10 Pop Culture Events Nostradamus Predicted

Image via Complex Original

Sure, you've got every last one of Paul Mooney's lines memorized from Chappelle Show's "Negrodamus" skits, but would you say you're just as well acquainted with the Mooney's muse? Born in 1503, Michel de Nostredame (more commonly known as Nostradamus) was a French apothecary who became widely known for his prophecies.The noted seer's countless visions of the future were recorded in four-line stanzas and ultimately compiled into a book called Les Propheties.

While plenty believe Nostradamus was a total fraud (to be fair, his prophecies are vague as hell), he also developed a mass following of believers who are certain that the Frenchman's scribings had accurately predicted a number of historic events. He's been credited with calling out the Great Fire of London, the rise of Napoleon, World War II, and even Hurricane Katrina. So if the legendary forecaster was able to see that far into the future, he must surely have been clued into some of the biggest happenings in pop culture, no?

In honor of his birthday, we've examined some of Nostradamus' published works and pinpointed what may have been his foretelling of today's biggest entertainment stories and figures. Behold the 10 Pop Culture Events That Nostradamus Predicted.

10. Harry Potter Mania

Apparently the French apothecary and reputed prophet saw the potential in British author J.K. Rowling's scribings centuries before she was even a glimmer in her mom's eye. A chance surge of inspiration on a delayed train ride evolved before long into an international phenomenon that turned the children's author into a billionaire. While plenty of Nostraphiles speculate that the following was in reference to the rise of Hitler, we can't help but notice that The Boy Who Lived seems to fit Nostradamus' following thoughts just fine:

From the depths of the West of Europe

A young child will be born of poor people

He who by his tongue will seduce a great troop;

His fame will increase towards the realm of the East.

Too bad dude never cashed in on that Ravenclaw wisdom.

9. Jersey Shore, Mainly The Situation

Did the all-knowing one predict the arrival of Jersey Shore's The Situation before MTV's producers? While The Real World's gradual dissolution from a documentary with (some) integrity into a wannabe-celebrity hot tub party has given the sense that this was the network's inevitable direction, we aren't sure anyone could've predicted the overwhelming success of the seven GTL-loving smushers.

Well, anyone except Nostradamus. He might've been strangely on point when he proclaimed there "will soon be talk of a treacherous man, who rules a short time, quickly raised from low to high estate. He will suddenly turn disloyal and volatile. This man will govern Verona."

Disloyal? Volatile? Ruling a short time? Sounds about right to us. Yeah, the Sitch might've taken up residence in Florence, but come on—you've got to give the great foreseer a little room for error.

8. The Subway Series

Over the years, readers of Nostradamus' Les Propheties collection have continued to single out one particular quatrain that appears to refer to the fate of New York City. In it, the author reveals the following:

"Earthshaking fire from the center of the Earth

Will cause tremors around the New City.

Two great rocks will war for a long time,

Then Arethusa will redden a new river."

Numerous interpreters have declared that the Frenchman successfully predicted the events of 9-11 with this infamous four-liner, but we're thinking it might actually be a less morbid than that. Our guess? The Subway Series, the 2000 World Series in which the New York Yankees and Mets went head to head for the championship. Unfortunately for the Mets, said river would ultimately be bloodied by their rough 4-games-to-1 defeat.

7. Michael Jackson's Death

One of the most shocking moments in pop culture history occurred in June 25, 2009. That afternoon, the nation was rocked by breaking news that the King of Pop had been pronounced dead at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. It took months for the coroner to rule his untimely death a homicide (and yet another two years for his personal physician Conrad Murray to be convicted of involuntary manslaughter), but a certain French apothecary proclaimed over 500 years ago that "the great man will be struck down in the day by a thunderbolt, an evil deed foretold by the bearer of a petition. According to the prediction, another falls at night time." 

Though a great deal of Nostradamus followers believe that this was a reference to the death of JFK and his brother, Robert Kennedy, the dismal prediction is also reflective of the music icon's passing; he wasn't the only one to "fall" that day. Charlie's Angels star Farrah Fawcett, too, was mourned nationwide after she lost a long battle with cancer.

6. Occupy Wall Street

The protest of the 99% against socioeconomic inequality and the growing gap in wealth has been in the making for some time, but a few of the sage's choice lines give us a sneaking suspicion that he may have caught wind of the Zucotti Park rallies (at least pre-cleanup) way back when:

"The cities of Tours, Orleans, Blois, Angers, Reims and Nantes 

Are troubled by sudden change.

Tents will be pitched by (people) of foreign tongues;

Rivers, darts at Rennes, shaking of land and sea." 

If you happen to swap in major U.S. cities for Nostradamus' erroneous French call-outs, it's not hard to deduce the mass movement (meets sleepover) to which the seer was possibly alluding.

5. Facebook Vs. Twitter

Though Nostradamus doesn't necessarily go on to express a personal preference between the world's leading social networking destinations, he does present his thoughts on what the world can expect in "the field of Media." Per the legend's Century III compilation of predictive quatrains, "Two great armies will assemble thrice." When it comes to online oversharing, try as hard as they might to stay relevant, no other sites seem to be able to match the popularity of Twitter and Facebook. Sorry, MySpace.

4. John Cusack's Career Gets Usurped by Jeremy Piven

Per the reputed psychic's third eye, "Too late the king will repent that he did not put his adversary to death. But he will soon come to agree to far greater things which will cause all his line to die." These lines have likely been applied towards several centuries' worth of actual royalty, but they also call to mind a particular pair of estranged Hollywood friends, John Cusack and Jeremy Piven.

Long before Judd Apatow's crew came into the picture, Cusack used to be the everyman that girls swooned over, while Piven served as his faithful sidekick. That is, until Piven received an Entourage script and the entire game was flipped. From there on out, the former flunkie was A-list royalty. It was like something straight out of Freaky Friday. Unfortunately for Cusack, the "greater things" he agreed on counted Hot Tub Time Machine among them. Nostradamus strikes again!

3. Watch The Throne

Anyone who questioned whether hip hop icons Jay-Z and Kanye West's 2011 collaboration would live up to the world's sky-high expectations only need consult the list of 2012 Grammy Award nominations—or this early harbinger from Nostradamus:

"One day the two great masters will be friends, 

Their great power will be seen increased: 

The new land will be at its high peak, 

To the bloody one the number recounted."

Debuting at number one on the Billboard charts its first week of release, Watch The Throne certainly caused a bloodbath, though in SoundScan terms. 

2. Justin Bieber's Baby Mama Drama

A certain passage about a "young prince falsely accused" plunging "an army into quarrells" reminds us an awful lot of the recent media storm surrounding teen megastar Justin Bieber. We're referring to the accuasations from 20-year-old Mariah Yeater that the star is in fact the father of her 4-month-old son.

Reportedly, a backstage hookup led to the baby's conception, though the pop star denies ever having met his accuser (we probably woul,d too—Bieber could do far better). Luckily for him, his ladyfriend seems as credible as the looney birds on Maury, and the feelings of goodwill towards Selena Gomez's boo only seem to have further boosted his Christmas album's (Under The Mistletoe) sales. 

1. Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance (2012)

Of a prominent, fear-inducing figure's big comeback, Nostradamus once asserted the following:

"One who the infernal gods of Hannibal

Will cause to be reborn, terror of mankind

Never more horror nor worse of days

In the past then will come..."

We'd be lying if we didn't admit that our minds went straight to Nicolas Cage, the celebratedly bad actor who just so happens to have a new Ghost Rider flick hitting theaters in 2012. Given Cage's recent track record for frightful performances, there should be little doubt as to who the reputed psychic was spotlighting in this extra grim prophecy. If you've somehow managed to avoid seeing the Razzie Award nominee in action, this compilation of scenes from Wicker Man is a great place to start