Volcanoes, Famine, Endless Winter: The Year That Nearly Ended Civilisation

Mankind has endured many calamities, epidemics and natural disasters, including the coronavirus disease. But do you know there is a period in history that is called "the worst year to be alive"? According to historians, that year is 536 AD. It is worse than the year 1349, when the Black Death wiped out half of Europe. The situation was worse than 1918, when the flu killed nearly 100 million people. "It (536 AD) was the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year," says Michael McCormick, a historian, told science.org.

So what all happened in 536 AD? According to history.com, a mysterious fog engulfed Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia into darkness for 18 months. This caused the temperature to drop, crops to fail and people to die.

A deadly plague swept through the population already weakened by hunger, claiming countless lives from Constantinople (now Istanbul) to China.

Archaeological and scientific evidence say the fog was caused by a volcanic eruption in Iceland in early 536. This was also mentioned in the journal Antiquity in 2018.

"The sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during the whole year," science.org quoted Byzantine historian Procopius as writing in one of the manuscripts. It was a literal 'Dark Age', when the temperature in the summer fell to 1.5 degrees Celsius to 2.5 degrees Celsius, leading to snow in China.

Accounts like Procopius' were not taken seriously till the 1990s, according to McCormick. "It was a pretty drastic change; it happened overnight. The ancient witnesses really were onto something. They were not being hysterical or imagining the end of the world," he told history.com.

The situation worsened by eruptions in the years 540 AD and 547 AD, and it took a long time for the Northern Hemisphere to recover.

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