The 5 May 2000 planetary alignment
Predictions said a lineup of planets on 5 May 2000 would cause global disaster. Skeptics replied that gravity from the planets is tiny.
Doomsday forecasts for 5 May 2000 said the Sun, the Moon and the inner planets would sit together on the same side of Earth. A Herald report, as Bill Keir of the NZ Skeptics described it in 1998, quoted claims that this had happened only once in 6000 years and might do great damage to Earth.
A survivalist-equipment website quoted by Scoop in 2000 listed the predicted results: earthquakes, shifts in the Earth's crust, rising seas and winds of 500 to 2000 mph. Wikipedia records that the Nuwaubian Nation movement said the lineup would cause a "star holocaust" that pulled the planets toward the Sun.
Keir answered that gravity is a weak force and that Jupiter and Saturn sit too distant for their pull on Earth to matter even in a perfect alignment.
"5 May 2000 Nuwaubian Nation This movement claimed that the planetary lineup would cause a "star holocaust", pulling the planets toward the Sun on this day. [170]"
- Planetary Alignment Doomsday in 2000?, Bill Keir, NZ Skeptics (1998)
- Planetary Alignment - Not The End Of The World, Alastair Thompson, Scoop (2000)