If Nostradamus' predictions for 2019 are true, we're in for a terrible year.

All the way back in the 1500s, there lived a French dude named Michel de Nostredame, or Nostradamus as he’s better known. Chances are you’ve heard of him.

Nostradamus was a bit of a gloomy chap, but the doctor-turned-astrologer-and-seer soon gained quite the reputation for his clairvoyant abilities, and even had royal support in the form of Catherine de’ Medici who was married to King Henry II.

But he didn’t just write any old horoscopes. In 1555, Nostradamus wrote a book called Les Prophéties which contained 942 rather morbid predictions for the future, written in four-lined poems, or quatrains.

Nearly 500 years later, people are still obsessed with the predictions, claiming they foreshadowed historical events like the rise of Hitler, the atomic bomb and even the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

But we’ve got some bad news. If his predictions for 2019 are correct, than it’s going to be an awful year. Sorry.

Here’s what he wrote:

What are Nostradamus’ predictions for 2019?

As with anything astrological, everything’s open to interpretation. Nostradamus didn’t specify his quatrains to a specific point in time (they never do), so be sure to take these ‘predictions’ with a [very generous] pinch of salt.

World War Three and the assassination of Donald Trump.

According to the Express, we could be on the brink of WWIII.

Before you panic too much, people have been anticipating this since 2002, but it’s yet to happen.

In one quatrain, the seer writes there will be “seven and fifty [57] peaceful years” between WWII and WWIII, but judging by this time line, WWIII should have started in 2002, not 17 years later in 2019. A man named David S. Montaigne even wrote a book titled Nostradamus: World War III 2002, but alas, the title seems a bit redundant now…

Speaking to the Express, psychic Craig Hamilton-Parker interpreted Nostradamus’ words to mean there could be an assassination attempt made on President Donald Trump’s life, but only after he wins the next US presidential election which is slated for November 3, 2020.

“I feel Trump will have a second term but Nostradamus’s predicted an assassination attempt will be in the second term,” he said.

For the sake of US politics and Donald Trump’s life, let’s hope that Hamilton-Parker has interpreted it wrong on both counts.

The arrival of the Antichrist.

Sorry, but it gets worse.

According to another quatrain, we can expect the arrival of an Antichrist, which will offset a "27-year-long" war, with bloody consequences.

“The Antichrist very soon annihilates the three, twenty-seven years his war will last," he wrote.

“The unbelievers are dead, captive, exiled; with blood, human bodies, water and red hail covering the earth.”

This sort of sounds like the current plot of Game of Thrones?!

A great flood.

In another prophecy, which seems to mirror the biblical story of Noah and the Flood, Nostradamus theorised that a "great sudden flood" will eventually drown the world.

This is what he wrote:

At the place where HIERON has his ship built,

There will be such a great sudden flood,

That one will not have a place nor land to fall upon,

The waters mount to the Olympic Fesulan.

Putting a scientific spin on things, perhaps he was making a reference to global warming and rising sea levels. While not a 'great sudden flood' per say, climate change is already threatening to drown nations in the Pacific like the Carteret and Cook Islands, and Tuvalu, a Polynesian island located between Hawaii and Australia.

Food for thought.

What predictions has Nostradamus (possibly) gotten right?

So why is it that the writings of a seer from the 16th century still hold any relevance today? According to some Nostradamus supporters, many of his predictions have already come true.

The rise of Hitler.

In one of his most famous quatrains, Nostradamus writes: "From the depths of the West of Europe, a young child will be born of poor people, he who by his tongue will seduce a great troop, his fame will increase towards the realm of the East".

There are a few similarities. While Hitler's parents were considered 'middle-class,' his mother Klara grew up in a peasant family. Hitler was a notoriously enigmatic speaker and he gradually expanded his control of Nazi Germany into Eastern Europe, including Soviet Russia, Poland and Ukraine.

The Great Fire of London.

Potentially referencing the Great Fire of London in 1666, there are some loose similarities which could link this quatrain to the bakery fire which caused one of history's most devastating blazes.

Here's what he wrote:

The blood of the just will commit a fault at London,

Burnt through lightning of twenty threes the six:

The ancient lady will fall from her high place,

Several of the same sect will be killed

And here's how it's been interpreted:

The phrase "twenty threes the six" could be calculated as 20 x 3 + 6, which would total 66 - as in the year of the fire. Some people also say the "ancient lady" referenced in the quatrain is symbolic of London itself, with the line "several of the same sect will be killed," symbolic of the hundreds, or thousands of Londoners killed in the event (not all deaths were recorded so the actual number of fatalities is unknown).

The creation of the atomic bomb.

When the US dropped the nuclear bomb on the Japanese people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, mass fatalities and decades of suffering ensued.

While the immediate blast killed an estimated 129,000 to 240,000 people, the radiation poisoning and increased rates of leukaemia, thyroid, lung and breast cancer, as well as other conditions like anaemia, cataracts and birth complications, continued to impact thousands.

Potentially foreseeing the bomb, Nostradamus wrote:

The heavenly dart with stretch its course

Death in the speaking: a great achievement

The proud nation brought low by the stone in the tree

Rumours of a monstrous human, bring purge, then expiation.

The "heavenly dart" can be seen as a reference to the bomb, while the phrase "death in the speaking: a great achievement" possibly touches on the fact that while the atomic bomb was catastrophic, it was also considered to be a great scientific and technological breakthrough.

Furthermore, the destruction from the bomb effectively bought WWII to an end, which aligns with the line "bring purge, then expiation". But some historians also credit the bomb for igniting the Cold War, so make of that what you will.

Back in October 2015, the world was set to end and the Mamamia Out Loud team had a few confessions. Here's what they said.

If all this talk of impending doom and the coming of the Antichrist has got you down, consider this.

Writing for the ABC in 1999, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki said there's one "common factor" that links all Nostradamus supporters and he's got a point.

"They're very good at predicting an event after it has happened.

"Not one single person was able to reinterpret the vague quatrains of M. Nostradamus to tell us that Princess Diana would die in a Paris car crash, or that France would win the World Cup. But I bet you a dollar that now that these events have already happened, people will see them clearly in the writings of Nostradamus."

Now go and cuddle a teddy bear or watch a Taylor Swift music video, you've earned it.

What do you think of these Nostradamus predictions? Tell us in a comment below.