What date events in Science Fiction have passed without fruition?

I was going to say 1984. Then I realized that we live in a repressive, dystopian society. Our speech is curtailed. We have words removed from use. Our government lies to us about everything including the war with Eurasia. We are under constant surveillance, fed contaminated foods, forced into molds that homogenize us and drugged into compliance. So. I’ll have to get back to you.

The one that comes to my Cubs fan mind is how close to the Back to the Future “headline” of the Cubs winning the world series in 2015 we came.

“On August 29th, 1997, it’s gonna feel pretty fucking real to you too.”
“Anybody not wearing 2 million sunblock is gonna have a real bad day. Get it?”

The summer of 97 was pretty warm as I recall, but not that warm!!

@Cruiser Well, the Cubs did make the 2015 postseason. That’s very close!

@Jak Yes, though I read 1984 in 1984, and it was not nearly as blatant back then. The similarities are horrifyingly accurate, and 1984 is one of the books I find most terrifying.

I can’t think of any Sci Fi futures that don’t get the dates of their predictions extremely wrong. They’re almost always extremely accelerated. With media and even published books becoming more and more like entertainment for high-school drop-outs, it’s not just the sci fi either. I only have to look right to the “Related” section on Fluther to see “Are you nervous about the theory that humans will be merged with robots in 2045? Why or why not?”. Sigh. I’m particularly annoyed by Kurzweil and his Singularity nonsense.