Halley's Comet and the End of the World
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- Опубликовано: 28 май 2024
- Halley’s comet has been orbiting the sun and passing by the earth for probably all of human history. Its regular return was, for millennia, seen and interpreted as an omen. But in its 1910 passage, new technology promised closer study of the object than ever before - and sparked a panic that life on earth was about to end.
This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As very few images of the actual event are available in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used for illustration.
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All events are portrayed in historical context and for educational purposes. No images or content are primarily intended to shock and disgust. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Non censuram.
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Script by JCG
#history #thehistoryguy #halleyscomet
"When in danger, when in doubt: run in circles, scream and shout."
Halley's Comet did have a very pronounced adverse effect on the population of the Earth. It caused a severe outbreak of stupidity. A similar outbreak is afflicting the Earth's population in 2020.
No, the recent outbreak of stupidity you refer to began in 2016.
@@goodun2974 let’s hope it turns out to be benign.
If you're a THG regular, you'll know there's never been a shortage of stupid throughout human history..
@@Peasmouldia , stupidity, yes; and a surfeit of " luck", both good and bad.
Technology is the rope by which the human race will hang itself. And stupidity has been around forever.
Halley's comet will be back in 2062. Buy your toilet paper now!
Forget gold and drinking water. We should all invest in toilet paper!
Might make it, I'll be 101!
I won't need it.
I will be 98 and someone else will be wiping my butt. 💩
@@danielhammond3012 I be 96 in 2062.
Mike83ny. Don't worry, we'll all be dead because of climate change by 2030. I learned that at the debate last night.
Saw Halley's in 1986, a wee dusty speck. Hale-Bopp, now THAT was a comet.
Yes it was.
@MrPitjoey en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven%27s_Gate_(religious_group)
The 1986 passage was particularly bad for those of us here on Earth. It was basically on the other side of Earth's orbit, and at it's closest approach to Earth was about 100 million miles further than it had been in 1910. And because of the tilt of the Earth's axis, it never got very high in the sky for people in the Northern Hemisphere.
Hale-Bopp was a much dustier comet, which makes it brighter-bright enough it could be seen in daytime. It was also much better placed for Northern Hemisphere viewers. It was "circumpolar" (meaning it never set) for viewers from mid-northern latitudes for close to a week, which also meant that unlike almost all comets, you could view it from a fully dark sky.
It looks like Halley's orbit is within the planetary solar system , H-B I think went way out beyond the exto planets, and also had a different plane of trajectory, it was moving faster and more affected by the gravity of the sun as it shifted out of the sun as an epiltical node of flight.
@@highpath4776 Yes. Halley's aphelion is out by the orbit of Neptune, (about 35 AU from the Sun). Hale-Bopp's aphelion is about 6 times further out, but it's still within the Solar System.
Who needs a comet to destroy civilization? We appear to be doing it just fine by ourselves
@Dessy Duke Lecker don't you mean muzzle?
You are missing the point.
There's a 🔑
The Law of Attraction is absolute.
@Dessy Duke Lecker if you aren’t against the unscientific, never before implemented concept of societal lockdown then you can take your mask and shove it. That and your smug scientism, too.
K-pg extinction event....
Grandmother, born in 1905, Remembered seeing Halley's comet as a little girl. She saw it when it came around in 1986 as well. It wasn't as visible then as the first time she saw it. I helped her see it better with my telescope.
Perhaps it was her vision that had turned for the worse, or pollution which had clouded the sky, not the comet which had lost its vibrancy.
@@camerrill No. Her vision was still okay. The comet in 1986 just wasn't in as good a position in relation to the Earth, for people to see, as it was in 1910.
We went to see it on a hilltop in the middle of nowhere, even further in the middle of nowhere, than where she lived, which was in the middle of nowhere! It's was a place, where the stars, planets, and Milky Way are very clear, and where air pollution or light pollution wouldn't be an issue.
Anyway, Grandmother was glad to have seen it come and go in twice in her lifetime. She was a math and science teacher, so she had a pretty good appreciation for it.
Neat story.
Same. My grandpa's neighbour saw it twice also. In 1910 when he was 16 and in 1986 when he was 92 years old. Crazy.
I saw it with my telescope back then. It was kinda pathetic, like a candy corn seen from fifty feet away.
People in 1910 were so stupid. Well, I’m off to rub essential oils on my feet, so I don’t die from COVID 19...
How could you forget about burning down another 5G tower so it won't give you a GMO cancer? Are you not progressive enough?
Isn't that ironic, the people in 1910 did not look back on history and realize the comet has passed several times without causing the world to end, and we still think and fear without looking at history. History is more important than given credit.
😉
I hate to bring it to you, but most humans are idiots.
Its rare that you actually pass through the comet's tail. It would be easy to convince people that THIS TIME was different.
@@untruelie2640 At least a quarter of us.
@@Robert08010 I think that this is a rather optimistic estimate.
And suddenly, nothing happened.
Seems that history repeats itself, even today!
Nothing ever does.
@1tiercel : Ah, those lingering aftereffects! You can blame anything on anything with the help of those.
And that nothing happened rather slowly.
Predicting the end of the world is tough business, with nobody having ever been successful. History remembers the fools that tried, but that first person to be correct will not.
The ticker tape parade after the end of the world!
Ah, there’s the rub.
As a an 8 yr old kid in Amsterdam in 1955, I was told by older boy that the world would end in 1958.
That haunted me a lot until the end of 1958.
What advice would a 1910 version of President Trump have give his country about the imminent apocalypse?
Except Noah.
He spent 120 years building a ship on the forecast knowledge it would be needed at the time of the world flood.
Who needs therapy when you have the history guy.
Knowledge and escapism rolled into one!
totally agree!!! 🙏
Don't give 2020 anymore ideas...
lmao
😁
@@annebradley6086 Dumb. Most obviously dumb is mention of Columbus most likely being Potuguese instead of Spanish when it is well known that he was Italian but sailed for the Spanish. Hence the naming of his ships used in his first voyage as Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria - all Spanish names.
Too late! Dummy Dems are already telling people to vote early and not wait until November 3rd bc we’re to be hit with an asteroid or something stupid!
They’re truly nuts at this point, just saying
@@dawnyockey1475 That's false. If you believe it, I have a bridge to sell you.
My grandfather saw it twice in his lifetime which was quite a feat considering lifespan was about 67 years of age in Australia in his generation. 1910 and 1986. He was hanging out for that :) Quite the life he had.
That just doesn't add up. You say he lived 67 years. The comet comes once every 76 years. In 67 years, he could not have seen it twice.
@@Robert08010 I think he meant average lifespan.
I remember when Halley's Comet passed by Earth in 1986, stores were sold of telescopes. You should do a video on the Y2K panic some day.
Did you know that most insurance policies to this day still contain a "Y2K exclusion" clause?
I did get a telescope in "86, for about $100. Took it comet-hunting it in the darkest place on the East Coast (NC Outer Banks), and saw what amounted to... nothing. I re-packed the scope carefully, stored it away, and sold it at a flea market a few years later for more than I paid.
@The Dog's Butler
I agree he should do a Y2K video also a panic of the year change 1899-1900..although similarities between this video and Y2K panic would not be that different. people became crazy and stocking up on things and buying ridiculously stupid things (survival gear, guns because Y2K would cause society to collapse i guess) of course retailers also got into it..
The Y2K panic was crazy..for people that did not understand how computer systems worked they believed everything would cease working i guess..
At the time i worked for a company that flew us around the US to patch code on mainframe computers..the problem was a math issue not a failure of computers..doing a year math calculation against a 2 digit year when the year switched between 99 and 00 would cause math errors.....it mostly affected financial industry..your car or traffic lights, pretty much everything outside of mortgages and loans do not do math against 2 dates...PC's at the time would simple display the date as Jan 1, 00..a few older computers from the 1980s may display it as Jan 1,1900 due to the fact the the number 19 was hard coded..but they would work just fine..
The biggest fear from US financial industry was not Y2k it was the panic and people causing a "run on the bank" ..if too many people ran to a ATM or tried to take their money out the banks would fail..We were told that if anyone asked what i my job was was to tell them we were "fixing" the Y2K issue and everything was fine your bank account was safe...we also silently made a few changes to ATM through the computer code to either limit the amount of money that could be withdrawn from ATM's or have a rolling offline time on the machines..
By the way we will possibly have another Y2K like issue happen on January 19, 2038...this will be a time storage size issue...
I was going to write a comment describing how computers calculate date time including local time but it would put most people to sleep..
EXTRA TRIVIA: Before most computers were connected to a network they used one of 2 ways to calculate the current date 1) number of seconds that have happened since January 1, 1970 (8 and 16 bit computers also called "Unix Time") ..2) number of 100-nanoseconds since January 1,1601 (32 bit and 64 bit computers) ..
Of course since almost all computers are now connect to a network they can sync their time to a "time server"
@@MickeyMousePark I was in my 30s and working in the petrochemical industry in 1999. The big bosses at the company I worked for decided to replace all of the plant control systems computers and cameras. The old ones were stacked up on pallets and were supposed to be taken to the dump. Employees got to take home one or two of the most powerful workstations computers available. Even though the computer engineers told them everything will be fine they still spent over $100m just to be safe.
@@thedogsbutler7046 good point..Y2K was a great excuse for IT departments to upgrade their equipment...
"Made people in Indiana sleepier than usual."
Indiana resident. I'm pretty sure the effects are still lingering.
My grandmother told the story of she and her siblings climbing on the roof of her house in Cincinnati to watch the comet in 1910. She did say some people did think it was going to hit the earth. She saw it again in 1986. A good life.
Fun Fact:
It was once believed that comets were harbingers of regicide. Charles Messier was famously known for being hired by Louis XV of France to be his royal comet hunter, spotting new comet discoveries to avoid assassination.
Messier ultimately discovered 13 comets and earned the nickname “Comet Ferret” from the king but his studies inadvertently led to the creation of Messier's popular catalog of 110 non-cometary objects, including most of the best star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies in the Northern sky.
Then, in 1757, Louis XV was attacked by a knife-wielding Robert-François Damiens. I have no evidence, but I suspect the US Constitution's eighth amendment prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishments" was inspired by the public torture-execution of Damiens.
What a wonderful comment!! I did not know any of that, and I always feel like a fact and trivia enthusiast, so this is great! I am going to get into more information about him, thanks!
That's so cool!! I had no idea!
@@flagmichael Well, I can give you at least one reason that Article III, Section 3, of the US Constitution says " Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open court."
In England, one of Henry VIII's political opponents, Lord Montague, was arrested on a charge of treason. He said, "I have committed no treason." The arresting officer replied, "Treason is what the King says it is."
Montague was tortured to make him confess. He was tried in absentia and in camera, where the only evidence was his "confession". He was then executed.
It was to prevent that sort of thing that this clause of the Constitution was written
The "M" in M83 Galaxy means "Messier 83". I did not know where that Messier thing came from, though. Thanks!
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine
(rummages through some of the earliest compact discs for some REM)
As a baby boomer from 1952, I was captivated by the history and tales of Halley's comet. My anticipation grew yearly until early February, 1986, when the comet was nearly due to arrive. The 1986 passing of the comet was the worst in history. Due to the position of the earth in relation to the sun, the angle of the planet and increased atmospheric light pollution - the comet was virtually invisible to the Northern Hemisphere. From just about everywhere on Earth people scanned hopefully with binoculars, but never found the comet. I can't describe how ripped off I felt for having waited with great anticipation for over 20 years for what was a non-event on the pass-by of 1986.
Know what you mean... I never saw it either. What we thought was the comet, as seen in binoculars, turned out to be the Orion nebula. It was just our crappy luck that a very good apparition of Halley wound up being followed by one of the worst ever. I took up amateur astronomy about a year later and have seen a fair few comets -- the most recent one being Neowise this past summer -- but only 3 have been "walk out the door, look up and go WOW" objects. People I know who did find Halley in '86 say that, even as faint as it was, it was still better than the vast majority of comets... which doesn't make me feel any better.
Me (an idiot): I miss the days when the press was more sane.
The Press: You're going to die from a comet, buy more newspapers!
Haven't changed much, have they.
They should be charged as terrorists for inciting false panic so damn much.
Paul Harvey had a Rest of the Story episode about four reporters who sat gloomily commiserating in a Colorado bar. Among them they had nothing - bupkis. One suggested that if they all filed reports about something it would be accepted as fact as long as it was too difficult to investigate independently. They settled on a story about some obscure but rich organization trying to buy the Great Wall of China. According to the Rest of The Story the story made its way to China and spurred the Boxer Rebellion. Believe it or Not (oops - wrong citation)!
@@flagmichael , Paul Harvey excelled at telling stories but I'd be wary of using him as a valid source. He was, by the way, highly conservative, and his stories definitely lean that way.
@@goodun2974 It wasn't so much his leanings. He wanted to tell a good story, and like many storytellers, he embellished some things, left others out, and sometimes filled in gaps with things he thought sounded good. There was usually at least a grain of truth to them, but you sometimes had to look hard to find them. He did, however, spread more than a few urban legends.
The dinosaurs: Hold my beer.
I remember lying on the beach at the river Murray mouth in South Australia in 1986 and had a great view of Halley’s Comet
My favorite history teacher Mr Hamm taught a rock and roll history class and got Bill Hally's Commits to play at our school
Mr Hamm was Neal Diamond's trumpet player before he became a teacher
Now that's about as "cool" as it gets !!!
Here I am 60 years old, and I never made the connection of Bill Halley and the Comets with Halley's comet.. I always learn something new from the History Guy~!
My grandmother saw halley's comet twice...1910/1986
I Love this....Keep the history coming my friend and Thank you for the hard work
Thank you
all this comet fear makes me want to watch Night of the Comet.
Double feature with Maximum Overdrive
@@HM2SGT
Dammit... you beat me to it.
2020 has been quite a year? A mild understatement! It has indeed.
Fortunately we have this man and this Channel and these fascinating, entertaining distractions from unpleasantness to brighten our day and lighten our load and educate us. (Where do I go to get a copy of my ce's?😸)
We still have two months left and those months in US might be more entertaining than stuff Chinese did to get one fat guy sick.
Ok, I’ll bite. What stuff did China do to get one fat guy sick? Is this a corona reference? Only one fat guy? Who was he? Thank you in advance for a polite explanation.
In my 68 years I have seen worse. The Long Hot Summers of the 1960s, coupled with the Vietnam war come to mind. My father was in his teens during the Great Depression and was a radar tech in WW2; he had a Marine with a .45 assigned to him to safeguard America's secrets. At least once a month the Marine would command "Drop!" and my father would drop immediately to his knees, whatever he had been doing, and the Marine would put the .45 to the base of his skull.
I can't believe we have become so small that we wring our hands over a troublesome virus and an ordinary election.
@@shmismith7196 It was a corona reference. The joke is that this virus is created to infect some Chinese enemy called Donald in Pennsylvania Avenue 1600. I am more concerned about the things that will be going in US for two months after election, if current president loses.
We have local non-US clowns too to make watching any corona related news unbearable.
I really can't grasp what's so horrid about 2020. You have to stay home for months. I barely get to socialize already but the virus just limited me even more and I missed out on many great opportunities too, but I don't whine about it. What is it that's so horrible to you?
I remember when it passed by in '86.
It was a dud.
As well as comet Kohoutek being a disappointment.
Yeah I don't even recall seeing it. There was a comet in the early 90s that was quite visible for about week that was quite interesting. I don't recall its name though.
Comet Hale-Bopp late March 1997 was awesome!
Yes indeed ... Hale-Bopp was amazing to watch !
It was so clear and well defined ... best comet I ever saw.
@@smelly_elvis I think that is the one I was recalling. Later in the 90s than I initially thought but yeah 97 is very possible.
Awesome🙂👍👍
Hello History Guy! big fan been watching for some time now, you always ask for suggestions so I was thinking it would be cool to throw a dart at a map and do a short segment on whatever town or city you hit, lots of small towns are places you've never heard of yet have had great contributions to the country or world, for instance the town I'm from Burgettstown PA was at one point the number one coal producer in the world! an impressive feat for a town as small as ours. anyway that's my idea and id love to learn about the accomplishments of other no name towns like mine and I think others would too!
My hometown is famous for burning witches.
@@u0aol1 lol, my birth city, Omaha, was at one point one of the biggest transportation hubs in America and is host of the college world series, where I grew up, Casper Wyoming, is known as the Center of the West, and Billings, current residence, is known for a Sacrifice and a couple of Skeletons on a part of the Rims
and somebody give this man a medal!!
@@boywhohasl1vedhascometodie469 Jerk
Tulsa, Oklahoma is known for its racial masscre in 1921.
Thank you for this awesome video on Halley's comet
The silliness of the self-proclaimed most intelligent animal would make the planet's fauna shake its head were it to witness it.
I love that he mentioned the pronunciations! In '86, a descendant of Edmund Halley said the family pronounced it Haul-ley.
Outstanding episode! Some viewers will remember the comet Kohoutek in the early '70s that, while not predicted to end the world, was hyped to be most dramatic yet, along the lines of that daylight comet you refer to preceding the arrival of Halley's in 1910. Folks named their dogs, even their children after the coming comet. Songs were written, tee shirts sold. And, naturally, as a public spectacle, it was a dud 😂 🤣
The problem with comets is that they're fickle. That's especially true of comets making their first pass through the inner solar system. Often times they have a thick layer of dust, which makes the comet brighten quickly. Once that's driven off, the comet dims. That's exactly what happened with Kohoutek. It was still technically bright enough to be a "naked eye" comet, but it took a dark sky and knowing where to look. It was still one the 25 brightest comets of the 20th century, which should tell you how rare really bright comets are.
@@almostfm Understood. Plus, comets don't exist to entertain us. As this episode demonstrates, it's the social phenomenon of comets that make comets interesting to us, and their unintentional (given that a comet is without intent) ability draw out our flaws across many human eras.
This whole time I've been pronouncing it wrong. Thanks History Guy, you're a gentleman and a scholar.
I’m not so sure you have. Early on he makes a point of discussing the soft data on proper pronunciation... Hal-Lee, Hay-Lee...🤷♂️ in the end it’s no big deal, definitely not worth getting wrapped around the axle about. 😺 seems to me like no matter which, you’re not wrong.
And there are just a few of us left. 😉
Like Haley's comet in 1910, with Covid-19 in 2020, people know just enough science to freak out, be misled, and swindled, only on a much larger, more ridiculous scale!
The Voodoo demon sperm doctor would have been laughed out the door even in 1835!
Never a more true statement
It's a continuing astonishment to me that in this day of instant facts at our fingertips and unlimited search engines and experts connected around the world, there are STILL so many people who are superstitious and insistently, proudly ignorant, insisting that anyone with new information is trying to "fool" them, for some nefarious reasons...
@@christineparis5607 Because they are. Modern technology makes it easier to do than ever.
@@christineparis5607 and it still amazes me how many sheep are in the world
The social commentary was my favorite part
My dad occasionally mentions how disappointed he was in 1986 how Halleys comet was basically a no show. LOL 😂😂
Have a good day history guy!! Thanks for uploading! Coffee time.
I've been following you for, well for some time now, and your channel is just exceptional.
Your bow tie reminds me of Eddie Van Halen's famous Frankenstrat guitar.........RIP EVH
Thank you🌠
It's true what they say: "Ignorance, or lack of telescopes and spectroscopy is bliss."
Even better to be without eyes at all.
So you wouldn't have to see all the bullshit going on right here in the ground.
Oct. 8 1871
Chicago wasn't the only thing that burned that night, fires simultaneously also broke out across Wisconsin (see: Peshtigo) and Michigan, near Grand Rapids and also near Detroit (opposite sides of the state).
Either Mrs. O'Leary's cow oughta be a place kicker in the NFL for the way she booted that lantern, or...
Dare I say there may have been a cosmic source of these simultaneous fires that occured as Earth passed through the tail of comet Hyukatake? I do dare, but it doesn't mean I'm 100% able to prove it.
I hope THG does an episode on that. Edit: I understand snake oil salesmen took advantage back in the day. But he seems to be ridiculing the idea that the tail of a comet (comprised of gases like acetylene and ethane) could be flammable. The idea that the environment outside of Earth's atmosphere is of little to no effect is out of date.
i always wonder when a video was uploaded 5 mins ago, and 13 mins long, yet 30 people already like..
🤷♂️ We like the man, the channel, & the anticipation of another agreeable programme. In two years I have yet to be disappointed.
@@HM2SGT love dudes videos too, but it just seems like something a sheep would do
Wow. In 1986 I was a freshman in High School...I,for some reason,don't remember anything about Halley's Comet at the time. Scary to think my brain is that far gone at 49.
I remember Haley comet's passing in 1986 and all the t-shirts it generated.
My Grandmother told me that her Grandmother, my Great Great Grandmother, who was half Blackfeet, thought the World was going to end because of the comet. She moved all her belongings outside and waited for the end. The family told her that if the World was ending, she might as well die in her bed, with the woodstove keeping her warm. She agreed that made sense and moved back inside.
So the media hysteria hasn't grown recently...only the cause has changed.
Well wait, the news is now reporting we have an asteroid that is going to hit the day before election day. But don't worry, it's only the size of a refrigerator.....sigh....
Yellow journalism probably has existed since day one.
The media are very good at scaremongering. Anyone remember the Millennium Bug? Planes would fall out of the sky, cars wouldnt start, computer systems everywhere would crash etc etc. What happened? Nothing. To be fair there was a genuine concern by computer experts that some operating systems might not cope with the changeover from 1999 to 2000, the systems in question were based on programmes written in the 1960s and used a 2 digit year instead of 4 digits. As I understand it they were only used on home computers anyway so the chance of a major problem was tiny.
@@sameyers2670 Sure nothing happened with Y2K, because there were concerted efforts to go in and change computer programs. It wasn't just bullshit from the start
Funnily enough, some of the quick fixes to the solution meant that a few systems rolled over at the start of 2020 instead, to 1920. It took WWE 2K20 out of action for a few hours but turns out patching over the internet is a lot easier than getting a technician in to retype some code
@@HiringHamblin I'm not saying it was all BS just that the media blew it out of proportion as they always do
Thanks for cutting out so many commercials. I was reluctant to watch due to the annoyance of the plethora of interruptions in recent videos. I think you work is great, your wit charming and your videos are highly entertaining. Thanks for making it enjoyable, again.
Eloquent testimony that indeed comet ignorance is bliss, as long as it's a miss. Thanks HG.
I knew a family when younger named Halley they're blood descendants. They all look like him . Even their grandmother with her white hair it's terrible. Even her cat ( I guess not the cat) ! The cat looked like Groucho!
did the cat say look for the secret woid and win a hundwed dollahs? did the cat say go to your local desoto dealer and tell them groucho sent you ?
@@roadmaster720 You must have known them also?
@@constipatedinsincity4424 no but groucho marx pops up everytime i hear that name and his tv show of the '50's " you bet your life".
@@roadmaster720 I have thought he was saying “a hundred allahs” .
This was really interesting!
👍🏼 Magritte! Splendid!😎
I like the Van Halenesque bow tie.
I found your channel just a couple days ago and have been watching as much as I can. I’m from Oklahoma ( not far from where Jim the Killer Miller was jailed), I would love to see an episode on when Governor Murray declared war on Texas in 1931
i was 10 in 1986. All the hype about the comet at the time ignited my interest in outer space. No fear about getting hit with the thing.... lol
I as well was 10 in 86, actually 9&1/2 I remember hearing about it but don't remember actually seeing it. I'm sure I did but it didn't stick with me.
We got to try to see it while at school if I remember it right. I know we certainly talked about it a lot. Probably because it was only a month after the Challenger explosion that killed all the astronauts and Christy Mccolough, the teacher who was going to space. I definitely remember that announcement. Our teach said the space shuttle "burst" which left us all confused. Finally another faculty member said exploded and we started to get it.
And we did it again 89 years later !
As a little boy I would see illustrations and photos of comets in books, gave me the impression they dynamically streaked across the sky. I never understood (and still don't) why some people get upset comets are a omen of doom. I do remember build up of excitement to see Halley's comet. I even saved the Sky and Telescope magazine edition of this event, plus a small book about it. In fact, I got my ***own photos*** using time exposure of 35mm! Not that great, there were some streaks as my tripod did not have motor to account for earth's rotation. I remember the highway leading to Edwards AFB out of Rosamond had a collection of people and cars on the shoulder presumably people from LA that made the trip to see the comet without mountains, buildings, trees, and light pollution from the city. This was every night for about two weeks. Also at that time I realized the catchy name and why it was Bill Haley and the Comets.
I do remember in 1979 a discussion to fund a spacecraft to intercept Halley's comet but the proposal was dropped. My impression is all these old guys in congress didn't understand. Though years later I can understand that such a mission may be popular but probably too risky and expensive with insufficient return in science. i.e. spectacular Hubble telescope photos enjoyed by the general public have little scientific value.
In terms of doom, a large enough comet like an asteroid impacting the earth causing, yes that would be bad. How society and governments would deal with such a extinction event, considering how many are dealing with covid-19, would be quite bleak as they'd spend the last days arguing and blaming political opposition. I don't think anyone could do anything, I never believe concept of diverting it with nuclear bombs (that only is good for movie plots and box office hits).
Next episode will be on Bill Halley and the Comets.
2020: "Is that a challenge?"
We have had a flush of very close near collisions this year. Another is expected in November just before election day. Nothing to worry about, but any excuse for a party is fine. 🙄😏
@Elaine Wood 2020: hold my corona.
@@areyousureyouenteredyourna85 ... thumb down.
Just because. ;)
People in 2020: we can act in fear too!!
Thanks Lance. I've never heard it pronounced with the soft "a" before, but you haven't led me wrong before, so a hard "A" it is for me from now on. Good video my friend.
Reminds me of his episode on the vowel shift.
"And in other earth shattering news!!!...I had eggs for breakfast." Great video as always History Guy. Keep 'em coming.
I am an active amateur astronomer. Our local astronomy club holds many public observing events each year (except for this year). Every so often, when there is a comet in the sky, I will get questions from visitors to our events asking for assurance that the comet does not spell doom.
I remember something similar happened in 2012. That is when a lot of people thought the world will end due to a Mayan calendar. In fact, their was even a movie made about it. Fortunately, 2012 came and went with things remaining the same.
And that a relatively mild and comparatively harmless example. Sadly, people have been led by the unscrupulous and the crazy in mass suicides in anticipation Armageddon & cataclysm. Heaven’s Gate & Jonestown come to mind.
Y2K ...that was a big fizzle
Even with the best science available, we're doing the hysteria thing again with CO2.
@@brett4264 no, the common mistake is ignoring science. Your logic is the same as dismissing the 1917 Spanish "Flu" as nothing. Follow the science.
@@HM2SGT The reason the calendar stopped was because they ran out of room on the stone. 😁😁
Mass panic about Halley's Comet is similar to the mass panic about Climate Change.
Yup i saw some global warming propaganda and one source said i should be afraid because it was evaporating the water and lowering the Ocean level and another said I should be afraid because the melting ice caps where making the ocean levels rise. smh
sadly people are not seeking knowledge or truth, but rather validation of what they believe to be truth
Anticipatory thanks to THG for another post. I look forward to it before I've even started watching. Cheers.
In 1973 I was a graduate teaching assistant in geology. That fall there was great excitement about the coming of Comet Kohoutek. Newspapers were filled with reports of its appearance and that it was to be absolutely spectacular to the naked eye. A huge tail was predicted that would be seen even at high noon. I reported all of this with great enthusiasm to the students. As I recall the best viewing was expected mid-winter, perhaps even over the Christmas break. When students returned... all was disappointment. It was a bust. Hardly visible at night, invisible during the day. Ever since I've taken the predictions of the media regarding science with great, great caution...
I also remember the hype around Kohoutek and the disappointment concerning its lack of visibility. Halley's return in 1986 was much the same. I had been reading about its return since I was a kid during the 1970s, and couldn't wait to see it. But it turned out--at least where I lived--there wasn't much to see.
1997 brought us Comet Hale-Bopp, and that was a redemption of sorts--you could even see it during the daytime! My mom was fascinated by it and remarked that it was truly something special. ❤
2020 had C/2020 F3 NEOWISE, that was the highlight.
I got some nice shots of Neowise when it was a pre-dawn object. After it became visible in the evening, I had the neighborhood kids lined up (with proper social distancing, of course) to view it in my telescope. For them (and a surprising number of their parents) it was the first comet they'd ever seen.
I thought I saw a comet this summer.
@@scottyj6226 Neowise was visible in July. In the northeast before dawn in the early part of the month, and in the northwest in the evening in the middle of the month. I live in an area with pretty bad light pollution, and it was naked eye, but faint here. You could see it, but you had to know exactly where to look.
Just shows how something that has happened a million times over the course of human history like a comet (or a yearly flu) can cause such panic and hysteria. We are sick silly creatures.
Hmmm Sometimes it is real and unique. The smart ones didn't go to church in 1348, but headed for the hills.
Yes fear does control people quite nicely
And here we are in 2020 and a lot of the lessons in this video could be applied to today
Great as always! Reminds me of the hype over Y2K. Have you done a video on that?
Scooby #1
Ok so human nature never changes. Legend has it the Lions in Trafalgar Square will roaor when a Virgin passes.
@@ColinPacker Oh sorry, passes the base of Nelson's Coloum, in the middle of the square. Which just to confue the issue, is the second coloumn named for Nelson. The first one is above Portsmouth harbour, alongside Fort Nelson, and is still used as a navaigation mark for vessels entering the harbour.
@@51WCDodge Do you mean when a virgin lass passes by and poots or as we say in America " rips one"?
Your tie rocks, dude!
I would not take much stock in that in words that comets are harmless. When Halley's Comet appeared in 1986 I was afflicted with baldness that continues to this very day.
It was said that a comet came when Mark Twain was born.
There has got to be some comet out there that we can blame for 2020.
This is so weird. Just over the weekend I was transcribing into midi the "Frat March" by John F. Barth. This song was composed in 1910! It's a familiar tune you may have heard in several Warner Bros. cartoons of the golden age.
My mother talked about the hysteria. She was only 5 at the time but overhearing adults caused her, 3 older sisters and playmates a lot of fear and sleepless nights.
The panic seems so much like Y2K and the Corona hysteria.
The difference being that there were genuine concerns with the last two.
@@almostfm oh well yes of course THEY where completely validated. Of course totally new and different
@@jubileeYAVEL At the time, I was working for a software company that did custom software installations for city and county government. We had 200 agencies that were using our latest and greatest products, so we knew they were OK. About 150 were running an older version that could be patched, but since they were all custom builds that meant rewriting 150 installations. And 50 were running on systems that couldn't be upgraded because of hardware limitations, so that meant starting from scratch for each of them.
I wasn't a programmer, but I was the corporate trainer. I had two years of being on the road three weeks out of each month training the agencies on the new software, and when I'd get back to the hotel each night, spend a couple of hours writing custom manuals. We busted our asses and the company basically made no money for those two years to make sure our clients didn't have a problem.
As for the Corona virus, we're looking at almost 1.2 million dead worldwide, with no really good treatment in sight. That should scare you. The only people who are never scared that something bad might happen to them are morons
I agree that the Corona thing is crap...If you need to stick a lime in it,it obviously sucks.
Fear and hysteria from our news media ? What a silly notion.
Extreme sarcasm intensifies.
Always a great way to get up on a Monday
I enjoyed this. Thank you.
Here's Thomas Hardy commenting (pessimistically as ever) on it:
I
It bends far over Yell'ham Plain,
And we, from Yell'ham Height,
Stand and regard its fiery train,
So soon to swim from sight.
II
It will return long years hence, when
As now its strange swift shine
Will fall on Yell'ham; but not then
On that sweet form of thine.
I wonder how many of the "comet parties" were serious, some certainly but how many?
You may remember that among the things that didnt happen with Y2K was that on Sep 9 1999
that is 9/9/99 something bad was supposed to happen to computers
I share the Birthday Sep 9 with a friend and we usually do somesort of mutual celebration
On 9999 We had an "end of the world birthday party" at which we facetiously told our friends that they might as well do anything they wanted since it was the end of the world, (even then we were too old for such things--sigh)
Could some sort of thing be handed down in family history and be reported as serious in later years?
I certainly think it is within the realm of possibility
I can't think of a reason why the ninth of September should've caused a problem. Anyone else heard of this one?
@@pibgorn9513 the number 9999 was apparently a stop command for some operating systems or something or other, although what connection that might have with the date wasnt clear at all
K-pg extinction event
Not that we can do anything about it again.
@@yclepe I can't think of a connection, either. One is data and one is code; unless there was some *seriously* buggy software about... :)
Remember to vote
If you believe your "choice" makes any difference, you have been misled. Even if red and blue weren't two sides of the same evil coin, the electoral college has proven with two out of our past three presidents that the popular vote is meaningless.
This insight into history as information is gold.
You are the apex of what you do
big hugz
I remember the big hype about the comet starting in 1985 and the huge let down in 86 when at best it was a fuzzy dot. For years the bywords for a big let down was "It's another Halley's Comet."
Hey, I think some people are voting for a Giant meteor for the 2020 election cycle
OldWhiteGuy 2020 vs. BigAssMeteor 2020. Tough choice, imho.
Reminds me of they hysterics over climate change.
Not including natural erosion the sea lever has risen about 2 feet since the middle ages
@@jimvanderpoel4467 The sea level rose 400 feet from 16,000 BC to 6,000 BC. That certainly wasn't caused by human activity and humans adapted to the changes just fine.
@@Oxnate I'm in agreement climate change is BS.....
There are "asteroid 2020" bumper stickers milling about. 😁
Dear history guy, you should have mentioned, that the foto of Halleys Comet was taken by Giotto. This satellite was launched by the European Space Agency. My dad worked on the ground station in Canavron, Australia.
Reminds me of all fears of 2000 and all the computers shutting down the whole world. Amazing how stupid smart people can act.
It wasn't smart people being stupid - it was a real problem with a simple cause. The reason that nothing much happened was that a lot of work was done beforehand to make sure that it didn't. We have a similar problem coming up in 2038 (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem).
@@pibgorn9513 Exactly!
That was an actual thing. Lots of programmers helped to avoid that catastrophe.
And in 2020, many think the earth is flat, nobody has ever been to the moon and donald trump isn’t a charlatan.
People scare of a comet that, as you said, we survived many times before is such a great parallel to today. It's all veiled narcissism. "This is happening while I'M alive! ME! So it MUST be huge!"
I remember seeing Halley's comet in 1986, while walking the dog and holding my baby's hand...
Isn't it interesting history repeats. Panic over things we already served hundreds of times. Y2k, global warming, now pandemic. Like the channel thanks for the insights.
Y2K was it Justified panic. It was averted through hard work by many programmers.
@@dlbstl Nope. The US Navy turned all clocks forward on there ships in California and after that were satisfied and did nothing more. Because nothing happen. It was a great time for exploiting fear.
@@dlbstl you should look up how Y2K was created
One of those is not like the others!
Comet hysteria of 1910 sure does resemble climate change hysteria today.
The Comet passes in a matter of months. Climate change is much slower going from a human perspective.
@@alainarchambault2331 That just means the hysteria can keep going and going and going. I still remember being told in school that we were all going to die in a new and sudden ice age.
@@TheDevice9 Not exactly hysteria if it's intergenerational. It's been warming since the "Little Ice Age" circa 1850. Basically since the start of the industrial revolution. We do have evidence on the ground. Melting glaciers, flooding coastal areas, severe and increasing storms, really wild, wildfires.
Humans are not adapted to follow a slow creep.
In 1985/86, I was an astronomer at an observatory which had public nights. My father was on the way there to see Halley's comet and stopped at a gas station, where he was shooting the breeze with the attendant. He said he was on the way to see Halley's comet and the attendant looked up at the sky and exclaimed, "What time does it go by?"
Funny.
I couldn't help but notice that your tie looks strikingly similar to Eddie Van Halen's guitar! Very nice and subtle tribute!