The World Ends at 8 a.m. on October 18, 1533
Mathematician Michael Stifel, 1533: The World Ends at 8 O'Clock in the Morning on October 18
A Lutheran pastor with a gift for numbers worked the end of the world out to the hour. Luther begged him not to announce it. He announced it.
What was claimed (paraphrase)
he did some more calculations and became convinced that he had shown that the world would end at 8 a.m. on 18 October 1533
— Michael Stifel (Lutheran pastor at Lochau and mathematician) · said 1533 · due 8 a.m., October 18, 1533
The morning passed. MacTutor: 'When Stifel's prediction failed he was arrested, put in jail and dismissed as a pastor at his church.'
The Story
Stifel had already published a numerological pamphlet in 1532 'in which he used numerology to show that the end of the world was near, and that the pope was the Antichrist' (MacTutor). Encyclopedia.com agrees on October 18; some later lists, and a fountain inscription in Annaburg, give October 19.
Luther 'was quick to forgive his faithful follower' and helped get him out of jail. Stifel went on to real mathematical work, including early work on logarithm-like tables.
Receipts
- Michael Stifel - Biography, MacTutor History of Mathematics, University of St Andrewsaccessed 2026-10-09
- Michael Stifel - Science and Its Times, Encyclopedia.comaccessed 2026-10-09
As of Oct 9, 2026
since it didn't happen
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