25 Incredible Predictions That Actually Came True

Sometime in the 1660’s, Robert Boyle predicted that in the future, the cure of diseases would be made by transplantation. Since he lived during the pre-Enlightenment era of magic and superstition, to think that organ transplantation would be possible was extremely forward-looking.

In 1783, then Yale University president Ezra Stiles predicted that the population of the United States would reach 300 million in the next two hundred years. He based his prediction on his analysis of the population growth in Europe. Apparently, just a little over 200 years later, the population of the country actually hit 300 million.

In his 1840 book entitled “Democracy in America,” Alexis de Tocqueville wrote: “There are now two great nations in the world which, starting from different points, seem to be advancing toward the same goal: the Russians and the Anglo Americans. Their point of departure is different and their paths diverse; nevertheless, each seems called by some secret desire of providence one day to hold in its hands the destinies of half the world.”

In 1863, Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev predicted the properties and weights of 40+ elements comprising the modern day periodic table of elements perfectly. At that time, there were about 60 known elements.

More than a century before the Apollo 11, writer Jules Verne wrote in his book “From the Earth to the Moon” that a rocket would launch from Florida and fly to the moon. He predicted the name of the ship, Apollo, as well as the number of astronauts aboard and the feeling of weightlessness once on the moon.

A short story entitled “Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan” written by Morgan Robertson in 1898, detailes how the largest ship ever made in history crashed into an iceberg and sank. 14 years later, the RMS Titanic was launched and sank under exactly the same circumstances.

In a statement he gave to The New York Times in 1909, Nikola Tesla predicted that it would soon be possible to transmit messages via personal devices. Today, we have wireless communication devices that we bring anywhere we go.

In his novel entitled “The World Set Free”, H.G. Wells predicted that a city-destroying atomic bomb would destroy lives in the future. 18 years since he wrote the book, the atomic bomb was launched through the Manhattan Project. At the time he made the prediction, little was still known about the power of radioactive elements.

During his time, Nostradamus predicted that “fire will burn the blood of the just in London in the year 66. This actually came true during the Great Fire of London that took place on September 5, 1966, when fire swept through vital parts of the English city and killed thousands.

Nostradamus also predicted that in France, the people would rise up and rebel against the princes and lords. This happened in 1799 during the French Revolution. This revolution changed the face of France and paved the way for epic changes in the country’s political and social system

You may see a few Nostradamus predictions on this post and here is yet another one. Through his writings, Nostradamus predicted that a man named Napoleon Bonaparte would rise in power, though the name was something like “Napaulon Roy.” According to his prophecy, the man would be one of the most important figures in history and that he would deny the Piuses entry. As it turned out, during Napoleon’s time, Pope Pius VI and VII were locked up.

One of the greatest predictions made by Nostradamus was that “Pastor” would be praised like a demigod. Centuries since his prediction, a man named Louis Pasteur introduced several major scientific breakthroughs that made him one of the greatest scientists of all time.

During his time, Nostradamus predicted that “Diana’s life would be taken.” At that time, nobody knew who Diana was. In 1997, Princess Diana of Wales died from a fatal car accident.

In his short story “Solution Unsatisfactory”, Robert Heinlein describes a United States that develops a nuclear weapon before the rest of the world and becomes the only superpower, igniting a race among other nations to develop a similar bomb. Which is exactly what happened with the nuclear arms race and the cold war. This short story was written in 1940-before the United States had joined World War II and before it had conceived the possibility of a nuclear weapon.

Not only did Robert Heinlein predict the cold war, he also nearly invented waterbeds. As crazy as this might sound, in his 1961 novel “Stranger in a Strange Land” he describes in detail such a bed. So detailed in fact, that the eventual inventor had trouble patenting it.

A civil engineer turned curator at the Smithsonian Institute, Mr. Watkins made some startling predictions in the year 1900. In his article “What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years”, he made this startling statement: “Man will see around the world. Persons and things of all kinds will be brought within focus of cameras connected electrically with screens at opposite ends of circuits, thousands of miles at a span.”

Writer John Elfreth Watkins predicted in the article entitled “What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years” which he wrote in 1990 that in the 21st century, high-speed trains will be introduced. That time, people thought he was insane. However, his prediction came true when the first high-speed train was launched in Boston and Washington that same year.

In the novel “Looking Backward” published in 1887, Edward Bellamy accurately predicted the use of credit cards 63 years before they were even invented.

In his popular novel “Gulliver’s Travels” published in 1726, Jonathan Swift claimed that Mars had two moons. This was 142 years before they were actually discovered.

In the morning of August 19, 1995, during an interview with radio station WSQM, Tana Hoy said that there would be a terrorist attack in the United States that year, that the target would be a federal building and that it would be worse than the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. 90 minutes later, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed.

Palmer predicted the volcanic eruption and ensuing tsunamis in Sumatra on December 26, 2004. He also became famous for his accurate prediction of the Hurricane in 2005 which claimed almost 2,000 lives in the United States.

Also known as the “sleeping prophet,” Edgar Cayce is known to prophesy future events with startling accuracy. He rose to popularity because of his prediction of the start and end of World Wars I and II, as well as the end of the Great Depression. He also predicted the death of Franklin Roosevelt.

Astrologer Jeane Dixon became known after she predicted the death of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Because of her accurate predictions, she was the one First Lady Nancy Reagan went to for advice during the presidency of Ronald Reagan.

Writer Mark Twain was not a prophet but many people were amazed after he accurately predicted his death. In one of his books, he wrote that he was born in 1835, when Halley’s Comet was visible. He predicted that he would die when the same comet would be visible again. Sure enough, he died in 1910 when Halley’s Comet reappeared in the night sky.

In an interview in 1936, Cayce was asked what great change was to take place in the earth between 2000 and 2011 A.D. Cayce answered that the poles of the earth would shift. Between 2000 and 2001, NOVA confirmed that the shift actually happened in the South Atlantic Ocean region.