In a heavily loaded computer system, a steady stream of high-priority processes can prevent a low-priority process from ever getting resources. Generally, one of two things will happen. Either the process will eventually be run (at 2 A.M. Sunday, when the system is finally lightly loaded), or the computer system will eventually crash and lose all unfinished low-priority processes…. Rumor has it that, when they shut down the IBM 7094 at MIT in 1973, they found a low-priority process that had been submitted in 1967 and had not yet been run.
Silbershatz and Galvin, Operating System Concepts, 5.3.3 Priority Scheduling