Nostradamus
Physician / Prognosticator
Nostradamus was a French physician and astrologer who dabbled in prophecy. His volume Centuries, a big set of vague and often cataclysmic predictions set in quatrains, made quite a sensation in his day. (Charles IX even made him court physician.) A few people continue to believe that Nostradamus really could predict events of the future, from the rise of Adolf Hitler to the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in September of 2001. In truth, there is no real proof that Nostradamus could accurately predict the future, and many of the circulating "predictions" attributed to Nostradamus were not even written by him at all.Extra credit: Nostradamus is a Latin rendering of his given name, Michel de Notredame.
Nostradamus appears with Gordon Sinclair in our loop on Legends of E-Mail.
Four Good Links
Did Nostradamus Predict the World Trade Center Tragedy?
The Urban Legends page explains the September 2001 rumors
Nostradamus Repository
Good starting point, with tons of links and tips on his most famous sayings
The Nostradamus Society of America
Plenty of Nostradamus info, though it all seems to be aimed at selling books
Encarta: Nostradamus
Basic encyclopedia version of his life, cleanly and simply told
Vital Stats
Birth
Birthplace
Death
Best Known As
The 16th-century French physician who made creepy predictions
