The Comet That Never Came and the Last Case of Smallpox

The Comet That Never Came and the Last Case of Smallpox

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Episode description

The Comet That Never Came and the Last Case of Smallpox

On 16 October 1736, London braced for apocalypse. William Whiston, a respected mathematician and former holder of Isaac Newton’s chair at Cambridge, had publicly predicted a comet strike. Churches filled, people fled, and the Archbishop of Canterbury was forced to issue calming statements. The comet never arrived. Whiston, undeterred, insisted his calculations had been sound. Meanwhile, on the same date in 1975, three-year-old Rahima Banu in Bangladesh became the last person to contract naturally occurring smallpox, marking a turning point in one of humanity’s greatest public health achievements. The episode also explores the birth of Godwin’s Law in 1989, when lawyer Mike Godwin observed that online discussions inevitably escalate to Nazi comparisons, and revisits the violent night of 16 October 1590, when Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo murdered his wife and her lover in Naples. From false prophecies to genuine triumph, the sixteenth of October reveals humanity at its most absurd, its most determined, and its most dangerous.

Chapters

  • Intro London, 1736: a city convinced it is about to be destroyed by a comet, as predicted by a credentialled mathematician.
  • William Whiston and the Comet That Wasn’t William Whiston, former Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge and protégé of Isaac Newton, predicted a comet strike for 16 October 1736. London panicked, churches filled, and the Archbishop intervened. The comet never arrived. Whiston remained convinced his calculations were sound.
  • The Last Case of Wild Smallpox On 16 October 1975, three-year-old Rahima Banu in Bangladesh contracted the last naturally occurring case of smallpox. The WHO’s global eradication campaign, launched in 1967, culminated in smallpox becoming the only human infectious disease ever fully eradicated.
  • Godwin’s Law On 16 October 1989, Mike Godwin posted an observation to Usenet: the longer any online discussion continues, the higher the probability someone will compare something to Hitler or the Nazis. Godwin’s Law became a defining feature of internet culture.
  • Prince Gesualdo and the Very Bad Evening On 16 October 1590, Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, murdered his wife Maria d’Avalos and her lover Fabrizio Carafa after discovering their affair. He faced no punishment under the aristocratic codes of the time and went on to compose some of the era’s most emotionally complex sacred music.
  • Outro The sixteenth of October: a comet that never came, a disease humanity stopped, an internet law proved correct daily, and a murderous musical genius.

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