A Comet Hits the Earth on November 13, 1899
Rudolf Falb, 1899: On November 13 'Our Planet to Come in Contact With the Comet' and Be Destroyed
The Viennese 'prophet of earthquakes' sent a year of disasters to the Imperial Academy of Sciences, ending with a comet strike. Newspapers worldwide ran his calendar.
What was claimed (paraphrase)
November 13: our planet to come in contact with the comet known to astronomers as the comet of 1866; our planet to be, if not absolutely, partially destroyed.
— Rudolf Falb (Austrian geologist and earthquake and weather forecaster) · said Mar 1894 · due November 13, 1899
No comet hit the Earth. 'Saved again,' the Butte Daily Inter Mountain reported the next morning. The tidal wave Falb scheduled for July-August 1899 never came either.
The Story
Paraphrase: the words are the Kennebec Journal's English rendering of Falb's forecast (newspaper scans; OCR tidied). His 1899 calendar also listed 'Tidal wave, destroying eastern coast of America. Florida and California becoming islands' for July-August.
Papers named different comets (Biela's, Tempel's, 'the comet of 1866'). The Washington Evening Times wrote that he 'has settled upon today as the day that the world shall end.' Wikipedia notes the scare 'caused no little dismay among the poorer classes of the Continental peasantry.'
Falb co-wrote the 1899 novel Der Weltuntergang (The End of the World). Compare halley-comet-gas-1910.
Receipts
- Professor Falb and His Cheerful Prediction for Year 1899 - Daily Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine (March 16, 1899), Library of Congress Chronicling Americaaccessed 2026-10-09
- Threatened by a Comet: Astronomer Falb Says One Will Smash the Earth Today - The Evening Times, Washington (November 13, 1899), Chronicling Americaaccessed 2026-10-09
- Saved Again - Daily Inter Mountain, Butte, Montana (November 14, 1899), Chronicling Americaaccessed 2026-10-09
- Comet Loses Its Way: Fails to Punch Us and Smash Us Up, as Falb Prophesied - New York Journal (November 14, 1899), Chronicling Americaaccessed 2026-10-09
- Biela's Comet - Wikipediaaccessed 2026-10-09
As of Oct 9, 2026
since it didn't happen
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