Commentary
The course of human history is replete with evil deeds and natural disasters: massacres, famines, persecutions, unhinged murderers, volcanic eruptions, mass drownings, wars, floods, droughts, and all manner of mania like witch crazes, blood libels, and ethnic hatreds. No year has ever escaped being marred by some outrage or disaster. But some years have been worse than others.
Harvard historian Michael McCormick has claimed that the year 536 was the worst ever, and there is much evidence to back his claim. A massive volcanic eruption in Iceland dimmed the sun for 18 months, causing a hemispheric cooling that ruined crops and starved millions from Ireland to China. A few years later saw an outbreak of bubonic plague that killed half the population of the Byzantine Empire and ravaged Egypt and the Middle East. Some believe that this accelerated the arrival of the Dark Ages in Europe from which it took centuries to recover….