This day in history - 22:04:1210.4

22:04:1210.4 On this day Edmond Eratosthius II, 4th. Deacon of the Enlightened Brethren of Manchu, announced that he had looked up into the stars and seen the arrival of the Great Calamity. An event prophesied that would bring about the end of the world. He instructed his followers to give away all their worldly goods to the church and lay prostrate before the great statue of Manchu. Several thousand followers answered his call and spent seventeen days lying on the cold hard flagstones awaiting the beginning of the end. Oddly, Deacon Eratosthius disappeared at this point. 

When the date of the Great Calamity came, and passed, the crowd grew restless. They rose stiffly from their penitence and demanded to see the Deacon. After ransacking the holy apartments it was realised that the good Deacon had done a runner with the church funds and was nowhere to be found. It was noted in that year’s medical journal that the chiropractic industry had done a storming business caring for the disillusioned followers as they attempted to rebuild their lives. It is also noted in the medical journal four years later that an individual by the name of Edmond E. Deacon died from complications arising from gout and, at the time of his death, weighed over seven hundred pounds.