The Unluckiest Year in Human History, According to Scientists

Via Readers Digest

a black dog running in a field: Silhouette of a black cat - an object of superstition of various peoples

Generally speaking, people living in 2018 are pretty fortunate when you compare modern times to the full scale of human history. Life expectancy hovers at around 72 years, and diseases like smallpox and diphtheria, which were widespread and deadly only a century ago, are preventable, curable, or altogether eradicated. But let’s journey back to a time when humans were not 7.7 billion strong, and a global catastrophe was about to warp Earth’s climate and decimate its population. It was a period so grim that scientists are calling the year it started “the worst year to be alive.”

No, we’re not talking about 1349, when the Black Death killed more than half of Europe’s population. Nor are we talking about 1918, when an influenza outbreak wiped out tens of millions. The unluckiest year to be alive, according to Science Magazine, was much further back in history: AD 536.

This year was during a period medieval historians call the Dark Ages, and it was in 536 that that name took on a literal meaning. An enormous volcanic eruption in Iceland launched massive amounts of ash into the sky. The ash would create a “mysterious fog,” blocking out the sun over several continents. And this fog would last for 18 months.

And it wasn’t just the dark skies that made this eruption so catastrophic. Because of the obscured sunlight, temperatures plummeted—China experienced below-freezing weather in midsummer—and crops failed throughout Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. People starved to death on a massive scale. And the medieval world still couldn’t catch a break. In 541, the Bubonic Plague reared its ugly head for the first time, long before its better-known outbreak in the 12th century. Historians call this outbreak the Plague of Justinian, and it wiped out an estimated 33 to 50 percent of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Modern scientists and historians have long known about this sudden bout of darkness, but the exact cause remained a mystery until recently. A Cambridge University study published in November 2018 theorized that a volcanic eruption triggered the widespread darkness. That knowledge allowed the authors of the study to come to a definitive conclusion: The year 536 was as bad as years come. “It was the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year,” Michael McCormick, a Harvard University historian who co-authored the study, told Science. You may not be able to choose what year you’re born, but you can make your own luck by avoiding these household items that could bring bad luck.

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john
john

2019 will usher in the New World Order……beware!

Iska Waran
Iska Waran

I’d go with 1968. That’s the year the band Rush was formed.

EL Cinico
EL Cinico

Dude, at least you didn’t have to put up with AM radio. Did you know Cher is still around? She should have been whacked after Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves or Halfbreed.

Iska Waran
Iska Waran

Those were her best songs until “Believe”.

22winmag - Unreconstructedsouthernerbygraceofgod
22winmag - Unreconstructedsouthernerbygraceofgod

Yes, FM was not often high powered or available in the 70s.

22winmag - Unreconstructedsouthernerbygraceofgod
22winmag - Unreconstructedsouthernerbygraceofgod

Canadian rock bands are sort of a blessing and a curse, in a cheesy sort of way.

Iska Waran
Iska Waran

I tried to buy some potato chips today from a vending machine. I accidentally used a Canadian quarter. Turns out it only took real money. Since we’re talking bands, and Admin likes the Celtic flair, I’ll drop this here….

Glock-N-Load

The new dark ages for Europe are just around the corner and gaining speed. There will be so many darkies from Sub-Saharan Africa….

Neuday
Neuday

1920, passage of the 19th amendment, has resulted in far more misery, death, disease, and failure to conceive. 100 years later, 90% of young women are completely unfuckable and male suicide is rising.

MrLiberty
MrLiberty

1913 was the income tax AND the Federal Reserve. Bitch all you want about women voting, but they would have had nothing to vote for were it not for that two-headed theft machine.

Neuday
Neuday

The Bull Moose party of 1912 was pro women’s suffrage. Had that party not split the Republican vote, Wilson would not have beaten the incumbant, Taft, therefore no Federal Reserve.

MrLiberty
MrLiberty

I fear that in a hundred years, many will look upon a year in our not so distant future as the worst year to be alive. I hope I’m wrong.

e.d. ott
e.d. ott

If a change in the Earth’s magnetic fields can re-arrange the rotational axis of the planet, 536AD will seem like a cakewalk. Polar shift theory is always interesting …

Ham Roid
Ham Roid

Remind me. Aren’t climatologists recommending that we bring on a similar fate deliberately?

yahsure
yahsure

For the U.S. it was 1972? When money could be created out of thin air with nothing backing it. If nothing else brings disaster, our debt eventually will screw us all really hard.

22winmag - Unreconstructedsouthernerbygraceofgod
22winmag - Unreconstructedsouthernerbygraceofgod

Fuck you doom porn! Let’s be positive here.

Sorry, some asshole had to say it.

robert h siddell jr
robert h siddell jr

It was Ilopango Super Volcano that created Crater Lake Caldera (El Salvador) in 536 AD which destroyed civilizations around the world. https://www.iceagenow.info/el-salvador-eruption-in-a-d-536-triggered-extreme-global-cooling/

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