How did Nostradamus predict the World Trade Center disaster

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Q.� Oh come on, you must have read the verse that Nostradamus wrote in 1654. It's doing the rounds everywhere on the internet:

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In the year of the new century and nine months

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From the sky will come a great King of Terror

The sky will burn at forty-five degrees.

Fire approaches the great new city

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In the City of York there will be a great collapse,

Two twin brothers torn apart by chaos

While the fortress falls the great leader will succumb

Third big war will begin when the big city is burning

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The twin brothers, obviously, are a reference to the twin towers. And 45 degrees is near the latitude of New York City, 40 degrees. Pretty convincing, isn't it

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A.� No. It's utterly bogus. For a start, it wasn't written by Nostradamus. He died in 1566 - that's 88 years before he was meant to have written it. This is just an internet spoof.

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Q.� Ah, but he forecast the coming of George W Bush as well, didn't he

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Come the millennium, month 12,

In the home of greatest power,

The village idiot will come forth

To be acclaimed the leader

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A.� No that's a fake, too. I expect you'd like to know a little truth about this greatly acclaimed sage

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Q.� I think I'd better.

A.� Michel de Notredame was born in 1503 to a family of Jews who had converted to Christianity. He studied medicine and astronomy, then in 1546 became a doctor, treating plague victims in Aix and Lyons.

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Q.� Successfully

A.� So it would seem. He spurned the idea of bleeding patients - the cure-all solution of many doctors of the day - and emphasised hygiene to stop infection. His good works, however, could not cure his first wife and two children, who both died from the plague.

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Q.� And when did he start prophesying

A.� Hew remarried at the age of 44 to a wealthy widow and had a bit more time and money on his hands - so he began to dabble in prophesy, a great interest in that era.� His apparent skill at it impressed Catherine de' Medici, wife of Henri II. He published his predictions in a series of quatrains (four-line verses), set out in 10 Centuries, each with 100 quatrains.

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Q.� And he also predicted the rise of Hitler, didn't he Or is that just another flight of fantasy

A.� In fact, he was talking about Hister, the Latin name for the lower Danube. Other interpretations of his works suggest that Prince Charles would be crowned in 1994, and that Prince William would take the throne before the age of 18. Wrong and double wrong.

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Q.� Any more

A.� Oh yes. The world didn't end in 1999.

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By Steve Cunningham

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