Scientists have a date for when the 'world will end' and it's on a very unlucky day
A 1960 research paper published in Science predicted that the world would end on November 13, 2026, due to unsustainable population growth. The authors suggested that humanity would eventually face resource scarcity and self-annihilation, though the specific date was chosen partly for its association with Friday the 13th.
Why it matters
This article serves as a historical look at past scientific predictions regarding overpopulation and the cultural fascination with doomsday scenarios.
Might still need to go into the office, though (Picture: Getty Images)
Here’s one for your Microsoft Outlook calendar: The world will end on November 13, 2026. Yes, Friday the 13th.
That doomsday date is according to a research paper published in Science, a leading scientific journal, in 1960.
University of Illinois researchers came to this slightly bleak conclusion by looking at population figures.
‘At this date, human population will approach infinity if it grows as it has grown in the last two millennia,’ the authors wrote.
‘Our great-great-grandchildren will not starve to death,’ lead author Austrian-American physicist Heinz von Foerster and his co-authors wrote.
‘They will be squeezed to death.’
…Why November 13?
A huge reason for our imminent doom is overpopulation (Picture: REUTERS)
They came to this oddly specific timetable for disaster by looking over 24 estimates of world population dating back 2,000 years.
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