Actually, gravedancer, the Society forgot to close the loopholes in a number of cases. Here are several examples from one of my writeups on 1975 (available here: http://www.geocities.com/osarsif/1975.htm ) where the Society said flat-out the equivalent of "the end" will come in 1975:
The October 8, 1968 Awake! was a special issue on the topic "Is It Later Than You Think?" It contained the article "What Will the 1970's Bring?", which on page 14, under the subtitle "When Do 6,000 Years End?", said: "According to reliable Bible chronology Adam and Eve were created in 4026 B.C.E." Note how this bolded statement is definite, in contrast to a similar bolded statement in the above-quoted paragraph from the October 8, 1966 Awake!. Nevertheless, the article went on to say some cautionary words: "Does this mean that the above evidence positively points to 1975 as the time for the complete end of this system of things? Since the Bible does not specifically state this, no man can say. However, of this we can be sure: The 1970's will certainly see the most critical times mankind has yet known." What message is the reader expected to get from these contradictory statements? Let the reader use discernment.
The May 1, 1968 Watchtower was quite definite about when Adam and Eve were created. Under the subtitle "The Seventh Day" (p. 271) the study question for paragraph 4 asked, "When were Adam and Eve created?" Paragraphs 4 through 6 answered and said:
... Thus, Adam's naming of the animals and his realizing that he needed a counterpart would have occupied only a brief time after his creation. Since it was also Jehovah's purpose for man to multiply and fill the earth, it is logical that he would create Eve soon after Adam, perhaps just a few weeks or months later in the same year, 4026 B.C.E. After her creation, God's rest day, the seventh period, immediately followed.The 1969 edition of Aid to Bible Understanding (the equivalent of the Insight volumes) indicated that Adam and Eve were created in the same year. On page 333, under the subject "Chronology," it said that the time from Adam's creation to the birth of Seth was 130 years, and on page 538, under the subject "Eve," it said that at the age of 130 Eve gave birth to Seth.Therefore, God's seventh day and the time man has been on earth apparently run parallel. To calculate where man is in the stream of time relative to God's seventh day of 7,000 years, we need to determine how long a time has elapsed from the year of Adam and Eve's creation in 4026 B.C.E.
The seventh day of the Jewish week, the sabbath, would well picture the final 1,000-year reign of God's kingdom under Christ when mankind would be uplifted from 6,000 years of sin and death. (Rev. 20:6) Hence, when Christians note from God's timetable the approaching end of 6,000 years of human history, it fills them with anticipation. Particularly is this true because the great sign of the "last days" has been in the course of fulfillment since the beginning of the "time of the end" in 1914.
The 1969 booklet The Approaching Peace of a Thousand Years was also definite about 1975. On pages 25-26 it said:
More recently earnest researchers of the Holy Bible have made a recheck of its chronology. According to their calculations the six millenniums of mankind's life on earth would end in the mid-seventies. Thus the seventh millennium from man's creation by Jehovah God would begin within less than ten years...Note the language: for Jesus to be Lord of the sabbath, his Millennial reign would have to be (not "it might be") the seventh in a series. This is a definite statement.In order for the Lord Jesus Christ to be "Lord even of the sabbath day," his thousand-year reign would have to be the seventh in a series of thousand-year periods or millenniums.
AlanF