Predictions About The Future That Failed
Tuesday, Aug 18, 2020, 1:27 pm
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1.Dumb Idea To Switch Pitching Hand Of Babe Ruth
In 1919, baseball hall of famer, Tris Speaker, said, "taking the best left handed pitcher in baseball and converting him into a right fielder is one of the dumbest things I ever heard." Boy was he ever wrong. Babe Ruth was the first player to hit sixty home runs in one season in 1927, hitting 714 home runs by the time he retired in 1935, a record only broken by Hank Aaron 39 years later, in 1974.
2.Reagan Doesn't Have The Look To Be President
Sometimes looks can be deceiving, as a United Artists executive found out in 1964 when he rejected him for the lead role, as a presidential candidate, in the film, The Best Man. Saying that he did not have the presidential look. Seventeen years later, in 1981, Ronald Reagan became the 40th President of the United States.
3.Rail Travel At High Speeds Impossible
Dr. Dionysys Larder, professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy at the University College London, made the statement, in the 1800's, that, "rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia." In 1939 the first high speed train went into service taking passengers from Milan to Florence at 102.5 mph.
4.Crazy To Drill For Oil
When Edwin L. Drake suggested that they drill for oil in 1859, associates thought he was crazy. "Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy," they said. It only took 150 years for the first attempt to dig for oil was made. Today it is a worldwide business, with everyone looking for different places to find what is considered, black gold.
5.There Is No Market For Computers
When the chairman of IBM spoke out in 1943 he said, "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." Thomas Watson couldn't have been more wrong. By the 1980's with the PC in full swing, he looked ridiculous, but who could have known that almost everyone in the world would own a computer?
6.HIV Virus Is A Pussycat
Dr. Peter Duesberg must wish he could take back his words when, in 1998, he made the statement, "that virus [HIV[ is a pussycat." Within eight years, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organization reported that more than 25 million people had died of AIDS.
7.A Long Time Before A Woman Will Become Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher made a bold statement on October 26, 1969 when she said, "it will be years -- not in my time -- before a woman will become Prime Minister." Ten years later she became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, reigning from 1979 to 1990. Hey, she never said how many years it would take, so the only part that wasn't true was that it wouldn't be in her lifetime.
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8.No New Taxes
In 1988, George Bush Sr. said, "read my lips; no new taxes." Well, it seems his lips were not telling the truth during the acceptance speech from where they were spoken during his nomination at the Republican National Convention. Bush subsequently became president and raises taxes, with his words working against him when Bill Clinton used it in his attack to win the 1992 presidency.
9.Cigarette Smoking Doesn't Play A Major Role In Lung Cancer
When some one from the National Cancer Institute speaks, people usually listen, and believe, so when in 1954, W.C. Heuper said, "if excessive smoking actually plays a role in the production of lung cancer, it seems to be a minor one," people believed it. Unfortunately, ten years later the United States Surgeon General began speaking to the contrary, and it was confirmed in the 1980's that long term exposure to tobacco does cause cancer.
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10.Airplanes Are Too Heavy To Fly
In 1895, Lord Kelvin said, "heavier than air flying machine are impossible." The British president of British Royal Society, a mathematician and physicst, was proven wrong eight years later with the Wright Brothers took off from Kitty Hawk in their home built flyer. Orville and Wilbur Wright made history that day, forever changing the way the world travels.
11.The BBC Won't Like Mick Jagger
Seems the first manager of the Rolling Stones had it all wrong. After watching the band perform, Eric Easton told his partner that "the singer [Mick Jagger] will have to go; the BBD won't like him." Seventy year old Jagger, who still sells out stadiums and is a Golden Globe, Grammy Award winner, proved that statement wrong ten fold.
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12.Rocket Will Never Earth's Atmosphere
In 1936 the New York Times said, "a rocket will never be able to leave the Earth's atmosphere." It only took ten years to prove them wrong when on March 22, 1946, America launched their first rocket from the White Sands Proving Grounds, achieving 50 miles of altitude. Prior to that, in 1945, Germany launched their first rocket, a V-2 rocket, that crashed.
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