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Little was known of comets until the end of the sixteenth century, but people were already quite certain that a comet was the worst possible thing to be found in the sky. The stars were permanently fixed in the firmament; the planets changed direction on occasion, but were more or less predictable. The Sun and the Moon had their own paths and stuck to them. Comets were a different story altogether. A comet would suddenly appear in the night sky, hang around for a year and then just as suddenly and inexplicably disappear. Any object with such unexpected behavior must be a harbinger of evil tidings.
The appearance of Halley's comet in Jerusalem's skies during the year 66 presaged the destruction of the city four years later. On the Bayeux Tapestry commemorating the Norman invasion of England in 1066 is a graphic representation of that year’s appearance of Halley's Comet. Undoubtedly the Anglo Saxons viewed the comet's appearance as an omen of their loss of national independence. Christian Europe was panicked by the comet's appearance in 1466 and associated it with the capture of Constantinople by the Turks. For some reason, nobody seemed to realize that a comet forecasting doom for one group was invariably prophesying glad tidings for another. After all, as horrible as the fall of Constantinople was for the Christians, the Turks who saw the same comet had a very different opinion of the matter.
Before scoffing at the skygazers of the Middle Ages, first take a look at some reactions to comets during the beginning of the twentieth century, long after the comet's real nature was understood. In 1910, it was only the just-in-time arrival of the sheriff that prevented the sacrifice of a virgin by members of an Oklahoman religious cult calling themselves "The Select Followers". At the same time, people were buying anti-comet pills and gas masks against the effects of the comet's tail. (The gases of a comet are very tenuous and pose no danger to anyone's health.)