The World Blows Up on September 21, 1945
Pasadena Minister Charles Long Said the World Would End in an Explosion on September 21, 1945
He said a ghostly hand had written '1945' on a blackboard. His followers stayed up all night reading Scripture. In the morning he blamed a 'minor error in his calculations.'
What was claimed (paraphrase)
Pasadena minister Charles Long and his followers stayed up all night, reading Scripture and waiting for the world to blow up, as Long had predicted.
— Rev. Charles Long (Pasadena, California minister) · said 1938 · due September 21, 1945
The sun came up on September 22, 1945. Long said he had made a 'minor error in his calculations.'
The fine print
The Los Angeles Times summary, not Long's words. Weird Universe says he expected an enormous explosion 'like an atomic bomb' and that in 1938 he saw a ghostly hand write '1945' on a blackboard. After the miss he moved the date to September 29, then to the fall of 1946, then to October 1947. The Times: 'If he did revise the date, no one was listening.'
Sources
- A world of end-of-the-world predictions - Los Angeles Times (March 22, 2009)accessed 2026-10-09
- Charles Long and the end of the world - Weird Universe (Alex Boese)accessed 2026-10-09