In a recent video, I listed 1985 and 1995 as years marking failed end-times predictions by the Watchtower organization.
I did that because the video is being translated into eleven languages, and numbers are universal. They serve as placeholders for the two decades in question. After the failure of their 1975 prediction, the Watchtower had to shift the focus to the fulfillment of the Matthew 24:34 generation beginning in 1914. They lowered the age required for someone to be considered part of that generation in order to buy themselves more time. In the *October 15, 1980 Watchtower*, page 31, they claimed that a ten-year-old in 1914 could be counted as part of the generation, making that person 80 years old in 1984.
Of course, as the end of that decade approached, another adjustment was needed. The *April 8, 1988 Awake!*, page 14, allowed Witnesses to count a baby born in 1914 as part of the generation, extending the timeline to 1994.
Then, in 1995, in their usual way of shifting the blame onto others, they published this in the *November 1, 1995 Awake!*, page 6:
Eager to see the end of this evil system, Jehovah's people have at times speculated about the time when the "great tribulation" would break out, even tying this to calculations of what is the lifetime of a generation since 1914. However, we "bring a heart of wisdom in," not by speculating about how many years or days make up a generation, but by thinking about how we "count our days" in bringing joyful praise to Jehovah. (Psalm 90:12) Rather than provide a rule for measuring time, the term "generation" as used by Jesus refers principally to contemporary people of a certain historical period, with their identifying characteristics.
The response most of us had was a head-scratching, "Huh?!"
For most of the twentieth century, it wasn't Jehovah's people who had been speculating about "how many years or days make up a generation." It was the Watchtower organization. They often quoted Psalm 90:10 that specified a life-span of 70 to 80 years.
But all the speculation of the Governing Body proved wrong. There is no prophetic 1914 generation, because 1914 is just another year with no prophetic significance at all.
If you'd like to understand what Jesus actually meant when he delivered the Olivet Discourse, I've done the research and compiled it all into my book, *Untangling Matthew 24: A Century of Watchtower Misinterpretation*, available on Amazon.