Roger Boisjoly, a rocket engineer contracted by NASA, foresaw a catastrophic failure in the Challenger space shuttle due to a design flaw in its booster rockets’ elastic seals. Concerned about the impact of cold weather on these seals, Boisjoly urged his engineering company colleagues to formally advise NASA to delay the launch. Unfortunately, NASA disregarded the recommendation, leading to the Challenger’s explosion less than two minutes into its launch when the seals failed as Boisjoly had predicted.

Charles Colchester, a British clairvoyant, allegedly warned Abraham Lincoln of a threat to his life shortly before his assassination. However, Colchester’s credibility is questionable, as his connections to John Wilkes Booth raise suspicions about his true intentions. Despite gaining Mary Todd Lincoln’s trust by claiming to communicate with her deceased son, Colchester later attempted to blackmail the First Lady. While Lincoln did receive a warning from Colchester about the danger to his life, the president remained skeptical of Colchester’s “abilities” and did not act upon the caution.

George Washington’s wise counsel, particularly his caution against the pitfalls of political parties, was largely ignored. Remaining nonpartisan during his presidency, Washington warned that partisan politics could distract public councils, weaken administration, and open the door to foreign influence and corruption. Despite being expressed over 250 years ago, Washington’s concerns about the dangers of political partisanship resonate today, and it seems that people may be starting to heed his advice.

The Mesaba, sailing through the same waters as the Titanic hours before its collision with an iceberg, attempted to warn the Titanic’s crew by sending out a message to all ships in the area. Unfortunately, the Titanic’s radio operator, overwhelmed with tasks due to broken radios and high message volume, deemed the iceberg warning unimportant and failed to deliver it to the captain. In hindsight, considering the tragic outcome, one might have expected a message about a significant number of icebergs to be prioritized, but hindsight is always 20/20.

The discoverer of penicillin, the first antibiotic, Alexander Fleming, not only revolutionized medicine but also foresaw the potential for bacteria to develop resistance to antibiotics. In a lecture following his Nobel Prize for Medicine, Fleming cautioned that microbes could become “resistant” if exposed to “non-lethal quantities of the drug.” While he did not specifically predict the emergence of highly resistant superbugs like MRSA, which resist nearly all antibiotics, it is noteworthy that just one year after his warning, the first strain of penicillin-resistant bacteria surfaced in London. Despite Fleming’s insight, it appears that his colleagues and successors may not have fully heeded his warnings about antibiotic resistance.

Science fiction author Robert Heinlein demonstrated an uncanny foresight into the Cold War’s nuclear arms race. In 1941, two years before the Manhattan Project was authorized by President Roosevelt, Heinlein penned a short story titled “Solution Unsatisfactory,” envisioning the United States embroiled in a race to develop nuclear weapons. The narrative depicted the inherent dangers of a world armed with nuclear capabilities, highlighting the growing anxiety, global arms race, and the constant threat of mutual destruction.

Whether Heinlein intended to issue a warning or merely explore ideas remains unclear, but the accuracy of his story in anticipating the realities of the Cold War’s nuclear tensions is striking.

In 1962, American scientists David Bernays and Charles Sawyer, while exploring the region around Yungay, Peru, observed loose bedrock under a glacier on Mt. Huascaran. Recognizing the area’s susceptibility to earthquakes, they attempted to warn the town of a potential deadly avalanche. However, the government’s reaction was hostile; they demanded the scientists retract their warning or face imprisonment. Fleeing the country, Bernays and Sawyer were tragically vindicated years later when a massive avalanche claimed the lives of most of Yungay’s 20,000 residents.

There are claims that President George W. Bush and his administration were warned about a potential terrorist attack before 9/11 but took no preventive action. Cofer Black, then chief of the CIA’s counter-terrorism unit, reportedly issued a strong warning to the president in a July 10, 2001, meeting with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. However, the official 9/11 Commission’s report did not include details of this meeting, contributing to conspiracy theories and speculation.

Harry Markopolos, a financial analyst competing with Bernie Madoff’s investment firm, exposed the Madoff Ponzi scheme years before its public revelation. Utilizing his mathematical expertise, Markopolos scrutinized Madoff’s returns and concluded they were mathematically impossible. Despite reporting his findings to the SEC in 2001 and reaching out to journalists, he faced skepticism and lived “in fear of his life.”

Markopolos believes the SEC dismissed him due to a lack of financial expertise among its staff. The embarrassment for the SEC became evident when Madoff’s Ponzi scheme unraveled in 2008.

Brooksley Born, an activist lawyer and former chairperson of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the ’90s, foresaw the dangers of the expanding derivatives market, a significant contributor to the 2007 economic crash. When Born attempted to advocate for the regulation of derivatives and conveyed her concerns to Alan Greenspan, he dismissed her and ensured she couldn’t take independent action. Congress even passed a bill prohibiting the CFTC from regulating derivatives. While Born was later vindicated, the damage had already been done to the country by the time her warnings were acknowledged.

Allan Lichtman, a notable political historian, stood out as the sole major figure predicting Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 election. With a track record of accurately predicting the popular vote winner for the past 30 years (including forecasting Al Gore in 2000), Lichtman’s unique system relies on 13 true/false statements. If six or more of these statements are false, the incumbent party is projected to lose the presidency. Despite defying the consensus of many pollsters, Lichtman’s prediction proved accurate, leaving some in the U.S. wishing they had taken his warning more seriously.

Ferdinand Foch, a French officer who assumed command of the Allied forces in March 1918, played a crucial role in securing the final victory over the Central Powers. After four years of grueling conflict, the major European powers were eager for peace. However, when the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919, Foch, believing the terms were insufficient, declared, “This is not peace. It is an armistice for twenty years.” His prophetic warning materialized almost precisely two decades later when Germany invaded Poland, marking the beginning of World War II.

In the 19th century, British physician Joseph Lister transformed surgical practices with the development of antiseptics, known as the Antisepsis System. Amidst skepticism from his peers, including surgeon Sir James Young Simpson, Lister applied Louis Pasteur’s germ theory to surgery. Using carbolic acid, he created an antiseptic that formed a barrier against germs, reducing infection rates significantly. Initially met with doubt, Lister’s revolutionary approach gained global acceptance, even earning royal approval for its successful application in a surgical procedure on Queen Victoria.

John Snow, a pioneer in modern epidemiology, initially faced skepticism for his work during the 1854 cholera outbreak in London’s Soho district. In contrast to the prevailing miasma theory, Snow proposed that contagious diseases entered the body through the mouth, outlined in his 1849 paper. Identifying a water pump on Broad Street as the source of the cholera outbreak, Snow convinced the local council to disable it, resulting in a decline in cases. Despite this success, it took several more years for Snow’s groundbreaking theory to gain widespread acceptance.

Ignác Semmelweis, a 19th-century physician, earned the moniker “savior of mothers” for advocating handwashing among obstetrical doctors and nurses to reduce cases of puerperal fever. Despite precedents by other physicians, Semmelweis’s 1847 findings showed a drastic reduction in fatal childbed fever cases through handwashing with chlorinated lime solutions. His theory, linking doctors’ hands to the transmission of “cadaverous particles,” faced ridicule, leading to professional and personal hardships, including job loss and confinement to a mental institution. The handwashing theory gained acceptance around 1879, propelled by Louis Pasteur’s germ theory demonstrating bacteria in women with puerperal fever.

In a 1978 BBC interview, John Lydon, also known as “Johnny Rotten” from the Sex Pistols, openly criticized Jimmy Savile, alleging seedy behavior. The BBC chose not to air Lydon’s comments. Within a year of Savile’s 2011 death, numerous accusations of sexual abuse against him emerged. Lydon later revealed that the BBC not only refused to broadcast his comments about Savile but also punished him for attempting to warn the audience. He claimed to have faced a ban from BBC radio, with other excuses given to justify the decision.

In his 2013 memoir, “Coreyography,” child star Corey Feldman disclosed being sexually abused, along with fellow child star Corey Haim, by individuals in the film industry. Feldman spoke out on various platforms about the pervasive abuse at industry events. However, his allegations faced skepticism, and California’s statute of limitations prevented him from naming names.

In 2020, Feldman released the documentary “(My) Truth: The Rape of 2 Coreys,” where he named his abuser and expressed hope for exposing such individuals, drawing parallels with the impact of revelations in other industries like Harvey Weinstein’s case.

In 1980, 9-week-old Azaria Chamberlain’s tragic death during a camping trip in Australia led to her mother, Lindy Chamberlain, being wrongly convicted of murder. Lindy initially reported a dingo attack, but public sentiment shifted, resulting in her receiving a life sentence, while her husband Michael was convicted as an accessory.

Multiple inquests followed, with the first ruling a dingo attack, only to be quashed due to forensic suggestions of foul play. The second inquest erroneously identified evidence of infant blood, leading to the Chamberlains’ conviction. A royal commission in 1987 ultimately exonerated and pardoned the couple. In 2012, a coroner ruled that a dingo had indeed killed Azaria, citing evidence from subsequent dingo attacks on children. Lindy and Michael Chamberlain faced years of legal battles but were ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing.

In February 2020, film producer Harvey Weinstein was convicted of rape and a criminal sex act, facing accusations from over 90 women. The conviction followed initial charges dropped in 2015 by the New York City District Attorney under pressure from Weinstein’s lawyers. Actress Rose McGowan, among the first to accuse Weinstein, expressed shock and joy at the verdict, acknowledging concerns about potential retaliation.

Scottish explorer and physician John Rae, known for Arctic expeditions from 1846 to 1854, made a significant contribution by charting nearly 1,800 miles of coastline. Rae gained notoriety for being the first to reveal the fate of Sir John Franklin’s lost 1845 expedition through encounters with Inuit communities in 1854. The Inuit informed Rae of the crew’s starvation and suggested cannibalism. Rae found items and evidence that seemed linked to Franklin’s expedition, but upon delivering the news to England, he faced disbelief and criticism. Rae’s reports faced scrutiny and led to a smear campaign against him, impacting his recognition despite later confirmation of Franklin’s fate in 1859 by Sir Francis McClintock.

In 2012, six seismologists and another individual were sentenced to six years in prison for manslaughter, charged with failing to predict a 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy. The prosecution relied on the theory of continental drift. However, this theory, universally accepted in the 21st century, faced skepticism in 1912 when German meteorologist Alfred Wegener proposed that continents had once been a supercontinent named Pangaea before drifting apart. Wegener’s theory, called “continental displacement,” was met with ridicule and dismissed as “delirious ravings” and “Germanic pseudo­science.” Despite opposition, Wegener refined his theory, and by the late 1950s, it gained widespread acceptance.

On October 3, 1992, Sinéad O’Connor, during her Saturday Night Live performance, changed the lyrics of Bob Marley’s “War” to address sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. She tore up a photograph of Pope John Paul II as a protest against the church’s complicity in covering up child sexual abuse by priests. Despite backlash and being booed off stage at Madison Square Garden, O’Connor’s protest was vindicated years later. In 2018, Pope Francis admitted the justified outrage over the church’s failure to address sexual abuse by its leaders.

Lance Armstrong, a seven-time Tour de France winner, faced accusations of doping by his rival Greg LeMond in 2004. LeMond openly questioned Armstrong’s cleanliness, citing the lack of positive drug tests. Armstrong, consistently denying the allegations, continued to race and win two more Tour de France titles. In 2012, he was stripped of his titles and banned for life by the Union Cycliste Internationale following accusations of running a sophisticated doping program. Armstrong initially fought back but admitted the allegations were true in a 2013 interview with Oprah Winfrey, acknowledging the prevalence of doping in professional cycling.

In 2007, Cara Cunningham posted an emotional video pleading for people to “leave Britney alone” amid the singer’s struggles, facing public ridicule and even assaults. Cunningham, who found parallels with her own family situation, received mockery and parody from the media. In 2019, the #FreeBritney movement gained momentum, prompting a reconsideration of Cunningham’s plea. While some see it as vindication, Cunningham emphasizes the importance of focusing on Britney Spears’s own voice and experiences rather than personal recognition.

In 2005, Courtney Love warned young women about Harvey Weinstein, advising them not to attend private parties in his Four Seasons hotel room. Love’s statement resurfaced after Weinstein faced sexual abuse allegations, highlighting how the producer’s behavior was known within the industry, with Love’s advice taking on a serious tone in retrospect.

In 2002, forensic pathologist Bennet Omalu discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in former NFL player Mike Webster’s autopsy. Omalu’s findings, suggesting a link between football and dementia due to head trauma, were published in 2005. However, the NFL initially opposed the research, calling for its retraction. Omalu faced challenges and backlash but persisted. The NFL acknowledged the link between concussions and long-term effects in 2009. Omalu’s story is depicted in the film “Concussion,” starring Will Smith.

In 1981, Australian physician Barry Marshall challenged the prevailing belief that stress caused stomach ulcers. He theorized that bacteria were the culprits and could be treated with antibiotics. Facing skepticism, Marshall experimented on himself, drinking the bacteria from a patient and developing gastritis, proving the connection to ulcers. The discovery revolutionized ulcer treatment, replacing stress-related theories. Marshall and J. Robin Warren were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2005 for their groundbreaking work linking bacteria to ulcers. Antibiotics are now a standard treatment for stomach ulcers.

Ernest Hemingway’s friends and family believed he was paranoid in his final years, accusing the FBI of intercepting his mail and bugging his home, car, and telephone. After Hemingway’s suicide in 1961, a Freedom of Information Act request in the 1980s unveiled the FBI’s 122-page file on him. The documents confirmed the FBI’s extensive interest in Hemingway throughout his career, part of their broader surveillance on cultural figures in the ’50s and ’60s, including Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King Jr., and Truman Capote, under J. Edgar Hoover’s leadership.

In the 1990s, Major League Baseball players achieved record-breaking performances in hitting. However, the accomplishments of these players have since been tainted due to revelations about the use of steroids. The issue gained public attention when former baseball player Jose Canseco exposed widespread steroid use in his 2005 tell-all book, “Juiced,” where he admitted to using such substances. Despite facing ridicule and skepticism, Canseco’s book played a significant role in exposing the steroid era in baseball and its impact on the sport’s integrity.