This new millennium thing isn't the first time some people thought the world was going to end.
History is littered with failed prophecies and false alarms.
Led by William Miller, the Millerites, a sect of more than 50,000 based mostly in Massachusetts and New York, abandon their material possessions and take to the hills, where they wait for the world to end. Miller sets the date as Oct. 22. They believe Christ returned in 1884 but chose to remain invisible. In Texas, the Branch Davidians believe they will be killed and resurrected. The Jehovah's Witnesses suffer another unfulfilled prophecy of doom.