and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Climate predictions tend to have a longer range, but here's a snapshot of where stands.

A report in by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted that the average global surface temperature could increase by about 3. On track: With 80 years to go, both predictions appear possible. The global average temperature has risen a tad more than 1 degree Fahrenheit since the mids, according to NOAA. Since , the global sea level has risen a total of more than 3 inches, according to NOAA. More: Were the predictions we made about climate change 20 years ago accurate?

Here's a look. A report in by the Space Studies Board of the National Research Council said NASA would launch "possible human exploratory missions to the moon and Mars within the next quarter century," predicting that humans would land on Mars by Schwartz and Leyden envisioned a similar scenario: "In , humans arrive on Mars.

The four astronauts touch down and beam their images back to the 11 billion people sharing in the moment. The expedition is a joint effort supported by virtually all nations on the planet, the culmination of a decade and a half of intense focus on a common goal. Not quite: Though we haven't set foot on Mars, we've landed eight unmanned spacecraft on the planet's surface.

In , British news organization The Independent forecast that in , Boris Johnson would become a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, a decision-making body composed of the prime minister and a team of handpicked members of Parliament. At the time, Johnson, 32, was an outspoken editor and columnist but had not held public office.

Pretty close: Have you heard of Brexit? Johnson became prime minister in July. He served in the Cabinet, starting in as foreign secretary under Theresa May. In December, Johnson led his Conservative Party to victory in a national election on the promise to "get Brexit done. Imagine a world where battles are fought a few feet above the ground, as soldiers hover in midair.