Why was the world going to end in1999?

Answer 1

People resist change, even change they perceive but that might not be actual. The year 1999 represented the end of a millennium. Some people believed that it was a dramatic hallmark of human history, not realizing that the number of a year is largely only a representational convention. (That means it means nothing)

Early on, many who work with computers assumed that the programing that had been done earlier had not included the potential for computers to recognize the passing from 1999 to 2000. They theorized that computers all over the world would crash. They called this the Y2K Bug, and it like most end of the world stories became an obsession.

Additionally, many believed that the passing from 1999 to 2000 was also the passing from the 20th to the 21st century. This however was quite wrong. A century is marked by 100 years and one does not pass to the next until that hundred is counted. For instance, the premise goes that the year 1 AD was the beginning of the first century (no one counts from zero). Year one is not over until year two begins. By extension years 2, 3, 5, 10, 20, and 100 are not over until the next year begins. Counting from 1 to 100 makes one century, therefore 101 begins the next century. The same that is true for centuries is true also for millennia; beginning at 1 count to 1000, from 1001 to 2000, the third millennium cannot begin until 2001.

Having explained all that, some believed that with the passing of a millennium, great and perhaps terrible things would happen. This is odd thinking really especially in light of the fact that no dramatic events were recorded with the passing from 1000 AD to 1001 (or even 999 to 1000 AD).

Answer 2

It is because they like to scare people about the world ending on the 21st December 2012.

Answer 3

the people were saying that because may 21 is judgement day but it didnt end so they were wrong

Answer 4

Some thought that the world was going to end on December 21, 2012, as it represented the end of the Mayan calendar. Additional details about the calendar can be found on Wikipedia.

Answer 5

yep