Experts

"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home."
Kenneth Olsen, president and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., in 1977

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."
Marshal Ferdinand Foch, French military strategist and future WW1 commander, in 1911

"[Man will never reach the moon] regardless of all future scientific advances."
Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the Audion tube and father of radio, on Feb 25, 1967

"[Television] won't be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night."
Darryl F. Zanuck, head of 20th Century-Fox, in 1946

"We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out."
Decca records rejecting the Beatles, in 1962

"For the majority of people, the use of tobacco has a beneficial effect."
Dr. Ian G. Macdonald, Los Angeles surgeon, as quoted in Newsweek, Nov. 18, 1969

"This 'Telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."
Western Union internal memo, in 1876

"The earth is the center of the universe."
Ptolemy, the great Egyptian astronomer, in the second century

"Nothing of importance happened today."
Written by King George III of England on July 4, 1776

"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
Charles H. Duell, U.S. Commissioner of Patents, in 1899