Century-old predictions can turn out eerily accurate

Flying cars, automated kitchens, plastics and hoverboards. Visions of the future sometimes turn out different from what people predicted decades ago. While they can be accurate every now and then, we can all be thankful we’re not using laserdiscs for movies nor are we driving in the folding automobile from 1939.

Last week an article by John Elfreth Watkins, Jr., published in The Ladies’ Home Journal around 1900, went viral showcasing some of the predictions people had for life in the year 2001. While some are a bit farfetched, a good portion of those are eerily accurate without any adjustments...