{"id":12373,"date":"2012-01-09T14:57:33","date_gmt":"2012-01-09T18:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/?p=12373"},"modified":"2012-01-09T14:58:21","modified_gmt":"2012-01-09T18:58:21","slug":"the-end-of-the-world-december-17-1919","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/2012\/01\/the-end-of-the-world-december-17-1919\/","title":{"rendered":"The End of the World? December 17, 1919?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While perusing the Cincinnati Observatory records, I ran into this time-sensitive letter from Mrytle Riley of the Western Electric Company in Cincinnati, which seems very appropriate for this apocalyptic year.\u00a0 (If you haven\u2019t heard, according to the Mayans, the world is supposed to end in 2012.\u00a0 For more information, <a href=\"http:\/\/magazine.uc.edu\/issues\/1210\/end-of-the-world.html\">read an explanation in UC Magazine<\/a>.)\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Mrytle Riley had heard that the world was going to end on December 17, 1919 and contacted the observatory to find out if this was true.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/2012\/01\/09\/the-end-of-the-world-december-17-1919\/end-of-world_2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-12376\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12376\" src=\"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/end-of-world_2.jpg\" alt=\"Letter from Mrytle Riley\" width=\"606\" height=\"756\" srcset=\"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/end-of-world_2.jpg 606w, https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/end-of-world_2-124x155.jpg 124w, https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/end-of-world_2-152x190.jpg 152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 606px) 100vw, 606px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Although ARB\u2019s records do not hold the observatory\u2019s reply to Ms. Riley, we hope that they assured her that the planets were not set to collide, and that Ms. Riley did not take any drastic measures to prepare for the end of days.\u00a0 Ms. Riley\u2019s concerns apparently grew out of a predication by Albert Porta.\u00a0 Porta, a meteorologist from the University of Michigan predicted a weather catastrophe caused by an exceptionally large sun spot combined with the electro-magnetic pull of the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune. \u00a0As we now know, Porta and many apocalyptic predications since his have been wrong.\u00a0 In case you need any further assurance about December 21, 2012, consult <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/topics\/earth\/features\/2012.html\">NASA\u2019s FAQ\u2019s<\/a> on the prediction or if you would rather be safe than sorry, you can always follow the CDC\u2019s advice in preparing for a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bt.cdc.gov\/socialmedia\/zombies_blog.asp\">zombie apocalypse<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While perusing the Cincinnati Observatory records, I ran into this time-sensitive letter from Mrytle Riley of the Western Electric Company in Cincinnati, which seems very appropriate for this apocalyptic year.\u00a0 (If you haven\u2019t heard, according to the Mayans, the world &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/2012\/01\/the-end-of-the-world-december-17-1919\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[53,35,66],"class_list":["post-12373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arb","category-uclibraries","tag-cincinnati-history","tag-just-interesting","tag-university-archives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}