Perhaps the first caveman (or cavewoman) who beheld a falling meteor interpreted it as a portent of doom.

Since the beginning of recorded history, people have looked at events of their time, or cast their eyes starward, and predicted the end of the world. These stories transcend cultures and beliefs.

It’s a popular topic. A Google search on the word “apocalypse” resulted in 29.9 million hits; one on “apocalyptic visions,” 909,000 hits.

According to the Bible, Noah began building his ark decades before it started raining. In Genesis, God warned Noah of his plan to destroy the world in a cataclysmic flood, except for Noah and his family and the animals to be taken aboard. Noah followed God’s instructions and built and loaded the ark as directed. Its occupants survived the flood, landed upon Mount Ararat, and began to repopulate the earth.

The Jews were not the only ones telling of the great flood. The Sumerian culture and other ancient civilizations had their versions of the event.

In more recent times, others have forecast the events surrounding the end times with predictions and in fiction. Most popular among the latter are the “Left Behind” books written by television pastor Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Their series and a companion series for teens follow the events forecast in Revelation, including the appearance of the Antichrist, the years of tribulation, and the struggle between good and evil forces as they await the second coming of Christ.

Cartoons of end-of-world predictors portray bearded, robed old men standing on corners wearing sandwich boards proclaiming earth’s demise. And 20th century American humorist James Thurber provided an amusing view of one such character in his short story, “The Day the Dam Broke.”

The town in question in Thurber’s story was downriver from a large dam. For some time, a person known as the “Get Ready Man” had been driving around town, in a truck with a large loudspeaker mounted on top, telling people to get ready for the end of the world.

As the story opens, someone reports that the dam has burst and the town is about to be flooded. In chicken-with-its-head-cut-off fashion, the residents run around aimlessly, trying to get out of the way. In the midst of the chaos, the Get Ready Man drives through the crowd, bellowing, “Get ready! The world is coming to an end! Are you ready?” Despite the confusion, the rumor was false and the dam didn’t break.

Numerous people over the years have foretold the end of the earth. Obviously, those who predicted an exact date for the end-time events in the past have been wrong.

“I feel they may have been devout people, but they were erroneous and prideful about picking a date,” said the Rev. Jared Schopper of Boudinot Baptist Church.

The Rev. Terry Stone, of First Assembly of God, agrees those who have set dates in the past erred. He cites Jesus’ prediction that “no man knows the day or the hour, not even the angels in heaven, just the father.”

Nevertheless, these beliefs have persisted over the years. Even before Christ’s birth, some people believed the world would come to an end in their time.

Apocalyptic literature was a popular genre in that era, with various accounts of the world composed. Only Revelation made it into the Christian Bible.

The biblical Book of Daniel, written about 164 B.C. and probably the work of several authors, may be considered the first real apocalypse, Norman Cohn, a fellow of the British Academy and professor emeritus at Sussex University, told the PBS documentary series “Frontline.” It was composed during the Maccabean war, when Jews revolted against Syrian occupants who had persecuted the Jews and desecrated their temple.