The term "worst year ever" gets tossed around a lot these days mostly on the internet, and for reasons like I was disappointed in the latest Star Wars movie. But scientists and historians have argued that no year in the long history of this planet was worst than the year 536.
While, sure, there have been plenty of worthy contenders for the worst year ever throughout history, no single year has had more of a measurably bad impact for the decades
Today, we're going to explain why the year 536 was the worst year to be alive.
A FOG DESCENDED AND LASTED FOR MONTHS
While serving as a military advisor to Belisarius, one of the Byzantine Empire's most distinguished generals, Byzantine historian Procopius noticed some trouble was brewing in the air while traveling with his boss in Sicily in the year 536. He wrote of a sun that gave forth light without brightness like the moon, during this whole year.
And it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse for the beams it shed were not clear nor such as it Translated, it was all dark outside, like, all the time.
He, of course, wasn't the only one to notice the sun appeared to be in a mood during 536.
Michael the Syrian, a Byzantine scribe would later write of this period, "The sun became dark and its darkness lasted for 18 months. Each day it shone for about four hours and still, this light was only a feeble shadow. Everyone declared that the sun would never The fruits did not ripen and the wine tasted like sour grapes."
This wishy-washy sun situation cast a non-metaphorical dark cloud over the globe that darkened the sky for at least a full year in 536.
Researchers later discovered evidence of a massive volcanic eruption whose ash was likely a major contributor to the Seattle-like weather, minus all the rain, spreading ash and destruction on a global scale.
Not to mention, it made the grapes sour and the wine bad. So that's an easy strike for the year 536.
WITH DARKNESS CAME WIDESPREAD FAMINE
Basic biology teaches us that plants need the sun to aid in their growth and survival. So not having direct sunlight for at least a year did a real number on the crop output around the world and sparked a widespread famine around the globe
And it's not just that the plants wanted to catch their rays, it was just too darn chilly for crops to grow.
With the sun cloaked in an endless cloud, the temperature of the Earth dropped between 1.6 and 2.5 degrees Celsius, or 34.88 to 36.5 degrees Fahrenheit
But it also cooled temperatures for decades to come. Crop scarcities were reported far and wide around this period, including Ireland, which suffered through the horrible-sounding food depletion they called "Bread Failure".
A PLAGUE SWEPT THROUGH THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE
A dusty veil covering the sun wasn't the only bad thing in the air for these poor people just trying to live their life in the year 536.
There was also a plague or two waiting in the wings to strike on these vitamin D-deprived immune systems. Nobody was immune to this infestation.
It swept through the lower classes to the Imperial Palace. "Symptoms," as it was lovingly described began with a sore that formed on the palm and progressed until the afflicted one could not take a step.
The leg swelled. Then the buboes burst and pus came out. If this same plague were to infect the world today there would probably be a TV show called Doctor Buboes, Pus Buster, and with it a new contender for the worst year to be alive.
With the plague beginning to make the rounds in Constantinople, the city began to stink what with the piles of dead sick bodies just sort of being tossed around into the sea, only to resurface later.
There wasn't a lot of burial planning going around back then.
There was more of a "wing it" vibe around the Justinian Emperor Justinian ordering the bodies from the city.
But all that did was expose more people to the disease as healthy people were responsible for moving deceased, sickly bodies out of the cities. Things weren't all bad for Emperor Justinian though as the plague that took all of these lives and made the city a smelly nightmare would later be named the "Plague of Justinian."
So that was probably nice for him. Less so, for the estimated 50 million people that died from it, however.
SUMMER SNOW FELL IN CHINA AND MESOPOTAMIA
Around 536, the climate in China started its journey into madness, doing perfectly normal things like raining dust you could scoop into your hands. Not only should it not rain dust it certainly shouldn't be measurable by the scoopful.
The Nan Shi, a sixth-century chronicle reported a yellow ash-like substance falling from the sky. They named their freak weather hui, or dust, and said it was yellow. Whether this was volcanic ash or just some random unexplained climate reaction is not known. However, this was just the beginning of China's climate destruction.
The chronicles of the southern dynasties reported on a rare summer-winter weather event with frost in the mid-summer and snow in August.
Summer crops were destroyed. And the city of Xinzhou, along with others were thrown into a deadly famine that lasted for two years and resulted in the deaths of around 70% to 80% of the population.
VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS MADE THINGS WORSE
Researchers discovered evidence deep in the ice sheets of Iceland and Greenland that indicated a major volcanic event occurred around 536. Volcanic eruptions in Iceland in 540 and 547 thrust people into the literal Dark Ages with ash lining the skies and blocking out the shiny, hot sun thing in the sky that the people of the 6th century were starting to get used to having around.
Based on tropical volcanic ash later discovered some scholars have suggested a volcano in El Salvador went blasting off around the year 535 or 536.
Still, others pointed to a volcanic eruption in North America as a contributor to the dark skies around the world.
When combined with the two Icelandic volcano eruptions it kicked off it was adorably called the "Late Antique Little Ice Age."
This little ice age cooled off the planet for at least a decade and resulted in the death of crops and, subsequently, people. Both directly through starvation and indirectly a malnourished population was more susceptible to diseases, of which there were plenty Well, there's one thing that certainly couldn't be claimed it had a bad year - exploding Volcano.
THE FATE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
By the time the 6th century rolled around the RomanEmpire had migrated east to Constantinople. And, under the guiding hand of Emperor Justinian, the Romans sought to get back to the glory days of the empire.
Though some of Justinian's generals saw success in this cool goal-- most notable, Belisarius, who fought against several different armies including Goths, Vandals, and others-- Justinian himself couldn't mirror the success due to constant uprisings and imperial instability.
Those pesky uprisings, always getting in the way of success. To add sickness to war defeats, the Byzantine Empire would never fully recover from the disease and famine sparked by the event of 536.
The Byzantine Empire lost between 35% to 55% of its population in the year 541. Once the bubonic plague moved in it did what the plague did best-- kill depressingly high percentages of the entire population.
Historians believe the plague could have been transported by plague-infested rats hitching a ride on military trains during this attempt to bring the Roman Empire back to its peak, which backfired.
The horribleness of 536 didn't discriminate. The Moche civilization of Peru wouldn't count 536 as their banner year either.
The Moche civilization-- a once-dominant force in the region-- were known to be avid fishermen and developers of an advanced irrigation system that allowed a variety of crops to grow.
Their agricultural talents were the backbone of their economy. But the weather conditions in the 6th century caused their pocketbooks to take a deep hit. It was around this time that an unusually strong El Niño weather system caused waters to warm which decimated the fish supply.
The freak weather system also caused heavy flooding which ruined their irrigation systems and devastated their ability to grow enough food People.
A GROUP OF SCHOLARS ANALYZED THE EVIDENCE
Harvard historian Michael McCormick and a group of scholars decided to science their way out of the age-old question, what was the worst year to be alive? Initially, however, this was not the ultimate goal of McCormick and his group of 12 interdisciplinary scholars.
The group came together to study metal usage, coinage, and changes to the 7th century monetary systems.
Somewhere in this thrilling subject matter one probably began to wonder if they were living in the worst year to be alive.
Their findings included an analysis of volcanic fragments from an Icelandic volcano in ice core samples from Swiss glaciers that, yes, dated back to 536, confirming the volcanic event that thrust a good portion of the northern hemisphere into unprecedented darkness setting off a global catastrophe.
TREE RINGS REVEAL CLIMATE IMPACT
The planet left behind plenty of evidence of climate trauma that resulted in a chain of climate events that spiraled over into real human suffering.
Remember, we only get one Earth, everyone. Please Recycle.
Dendrochronologists, people who study tree rings to determine a tree's age since that's a science and not a wild guess noticed some disturbing patterns emerging when examining Icelandic trees.
The rings indicated a period when the tree's growth had slowed, suggesting a significant cool down had occurred around the middle of the sixth century.
This, combined with the newly unearthed ice core evidence discovered in 2018, helped date the time of the catastrophic event that ruined Earth, for a little bit to the year 536.
In researching for the worst year to be alive things weren't always so bleak. The research started by our friends at Harvard ended on a positive note.
While the events of 536 were the spark for some truly literal dark days in our planet's history the researchers were also able to find the moment's things starter to turn around.
When researching coinage, they noticed the reappearance of lead in the ice core samples, indicating that people were producing silver again for money.
Ah, capitalism, the life force of us all.
Experts argued the prevalence of silver meant more coins were being produced, which was a sign of a thriving economy.
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