Preterism, a Christian eschatological(end times) view, interprets some or all prophecies of the Bible as events which have already happened. This school of thought interprets the Book of Daniel as referring to events that happened from the 7th century BC until the first century AD, while seeing the prophecies of Revelation as events that happened in the first century AD.
The term preterism comes from the Latin praeter, which is a prefix denoting that something is “past” or “beyond.” Adherents of preterism are known as preterists.
It appears that the Jesuit Luis de Alcasar (1554–1613) wrote the first systematic preterist exposition of prophecy—Vestigatio arcani sensus in Apocalypsi (published in 1614)—during the Counter-Reformation.
Content adapted from Wikipedia.