Over the course of 1520, around 40 percent of the entire population of Tenochtitlan was dead. The year 2020 will undoubtedly go down in history as the worst year ever — at least to those of us living in it. Why? In history’s immense tapestry of human misery, it’s not even in the top 100 worst years. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, around 200,000 Jews were told to get out on July 30, 1492. So here we have 17 years that may well have been the worst in all of human history: Halfway through his reign, the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I fell seriously ill. But still, pinpointing single years as being shining examples of badness is very difficult. The year 1918, when man’s technological advances culminated in one of the deadliest conflicts in world history. Russia stepped on their revolution before it could really gain momentum, but liberal rebels had all kinds of problems. But we can be grateful for at least one thing this Thanksgiving: It’s been worse. While the streets of Europe dissolved into violent, bloody clashes between rebels and the military, the old order stepped up, took control back, and not a whole lot got accomplished. That said, however, some years were certainly worse than others. But this hasn’t been the only worst year we have known. It really doesn't matter which year we're in. 1, the Post reported. You decide which calendar year was the most undeniably awful. The same panel of 28 historians ranked the following years ahead of … Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash. Ask medieval historian Michael McCormick what year was the worst … Concentration camps were no longer just holding centers but, instead, became the sites for mass killings, says the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. It’s not – not even close. Other bad years were simply nadirs set within a longer period of misery. Indeed, there really is no right or wrong answer, no matter what some scientists or anthropologists might say. In reality, 1939 and 1941 were the worst years in history because they involved the deaths of millions of people killed from violence, wars, and camps. And here's the thing: the first strain of Black Death hit Europe in 1347, too, but things got really, really bad with the arrival of a second strain in January 1348. And finally, 640 also gets a shout-out as the year Alexandria was conquered by Muslim invaders, who supposedly burned the texts to heat the bathhouses — and there were so many that it took six months. However, despite being one of the most devastating plagues in human history, the Justinian Plague has largely been forgotten. That ultra-hot summer gave way to an ultra-cold winter, and famine was widespread. According to medieval historian Michael McCormick, 536 AD was ‘the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year.’ Falling in the time known as the 'Dark Ages', the year 536 AD fully embraced this moniker as Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia were plunged into 24-hour darkness for 18 months. Liberal thinkers, who'd had it with the long-reigning governments, started demanding things like religious liberty and parliamentary rule. It turns out that sure, you can demand a unified nation, but what about non-Germans who were living in Germany? While it peaked in the year 542, the plague lingered for another 200 years, and not just in the densely-populated city of Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire and where as many as 5,000 people a day were perishing. On the top of my list, I would put 536 AD era. The Worst Years In History According To Experts. The third wave of the Spanish flu, a pandemic that had already killed millions, left countless children orphaned, and devastated entire towns. Is it the year with the most widespread suffering? Deaths due to respiratory failure skyrocketed, and according to the Guardian, effects were far-reaching and long-lasting. The Great Famine, as 1314 later came to be called, impacted around 30 million people across much of Europe, with areas like Britain and Scandinavian particularly hard hit, thanks to the addition of wars and revolts. Time magazine has declared 2020 the “worst year ever,” drawing a red “X” over the year on its latest cover. For most of 1783, the air over the Northern Hemisphere was filled with "a sulfuric aerosol cloud," which basically meant the world smelled like rotten eggs and breathing gave people all kinds of respiratory problems. But that's not even the whole story, because according to researchers at Rutgers (via Science Daily), the hot summer wasn't the biggest problem or the result of the volcanic eruption. That was just the main library — there was also a "daughter" library, housed at the Temple of Serapis. Constantinople lost around 90 percent of their entire population in May 1347, and the spread continued its relentless march onwards. Well, according to The Conversation, he took over in 1521 with the help of a smallpox epidemic they'd brought with them. 2016 hardly comes close. When it comes to scientists, though, they don’t bother with guesses or estimates, and have calculated the exact year it was the worst time to be alive in history; the year 536. I do not remember hearing about millions of people killed in World Wars or concentration camps in 2013 or 2014. Wikimedia Commons. Another research team traced a volcanic eruption to 539 or 540 and blamed El Salvador's now-inactive Ilopango volcano for piling onto the misery of the years that followed, particularly for the Maya, who suffered massively in the wake of the double whammy. It was his condemnation of the church's habit of making money by selling forgiveness. It was unspeakably devastating. But are you really sure? Average how many died throughout the year, and that clocks in at around 50 a day. It wasn't nice. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the disease spread fast, and those who caught it had a horrible death to look forward to: there were the buboes and skin sores, followed by vomiting, fever, and chills. Desegregation protests and the Orangeburg massacre, which left three dead and dozens wounded after a confrontation between black citizens and police. The impact kicked off a series of large-scale events that wiped out about 80 percent of life on the planet, and it started with a fireball that killed everything within 625 miles. And with a 10-year treasury yield of 0.92% to start the year, it wouldn’t take much of an increase to make this the worst year for bonds in history (-2.9% in 1994). Indeed, the plague that ravished large parts of the world between 541 and 542 led to an estimated 25-50 million deaths. Riots and revolutions kicked off in earnest, starting in Milan and Sicily. Most people are familiar with the rhyme: "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." The summer of 1919 was known as the Red Summer, because of the racially-motivated violence that swept across the US. As this happened, there were agreements to increase bombing runs, and fighting pretty much spread worldwide (via Historic UK). This is the idea that Columbus's voyage opened up an exchange between the New World and the Old (via the Journal of Economic Perspectives). Of course, the question of what actually was the worst year in all of human history is one that is constantly up for debate. Famine in Europe was so bad, it was linked to causing 1789's French Revolution. Protests and violent confrontations spread to France, where it got so bad that King Louis-Philippe fled to Britain. Then, in addition to the widespread death, there was also a massive rise in antisemitism, as a conspiracy theory started to spread. Entire Jewish communities were destroyed by rampaging, violent mobs. Riots broke out in more than 100 cities, and politics was a mess. Thanks to them, we know that the Justinian Plague not only killed millions, it also led to a massive spike in grain prices, causing huge numbers of people to go hungry. What else? There's been a ton of casualty-heavy wars, famines, and natural disasters. After all, a lot of people die — all of the time. "There have … 1347 - Black Death . He pulled through and went on to stay in power for another decade. Geophysicists from Imperial College London and Purdue University put together a simulation that suggests what would have happened next, and most scenarios include 1,000-foot-high tsunamis, seismic activity that would register as a 10+ on the Richter scale, and 600-mph winds that scattered dirt, ash, debris, and — let's be honest — the charred remains of the dinosaurs across the entire planet. By putting a massive burden on Germany, the treaty laid the groundwork for German discontent — which would ultimately lead to helping put Hitler into power. It's harder to determine than you might expect. According to a research team from the University of Nottingham and the Climate Change Institute of the University of Maine (via CNN), the very worst year in history was 536.Â. The Summer of Love refers to 1967 and the embrace of the hippie culture, says The Guardian. In 1517, he published his Ninety-Five Theses against Indulgences. All in all, then, 542 was a bad year to be alive, even if you were lucky enough to be one of the 60% who survived the plague. Slate asked historians to list some of the "worst" years in history. Here are some of the top contenders for the worst years in history. What makes for the "worst" year in history? Oops. "Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. It’s much easier to identify terrible periods for humanity, that is, times of war or centuries where not much happened at all, with people’s lives equal measures boring and terrifying. TIME declares 2020 to be the worst year in history The TIME magazine has declared 2020 to be the worst year - and we can all relate. So here we have 17 years that may well have been the worst in all of human history: The late Roman Empire under Justinian was hit by a terrible plague. Let's start with the Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919. In 1848, governments were having a real tough time of it. In doing so, he probably burned a lot of the contents. There were a few major events that made 1520 pretty terrible.Â, Let's talk about the one that happened very, very quickly first: the complete decimation of the Aztecs. But is it really the worst? It started with Australia on fire.By March, 46 million acres, an area roughly the size of Syria, had burned, destroying the habitats of more than 800 vertebrate species alone. Year 536 is known as the worst year in history! But fast-forward just a single year, and you come to the year that The Atlantic calls the worst in modern history. In Hispaniola, those diseases killed 236,000 people or about 95 percent of the population.Â. Animals starved or drowned in the floods. Some were standalone bad years – 12 months in which it all seemed to go wrong for humanity. Determining the worst year in history is pretty complicated, and it turns out that picking the "worst" is pretty subjective. According to National Geographic, the impact had the same effect more than 100 trillion tons of TNT would have, and let's put it this way: Terraton says one trillion tons is about equal to 5 billion blue whales, and according to Science, all the man-made stuff on the Earth weighs around 30 trillion tons. Stories of cannibalism were widespread by 1316, and fun fact, it's thought that it was about this time that the story of "Hansel and Gretel" came about. When considering the most stressful years in world history, 2020 ranked sixth in Bloom's survey. It was also the peak of another kind of homegrown racism: America was busy confining Japanese citizens into internment camps, a decision History calls one of the biggest violations of civil rights in the country's history. History tells us about more such horrible years. Indeed, there’s plenty of evidence to show that sometimes things can get worse – a lot, lot worse. There were a few things going on here. Also in 1919? Apart from the falling empires the world over and general political chaos, the year 536 also marked one of the worst global famines in human history. More people died, and more than that? Within the year, more than half of Iceland's livestock were dead, along with 20 percent of their population.Â. You could also argue that it set a dangerous precedent: Spain told Muslims the same thing about 100 years later (via The Guardian). Ivy League and Oxbridge university professors have said 2020 ranks only the eighth worst year in US history, behind the peak of the American Civil War in 1862, the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and the Spanish flu pandemic in 1919. By the winter of 1315, farmers were forced to eat their seed stocks to make it through the cold months, and without seeds to plant, well, it's tough to grow crops. The year 536, according to the experts, was the worst that there has ever been. 1944 As food stores emptied and prices skyrocketed, famine set in, as even basics like wheat and salt were impossible to get. Here’s a look at the ten worst years in human history. 1348 The worst year of the Black Death which to date is the deadliest pandemic in human history with up to 200 million people killed 2. The volcano unleashed an insane amount of unpleasantness into the air. In August, a similar riot kicked off in Harlem, says Baruch College.Â. This bad year's a little different, in that we don't know exactly when it happened. Then, they did more than talk. The Holocaust, in 1944, ranked second, followed by 1816, when a volcano eruption in Indonesia blocked out the sun. It gets worse: according to National Geographic, there were two volcanoes that erupted in a short time, with 536 being the first. Had either or both of those men not died that year who knows what the world would look like today. According to History, it wasn't as well-thought-out as they'd hoped. It was one of the most darkest eras of all. 2020 is now over, and many have the feeling that it was one of the worst years in history. History says that instead of helping the nation chill out, organized crime flourished on a massive scale. It really doesn’t matter which year we’re in. The worst years in human history, according to experts, include The 14th century was pretty rough, but 1348 gets a special mention. For every great triumph, there has been great disaster. 1848's heated rebellions amounted to a downright miserable year of largely pointless violence. It was probably the tale of children abandoned during the famine, who were kidnapped and destined for the dinner plate. The uber-Catholic rulers of Spain — Columbus supporters Ferdinand and Isabella — had gotten sick of non-Catholics in their country. That bit of success encouraged German workers to start their own revolts, along with Austria and Prussia. Jews, it was falsely claimed, had been poisoning wells and spreading disease. Which is true? In February, the Viet Cong launched the Tet Offensive, and just the following month, there was another brutal headline: US troops had been involved with the My Lai massacre and the mass slaughter of civilians. Then, in an ominous reminder of the real enemy, a … It started in June 1783: the eruption of Iceland's Laki volcano (of which the crater pictured is all that's left). The title of the worst year in history is easily held by the year 536 AD. ADVERTISEMENT After the results of the study were released, some commenters drew parallels between the events of 536 and the eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Tambora in 1815. Luther wasn't excommunicated for his views until 1520 — the point of no return, and the point where the Reformation kicked off in earnest. This claim has never been fully substantiated, which is probably why there are other stories of the library's destruction. Things got... confusing. Let's talk 1919. And yep, he's one of the things that made this a contender for the worst year in history. There was a ton of acid rain, too. It created a permanent break in Christianity, with ripples that are still felt today (via History Today). Let's go back to 1314, a "worst year" nominee because, according to Historic UK, that's when much of Europe was devastated by floods and famine. During the summer of '43, white workers in Detroit halted production to protest the fact that their black coworkers had received promotions, and things spiraled into riots that were met with 6,000 army troops (via the Detroit Historical Society). The height of the Black Death, 1348, when as many as 200 million people died, ranked No. What followed were layers and layers of terrible. Not done yet! Then, Hungary demanded control of Transylvania, but the Romanians who were living there weren't sure what gave them the authority to do that. According to Slate, violence spiked in large part because black soldiers who had fought for their country came home to find friends and family being targeted, falsely accused, and lynched.

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