536 Was a Garbage Year for Mankind (So Give 2018 a Break)

In A.D. 536, Europe had a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad year.

It started when a mysterious fog swept over the continent, veiling the sun in a blue haze and casting Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia into darkness 24 hours a day, for 18 months. Falling temperatures ushered in the coldest decade of the past 2,000 years, crops failed from Ireland to China, and famine ran rampant. Those who endured the long, cold night faced even harsher times in the years to come; in A.D. 541, an outbreak of bubonic plague known as Justinian’s Plague scythed through the Mediterranean, killing up to 100 million people.

This series of events was, to put it in scientific terms, a total bummer. Michael McCormick, a medieval historian, and archaeologist, recently told Science magazine that the year 536 was “the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year.” But despite all that is known about the devastation that began then, scientists still aren’t sure exactly what caused the mystery cloud of doom to descend over Europe in the first place.

Source: 536 Was a Garbage Year for Mankind (So Give 2018 a Break)