These past few years have been quite rough. We had to be brave enough to put up with a global pandemic and the months of lockdown it brought about, which was no easy task. However, did you know this was hardly the worst time to be alive? Historians from different ages have said that AD 536 was the worst year for humankind due to awful living conditions and mass mortality. Now, let’s find out which terrible events took place then and how they shaped history.
A mysterious fog descended upon Europe and lasted for 18 months
Put yourself in the shoes of a Byzantine Empire citizen without all the knowledge we have today about the world. Imagine you wake up one morning, eager to feel the warm sunshine on your skin, only to realize that the sun was somehow covered by a dark cloud. Wouldn’t you be terrified?
That’s how most European citizens were in the year 536. Byzantine scribes claimed that a mysterious fog darkened the sky for 18 months, making temperatures drop 34°F to 36.5°F. The situation was so hard to comprehend back then that everyone thought that the sun would never recover its light.
