In 1960, Scientists Put an Exact Date on Doomsday: Friday, November 13, 2026

In 1960, a short paper in the journal Science named an exact date for the end of the world’s population growth: Friday, 13 November 2026. The paper, titled “Doomsday: Friday, 13 November, A.D. 2026,” came from Heinz von Foerster of the University of Illinois and his co-authors P. M. Mora and L. W. Amiot. It appeared in Science volume 132, issue 3436, pages 1291 to 1295. The date is less than a month away, and Science revisited the paper in a retrospective on 8 October 2026.

How they got the date

The authors fit a formula to historical world population data. Their formula put the 1960 population at 2.7 billion. The data showed growth faster than exponential, which means the doubling time kept shrinking. The authors extended that trend until the doubling time reached zero, and the formula gave an infinite population on 13 November 2026.

A projection, not a prophecy

The date describes where a curve led, not a physical limit. Critics at the time objected that human gestation takes nine months and that biological systems rarely sustain exponential growth, and the authors replied with a clear sense of humor. The date also happens to fall on von Foerster’s birthday, since he was born on 13 November 1911 in Vienna. Population growth later slowed as fertility fell, and the world has about 8 billion people today, far from infinity.

Sources: von Foerster, Mora and Amiot, “Doomsday: Friday, 13 November, A.D. 2026,” Science 132 (3436), 4 November 1960, DOI 10.1126/science.132.3436.1291; Science news retrospective, 8 October 2026.