Nostradamus enjoyed success and fame until his health began to fail in 1566. Even in prophesying his own death he was eerily correct. After a priest said to him, until tomorrow , Nostradamus is said to have replied, You will not find me alive at sunrise . He was in the process of writing the eleventh and twelfth when he died. Scholars have long pondered exactly what his quatrains mean.
Some verses seem very clear while others can be interpreted to mean many things.
Some of the historical events Nostradamus predicted were the war with Napoleon, the American Revolution, the Civil War, the rise and the fall of Hitler, events in the British monarchy such as the abdication of Edward VIII, and the assassinations of Lincoln and John and Robert Kennedy. He also predicted three reigns of terror by persons he named as antichrists . Scholars agree that the first two were Napoleon and Hitler. Who the third antichrist might be is still in doubt. What Nostradamus did prophesy was that a great war would come sometime during the last five years of the 20th century, presaged by famine, drought and a series of other natural disasters.