Paranoid astrologers predicted the end of the world in 1999 due to a rare grand cross planetary alignment in the sky

A closer look

Before Y2K was a computer bug, it was a terrifying astrological event. In August 1999, the sun, moon, and several planets formed a 'Grand Fixed Cross' in the sky. Combined with a murky, out-of-context prediction from Nostradamus about a 'King of Terror' arriving from the sky, fringe astrologers heavily promoted the idea that the Earth was about to be ripped apart by gravitational anomalies. Spoiler alert: the gravitational pull of the alignment did absolutely nothing, and the world embarrassingly kept spinning.