Top 20 Events That Could Have Ended The World

[@WatchMojo]

Did hearing about any of these close calls leave you shook? Let us know in the comments! For more content like this, kzbin.info/www/bejne/pWnQenScoc5spZI We're excited to announce that The WatchMojo Game (wmojo.com/game) is here and available now on Amazon! Canada and UK now in stock! wmojo.com/game_canada wmojo.com/game_uk US: wmojo.com/game UK: wmojo.com/game_uk Canada: wmojo.com/game_canada

[@michaelcaywood6070]

If Trump becomes President again, The World 🌎 will end.

[@BrendanAlborino]

The Permian-Triassic Mass Extinction 🥶

[@stormshadowproductions1660]

Please do top 10 times My Little Pony Friendship is Magic & Equestria Girls tackled serious

[@manueltapia1859]

The Toba explosion of a volcano in actual Sumatra was around 2800 km3 of lethal smoke and when ended only were around 7000 humans in all the planet earth we almost went extint!!!

[@dominictrujillo3323]

Yes 😮

[@folarinosibodu]

22:13 "Essentially, nuclear war was prevented by one man with the steely nerves of a god." Most impactful sentence in Watchmojo history.

[@everlenaoliver6912]

Applause on that.👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

[@MateoMans]

Imagine if it was you in that situation

[@cobenlnah1884]

​@@MateoMans If he's right, he's a hero. If he's wrong, USSR would probably have take his life. What a gamble !

[@musicsavedme]

Lord knows I couldn't handle a situation like that lol

[@ArkaeaFCL3]

The apocalypse isn't now. The apocalypse is always. There's always a threat to our lives on this planet. It's amazing we've made it this far and we shouldn't take each day for granted.

[@bucketboysx3129]

Preach!

[@CajunDragonborn]

That was heavy af

[@limitlesspursuit]

It’s now and forever. As soon as we make the planet uninhabitable we will die out and the earth will clear the partition and restart. Just like DR stone!

[@agentsmith2378]

Real talk sir.

[@gloria88246]

Well said, really! 💯

[@ten-thousandbees8453]

Why did this show up after I had a realistic dream about the Moon slamming into earth? 😨

[@eyemunchained8968]

Ah you mean Aliens finally deciding to drive the hollow moon into the earth 🌎

[@ifthakharalimahin5074]

Naahh fr bro, I just woke up from a world ending dream as well!🤐

[@pigggerglue7499]

I actually love this for you guys I wish I could have a scary world ending dream and wake up to this list. So I can become one with my anxiety lol

[@TroysSweetCornhole]

Like that terrible movie Moonfall?

[@cainyboi5268]

@@eyemunchained8968 bro the flip you talking about moons an alien guard tower base no way they would crash their own base into our prison planet waste of a good base

[@birgerjohansson8010]

This list ignores an additional detail of the Cuba Chrisis. A Soviet submarine with nuclear torpedos was cut off from communications and the captain believed war had started. As the batteries were empty it would have to return to the surface, near US warships. The two ranking officers voted to use the nuclear torpedos. A third senior officer was on board by coincidence. He voted no. As the decision had to be unanomious a nuclear war was averted- by chance. 😱

[@ChicagoIrishman]

Never knew that. Thanks!

[@chillbest14]

Wow

[@fernrob2006]

It's scary how many times we have come close to nuclear war

[@paulohagan3309]

Though perhaps it's somewhat reassuring how often people have kept cool heads - including infamous boozer Yeltsin in the Norwegian rocket incident, fortunately?

[@adamspencer246]

So basically Earth is that one kid, who causes problems but somehow always gets away no accountability

[@pablogrijalva1581]

Well bare in mind that the last true Cataclysmic event was 66 M years ago. If another one like it hits us a 1000 years from now, in stellar terms 66M + 1000 years is the equivalent of a couple of seconds between impacts.

[@kleine.5438]

Very helpful info thanks, hope you eventually make a part 2 cuz I'm pretty sure there are other events that happened please and thank you

[@jamesparker1127]

20:52 Such a scary time among many... Thank you Mr. Kennedy. You are one of the reasons we're alive today.

[@pablogrijalva1581]

Yeah and look at what he got for his efforts!

[@danielshubow1273]

The Tunguska event (meteor almost impacted with Siberia but exploded flattening an entire forest) Chelyabinsk meteor in 2013 as well.

[@julianaylor4351]

The worst thing about Tunguska was that the locals who may have died, were not acknowledged due to racism.

[@chefbetsy9094]

The Cuban missle crisis has always freaked me out as I don't believe there aren't ones their still!

[@supertuber120]

18:58 "Atomic Radiation", "No Cause For Alarm". The contradiction in those 2 statements just cracks me up.

[@persona2grata]

One of the tragic ironies of the bubonic plague was that at the time cats were considered animals of ill luck or connected with the devil, so when the plague started picking up speed people killed a huge number of cats out of superstition or fear. Given that the main infection vector was fleas on rats and that cats are extremely efficient rat killers, people unknowingly increased the severity of the plague by killing the cats.

[@oddguy4419]

So many times we've almost got screwed

[@jasontoddman7265]

Putin: Hold my beer.

[@annachronistic]

The Spanish flu killed my Great Grandmother and destroyed the lungs of my Great Grandfather. He died a few years later, my Grandma became an orphan.

[@bababanana2862]

In regards to #1, while comet Hyakutake came 13 times closer to earth than Hale-Bopp (1995), Hyakutake was 1.5 miles across at the most, while Hale-Bopp was 37 miles. To put it in perspective, the meteor that killed the dinosaurs was 6 miles across. You could have done so much better on this list. Edit: mixed up miles and kilometers, not 12 miles. It only makes that little fun fact more terrifying, though.

[@georgem3673]

I agree that he forgot to put any details for the number one event. Seems like he forgot, or his time limit was up!

[@kidz4p509]

John Kennedy shouldn’t take full credit for resolving the Cuban Missile Crisis. Nikita Khrushchev also played things safe during the crisis, despite being pestered by Fidel Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara to help out Cuba in case of an American invasion. Vasili Arkhipov also played a key role by persuading Captain Valentin Savitsky to surface their submarine and await orders from Moscow, a persuasion that effectively averted nuclear war.

[@hanswurst6712]

Kennedy was the reason the missile crisis got so big in the first place. He was willing to start a war over those missiles. He resolved a crisis which he basicly created.

[@tb2704]

We know. They were running out of time.

[@TheWarmachine375]

0:01 I remember this scene from X-Men First Class where the first X-Men were deployed to Cuba where the American and Soviet fleets are there.

[@HeavyHardDrive]

I need a t-shirt that says "I survived the 80s"

[@MichaelPop72]

So, first off I am an epidemiologist that recently left residency at the CDC in ATL. and I was pleasantly surprised that the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic wasn’t listed here. There are many facts that aren’t known to the public and so even though it was a pandemic it in no way would have brought about an apocalyptic event. So as I stated, I was glad this wasn’t mentioned or made the list. Also, Chernobyl could have decimated Europe and “close by” countries/continents, but by no means could it have caused the “ending of the world.” It wouldn’t have made it stateside either way. Most of these episodes were possible, but others are simply “grasping straws.”

[@ernestolopez948]

Wow, the 2000s was such a peaceful decade

[@kimjong-un4954]

Century events repeats itself, like 1918-1920 pandemic (spanish flu) and 2019-2021 pandemic (COVID), world war 1 and current issues between Russia and Ukraine

[@matthewharris517]

Life is a cycle after all

[@spaceinkling]

19:39 liked how call of duty black ops 1 recreated this

[@leafsfanforever2896]

Incidentally enough, one of these events may be what is currently happening in Ukraine (under the worst case scenario)

[@Dildonion]

19 is scary imagine they restarted their research in 2019 which is the year covid started. How much of a coincidence is something before you consider it?

[@davidfortier6976]

Whatever the case, the covid pandemic didn't come anywhere close to "ending the world".

[@julianaylor4351]

Mount Tampora's eruption was part of the end of Napoleon's reign. The initial bad weather at Waterloo, meaning unseasonal rain in June, bogged down his heavier cavalry and guns, helping the lighter cavalry and guns of his enemies, to overcome him more easily.

[@benjlar1902]

i remember i was in high school when it erupted.. it was all over the news. pretty scary stuff

[@julianaylor4351]

@@benjlar1902 I'm in the UK and when that Icelandic volcano erupted a few years back, there was a yellow haze on the horizon for three days and you could smell sulphur in the air, like rotten eggs. Scary when you think that another Icelandic volcano killed loads of people and animals all over Europe, when it erupted a few centuries back.

[@SweetLilWren]

Tambora

[@julianaylor4351]

@@SweetLilWren The spell checker going insane again. 😏😁🙄

[@haven_lady675]

So....a possible world ending volcanic eruption stops a dictator wanting world domination? Oof

[@danieljonas169]

Regarding to the No. 10 spot, here in the Philippines there's also a nuclear power plant that was built in the province of Bataan known as the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant but never opened nor operated because aside from some violations like corruption, design, etc., the other factor that it was not allowed to operate is because of the tragedy that has happened in Chernobyl at Pipryat City, Ukraine. Sadly many of politicians and even some citizens here in the Philippines were insisting for the nuclear power plant to be operated and were not aware or doesn't care at all of the dangerous effect that it might inflict.

[@GeoffreyWare]

This is a great topic!

[@jarrettowens6073]

#9 I just did the math with a calculator, and it was FOUR MILLION THREE-HUNDRED TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND of those nasty bombs! Jesus, you'd have to have supernatural luck to survive that.

[@julianaylor4351]

Imagine if our recent UFO/ balloon incidents had happened, during the high of The Cold War, not something anyone would want. 😱

[@robertweltonsworldofanimat4525]

Don't take life for granted for granted, enjoy life for all it has to offer, for better or worse.

[@TheWarmachine375]

The close calls for us is assuming 2012 where the world will actually end would happen just like in the movie.

[@pablogrijalva1581]

Knowing how good of atronomers the Mayans were who knows if this is what they meant by the end of their Baktun. Maybe they just misscalculated

[@MegCazalet]

@@pablogrijalva1581 They’d have to be fortune-tellers not astronomers.

[@hanswurst6712]

@@pablogrijalva1581 Maybe the guy who made the calender just reached his pension age or just died or so, and just stop making the calender any longer. And they just never bothered hiring a new guy. :D

[@Refusition]

that beginning scene with F.J.K was mind blowing

[@pablogrijalva1581]

J.F.K you mean!

[@SweetLilWren]

F.J.K.?

[@lima1394]

I'm always having dreams of tsunamis hitting us in Liverpool... Very realistic and very frikkin scary... 😢

[@AlphaGamer1981]

So the 2 main things we have to worry about are meteor strikes and nuclear missiles. What is frustrating about this is that one of these scenarios can be prevented. The irony is that nuclear weapons in some specific circumstances could be used to prevent an asteroid strike

[@jarrettowens6073]

Don't forget computers screwing us over, especially Russian computers because they're decades old, and Kim Jong Un.

[@MasterOfViewership]

That's sci-fi

[@jarrettowens6073]

AlphaGamer1981 Nuclear weapons to destroy asteroids? That's just like what they did in the movie Armageddon. Except it was a drilling team.

[@MasterOfViewership]

@@jarrettowens6073 exactly

[@johnnymartinjohansen]

Neil Degrasse Tyson has a video about this, look him up if you're clueless. He says nukes would barely make a dent in a huge asteroid.

[@ethanbarc]

So sad and heartbreaking 💔.Rest in peace 🪦 everyone who Died in BC and A.D of all those centuries.

[@Chisszaru]

I'm surprised our little planet haven't managed to kill us all yet. We shouldn't take everything for granted. We might have everything now, but tomorrow, it might be all gone. It's better to only take what you need, and not take more than is neccessary. I somehow feel that we lost something important. I don't know what, but whatever it is, i hope we find it again.

[@Pradeeprtripathi]

All thanks to these 2 guys we didn't witness the apocalypse. James Bond & Ethan Hunt. I owe my life to them.

[@kkaser13]

Who would’ve guessed the 1918-1920 pandemic took place from 1918-1920

[@user-em6ie2be7x]

I remember #7 Thankfully all it did was effect TV Signals & some Electronics acted up.

[@358itachi]

This list is so skewed. You can not include the Chixuclub event in this list for several reasons, major of which is that Earth didn't avoid the disaster. It happened and wiped out close to 80% of all life on the planet with only and that it was not even the number one Mass Extinction Event in the history of planet. You cannot include only one extinction event and leave out the other four, especially two of the most powerful extinction events in the history of Earth.

[@sharonromero5995]

What are the others?

[@davidfortier6976]

@@sharonromero5995 One of them is referred to as "the great dying". But it isn't something that you could define as "powerful". It was probably the result of changes to the Earth's atmosphere due to a long period of intense volcanic activity. The K-T extinction (the meteor) is the only one that seems like and "event" because the others took millions of years.

[@SweetLilWren]

You start the countdown with an asteroid/meteor that was 100,000 miles away when we just have one that was only 20,000 miles away it was closer to us than the moon and they didn't see it till the last minute

[@manoftheusajones5147]

TOP 10 WORST Nuclear Meltdowns

[@davidfortier6976]

There have only ever been two, so that's a pretty short "top ten" list.

[@vanessajaneescueta4762]

the fact that the Earth keeps on surviving this close calls is just amazing.

[@robo_t]

The Earth will survive, as in the planet. There isn’t a default for Earth, the Earth that we live in now is the default for us and has been since we came to be. But it’s not as if this is the first or final form of Earth, it just happens to be the one that we live in and the one that supports us. Even if we end up scorching the planet with our own weapons or a meteor strikes with enough force to wipe all of us out, it will still be Earth

[@julianaylor4351]

The radiation that the remains of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant gives off, under its protective dome, is six times that of the radiation that is present in Jupiter's radiation belt.

[@deshawnedwards6412]

YA'LL HAVE DINE THIS LIST ALREADY!!!

[@TJB270]

14:47 cracks me up 😂. Crazy how many close calls we’ve had though

[@l3oo5874]

That quick , Recess Schools Out clip got me in my feels.

[@theywouldnthavetocensormei9231]

#1 - the time we accidentally let my mother in law eat super spicy chili.

[@theseifexperience6863]

So many near apocalyptic scenarios in my lifetime that I was completely unabated too

[@MeliesCinemagician]

It's anyone's guess if he was being serious or not, but apparently Nikola Tesla once boasted that, if he could find the right magnetic frequency, he could build a machine to crack the Earth in two.

[@SweetLilWren]

Truly it seems like Nikola Tesla was a once in a millennia thinker I wonder if our species will live long enough for there to be another like him

[@davidfortier6976]

He couldn't have done anything of the sort. The Earth has no resonant frequency because it is not of uniform composition.

[@Abison07]

​@@davidfortier6976 sounds like you're an Edison stan.

[@jasoneverett]

I love the stock footage of the dude just staring intently at 2 test tubes like that's going to tell him anything.

[@yofukkvmnan8825]

"I wonder if my dick will fit in either of these"

[@BlenderStudy]

Thank you for the update, WatchMojo..!! I heard when the scientists were getting ready to test the first atomic bomb back in 1945, they were kind of worried about a possibility of the splitting atom spreading across the globe. (e.g. burning all available oxygen molecules..) 🥶😱

[@robirvine6970]

What?

[@tb2704]

The 90’s are known as the best decade, but even they had close calls

[@busoni1]

#2 on this list is by far #1. Not even close. One person's decision going against what they were seeing prevented a nuclear war, and the absolute devastation of civilization.

[@edpadilla9402]

Top 10 Times Doomslayer Went Beast Modes (DOOM)

[@enerioffutt1881]

There is a saying (I don't know who said it), that "Mankind is, at all times 24 hours and 3 meals away from anarchy." This shows how very true that is.

[@SweetLilWren]

12:02 Workplace accident to end all workplace accidents except for they don't stop

[@superyid2010]

18:39 A typically understated British reaction to a potential nuclear catastrophe: 'This was quite alarming'.

[@braxtonhicks680]

14:36 The sun: gah damn it this hangnail, Oh, I got it off, great! Earth: ...

[@yungspades88]

Earth is basically a Tv. Each channels have different genre. Horror. Action. Funny. Political. Aliens are always flipping through channels from a distance

[@freddiemolinajr.8397]

good video

[@manueltapia1859]

Stanislav Petrov a real hero!!! And what they did?? He was discharged of his work!!

[@patrickmilner4149]

I am completely shocked Watchmojo left off the events of the Blip from this list.... Thanos committed mass genocide in 2018 and it took 5 years for The Avengers to travel through time and bring half the population back into 2023

[@Infinite-void908]

If this is a joke, well done lol.

[@Gor85]

This is extremely creepy! Really! I know about nuclear false alarm,black death,spanish fly,nuclear plant,dinosaurs.. Cuban Crisis too. And recently accidental fall of rocket from Ukraine to Russian teritory. Everybody stopped. Paused. And they were right. I'm glad they did that. I meant no 2 in the list too

[@manyjoyfulmornings]

So, if we judge according to this list, we are probably going to die as a species by meteorite...

[@srbrant5391]

And right after news about the giant poly chloride fire over Ohio.

[@jarrettowens6073]

Some numbers on this list proves the old saying, "If God doesn't wipe out mankind, mankind will eventually wipeout itself", is so terrifyingly true.

[@eyemunchained8968]

Both US and Norway should have notify Russia about their intentions to study the Aurora.

[@paulohagan3309]

Apparently a message was sent through the usual notification channels to Moscow and somehow was lost ...🤣

[@erinsaylors4665]

plagues, mass shootings, War World 3, and another civil war is gonna wipe out a lot

[@dukexsi666]

What's the name of song playing through whole video?

[@tashacooper1753]

Very bold of you to mention how Covid happened

[@randomguypostanimeupdates6703]

If the worlds end we need to be prepared and aware of it a

[@ZyderOfficial]

From the title I insta thought in the Cuban Missile Crisis

[@acouplegamerz3340]

Closest to nuclear war? US dropped 2 nukes on Japan. That’s called nuclear war.

[@liveslugreaction729]

No that's nuclear use in war, by one side, nuclear war is when both sides use nukes

[@acouplegamerz3340]

@@liveslugreaction729 look up nuclear war definition. Oxford - Nuclear War - a war in which nuclear weapons are used. Or wiki - Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. So no it doesn’t require both sides using it, just the use of any.

[@tb2704]

No other country had nukes besides the U.S. in 1945, so no lol. Those were lower yield nuclear weapons too

[@TheSILENTBOB180]

Wonder if it has one where they tried to turn all the plants into alcoholic mush

[@Thunder-acro]

I have had nightmares about nuclear catastrophe since 1984 and here is my opinion on that: f*** the creators of the nuclear bomb.

[@sean.furlong1989]

How do you respond to the arguments that without nuclear bombs there would have WW3, WW4 and maybe even WWW5?

[@Thunder-acro]

@@sean.furlong1989 I respond the same way, nukes terrify me

[@jasontoddman7265]

That first asteroid mentioned was too small to directly destroy much more than a large city or small country. Still would have been the worst natural catastrophe in history since Krakatoa in 1883 though (with attendant climatic effects) depending on where it landed. Also, the Bonilla observation being a comet is just a recent conjecture. such a comet has never been proven to have actually existed.

[@jakealter5504]

True but asteroids do have that kind of power, the chixulub impact is a perfect example of that since not only was it the second largest asteroid impact that we know about but it actually did cause a mass extinction event

[@rosemadder5547]

The resulting dust clouds etc wouldn’t effect the world as a whole? Not to mention nearby infrastructure. It one hit near me it would effect Oak Ridge Nuclear Plant and that would be catastrophic for sure…

[@jakealter5504]

@@rosemadder5547 if it hits the right spot like chixulub did it can

[@jasontoddman7265]

@@rosemadder5547 We are talking about an asteroid with less than one-millionth the mass of the Chixulub impactor, so the chances of it hitting a spot so especially dangerous are also vastly less. For another comparison, it was about the same size as some estimates make the 1908 impact over Tunguska Siberia. That one flattened hundreds of square miles of forest but few if any deaths thanks to the fortunate fact it exploded over a wilderness rather than a city. But even if it had exploded over New York City, the effects would have been confined to New York state and the surrounding states and not greatly affected, say, New England or the District of Columbia. It would be the greatest disaster in human history, yes. A world-ender, no. It probably wouldn't even end the United States as a going concern, though it would knock us down as an economic superpower and have major global effects for a considerable time. But it would be no worse than if a moderately large nuclear bomb had exploded there - which of course would be bad enough. For another comparison it was only 100 times as massive as the Chelyabinsk impactor, which exploded high in the sky and had only relative cosmetic effects on the city below.

[@paulohagan3309]

@@jasontoddman7265 'But it would be no worse than if a moderately large nuclear bomb had exploded there...' I've read speculation that could be a rather dangerous event in these times if it were mistaken for an attack -Thoughts?

[@MrHoya413]

Sheesh shout out to Kennedy

[@folarinosibodu]

Anyone else feel like #2 should have been #1?

[@gedhoughton9523]

Most of these issues started by politicians, which it’s their job to make sure THAT DOESN’T happen

[@TheWarmachine375]

Rules of Nature

[@lordalmighty7323]

What about snow Mageddon that happened February 5 and sixth of 2010?

[@mariakelly90210]

I've always thought that "coronal mass ejection" sounded vaguely pornographic.

[@lexluthor1744]

Question - why do we play around with virus’ knowing that they can break through and enter an unprepared society? Honest question… can anyone on here enlighten me?

[@Nola5427]

Because ppl are s!@pid.

[@dmolesevich]

Damn Space you Scary!

[@BrianJNelson]

So hold up, War Games was based on something that really happened?

[@davidfortier6976]

Not really. More like "vaguely inspired by".

[@MariaMartinez-researcher]

15:35. C'mon. Certainly, a planetary blackout is no joke, but it wouldn't cause the world to go back to the ""Dark Ages"" (usually mistaken for the Middle Ages, which weren't as ""dark"" as movies and memes depict). People's memories and knowledge wouldn't be erased. Printed paper would survive. Books, you know.

[@abellewis3062]

This earth life can’t end, until God says it’s over. Enough said.

[@Katalyste]

They need to check their facts on Chernobyl.... watch The Chernobyl tapes... it was mostly kept from the public until they couldn't keep the secret any more. There was no fast moving action. Horrible story.

[@vladvoicu8148]

Does anybody know what is the thing that shines on the sky(a lot) and sometimes it moves?could be a planet?This appeared on the sky(from where i live) for 1 week already

[@SweetLilWren]

I'm not sure what you're talkin about can you explain yourself a little better so I can follow you

[@mariusmitre492]

It took me a while to realize that most of watchmojo's top lists aren't new. They are just updated.

[@andrewberrocal2281]

Fun fact: the Mr.Tambora eruption is indirectly responsible for the creation of Frankenstein

[@Infinite-void908]

How?

[@andrewberrocal2281]

@@Infinite-void908 the author Mary Shelley was stuck in a house because of of many storms ravaging England at that moment in time (the result of Tambora altering the climate worldwide) it was when looking outside at the dark clouds and lightning it was then she came up with a idea. A monster born from lightning and thunder.

[@Infinite-void908]

@@andrewberrocal2281 Wow that's actually a very interesting backstory, thanks I didn't know.

[@Lanwarder]

1:32 the art of getting caught recycling old content...

[@falconlars6931]

i hate that everyone says that an astoroid that small would end humanity, for an astoroid to actually end us, it would have to be at least 1.5KM (approx. 1 mile) in diameter, not some 300 feet. That asteroid would caus major damage in a local area but not a world ending apocalyps

[@zachtwilightwindwaker596]

We survived several pandemics and are still here.

[@pablogrijalva1581]

Just like playing roulette, this species keeps pulling the trigger until someday that bullet will come out

[@AnonymousTranquility]

I felt more research should’ve been put into this video, given some of the inconsistencies in size and distance in regards to with the asteroids and comets. The Great Dying easily would’ve been number one. It occurred over 252 million years ago. A large igneous province in Siberia had expelled significant amounts of dust and debris into the atmosphere, completely dwarfing any volcano in size and scale over the course of a million years. As much as 96% of life on earth was lost as a result, and is by far the closest life on earth had come towards extinction. Even though this video is for entertainment purposes, at least have organization and consistency in these lists.

[@jbudlawrence8133]

I read a while ago about the Spanish flew and apparently it took nearly half the worlds population

[@isaacheres1354]

Why isn't Covid on this list as the number one event that could have ended the world?

[@abeldisla.5488]

We are so Lucky, How many time the Human and the Earth Civilization were in jeopardy, We are Dancing in the Edge.