Famine, Infinite Winter, and Volcanoes: The Year That Almost Ended Civilization

The coronavirus sickness is just one of the countless tragedies, epidemics, and natural disasters that humanity has faced. However, did you know that there was a time in history known as "the worst year to be alive"? Historians estimate the year to be 536 AD. It is much worse than the year 1349, when half of Europe was wiped off by the Black Death. Compared to 1918, when the flu killed around 100 million people, the situation was worse. According to historian Michael McCormick, "it (536 AD) was the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year," science.org reports.

What then occurred in AD 536? A mysterious fog blanketed Europe, the Middle East, and portions of Asia in darkness for eighteen months, according to history.com. This caused the temperature to drop, crops to fail and people to die.

From Constantinople (now Istanbul) to China, a devastating plague devastated a populace already weakened by starvation, taking countless lives in its wake.

Scientific and archeological data point to an early 536 volcanic eruption in Iceland as the cause of the fog. 2018 saw a mention of this in the journal Antiquity.

According to a text written by the Byzantine historian Procopius, "the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during the whole year," as reported by science.org. China had a true "Dark Age" during which the summertime temperature dropped to between 1.5 and 2.5 degrees Celsius, resulting in snowfall.

McCormick claims that accounts such as Procopius' were not taken seriously until the 1990s. "It was an overnight, really significant transformation. The ancient witnesses had a valid point. He said to history.com, "They weren't acting irrationally or thinking the world was ending.

Eruptions in 540 AD and 547 AD made the situation worse, and the Northern Hemisphere required a very long time to recover.