International tourist arrivals fell by one billion, or 74 percent, in 2020, according to the UNWTO, which called it "the worst year in tourism history." It was probably the tale of children abandoned during the famine, who were kidnapped and destined for the dinner plate. Some were standalone bad years – 12 months in which it all seemed to go wrong for humanity. Human history has had plenty of ups and downs. 2020 Worst Year in History for Air Travel Demand. The uber-Catholic rulers of Spain â Columbus supporters Ferdinand and Isabella â had gotten sick of non-Catholics in their country. More people died, and more than that? Unrest had been boiling for a long time â the 1840s saw Europe drop into an economic crisis that, according to The New York Times, hit the rural and urban poor the hardest. History says that instead of helping the nation chill out, organized crime flourished on a massive scale. Hereâs a look at the ten worst years in human history. 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. The Summer of Love refers to 1967 and the embrace of the hippie culture, says The Guardian. There were a few things going on here. 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. While Europeans got awesome things like potatoes, corn, tomatoes, and chili peppers, the New World got a heck of a lot of diseases they had no immunity to. The volcano unleashed an insane amount of unpleasantness into the air. Think 2020 is a bad year to be alive? How's that for perspective? And yep, he's one of the things that made this a contender for the worst year in history. You decide which calendar year was the most undeniably awful. Then, Hungary demanded control of Transylvania, but the Romanians who were living there weren't sure what gave them the authority to do that. In Hispaniola, those diseases killed 236,000 people or about 95 percent of the population.Â. Indeed, there really is no right or wrong answer, no matter what some scientists or anthropologists might say. Slate asked historians to list some of the "worst" years in history. 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. 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. But is it really the worst? 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. The worst year in history. It created a permanent break in Christianity, with ripples that are still felt today (via History Today). The years that saw terrible turning points for the world? They weren't going to stand for it anymore.Â. There were many dark eras in human history were people suffered a lot due to climate, virus and own stupidity. 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. Had either or both of those men not died that year who knows what the world would look like today. 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. The Holocaust, in 1944, ranked second, followed by 1816, when a volcano eruption in Indonesia blocked out the sun. Or something else? Then, in an ominous reminder of the real enemy, a ⦠The worst year in world history wasnât even a close contest. Not done yet! The summer of 1919 was known as the Red Summer, because of the racially-motivated violence that swept across the US. As food stores emptied and prices skyrocketed, famine set in, as even basics like wheat and salt were impossible to get. In 1517, he published his Ninety-Five Theses against Indulgences. Then, they did more than talk. The consequences of Christopher Columbus stumbling on the New World are enough to fill a library, so let's talk about the immediate effects: namely, the Columbian Exchange. Is it the year with the most widespread suffering? In 1848, governments were having a real tough time of it. But fast-forward just a single year, and you come to the year that The Atlantic calls the worst in modern history. According to History, it wasn't as well-thought-out as they'd hoped. When it comes to scientists, though, they donât bother with guesses or estimates, and have calculated the exact year it was the worst time to be alive in history; the year 536. Then, in addition to the widespread death, there was also a massive rise in antisemitism, as a conspiracy theory started to spread. When Hernán Cortés left Cuba, it was 1519 and he was heading into Mexico to explore and â he hoped â colonize the Aztec. It was two years prior, says History, when a particularly deadly strain of bacteria emerged in Mongolia. As this happened, there were agreements to increase bombing runs, and fighting pretty much spread worldwide (via Historic UK). When considering the most stressful years in world history, 2020 ranked sixth in Bloom's survey. It started in June 1783: the eruption of Iceland's Laki volcano (of which the crater pictured is all that's left). However, despite being one of the most devastating plagues in human history, the Justinian Plague has largely been forgotten. the first strain of Black Death hit Europe in 1347, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Christopher Columbus stumbling on the New World. "Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Eyewitness accounts were terrible, with one Franciscan monk recording: "[...] as it was impossible to bury the great number of dead, they pulled down the houses over them, so that their homes became their tombs. This claim has never been fully substantiated, which is probably why there are other stories of the library's destruction. ADVERTISEMENT After the results of the study were released, some commenters drew parallels between the events of 536 and the eruption of Indonesiaâs Mount Tambora in 1815. Let's talk 1919. Liberal thinkers, who'd had it with the long-reigning governments, started demanding things like religious liberty and parliamentary rule. But we can be grateful for at least one thing this Thanksgiving: Itâs been worse. Historyâs deadliest pandemics, from ancient Rome to modern America It was 1348, the ⦠Rather, it was the unexpectedly cold winter that followed. Determining the worst year in history is pretty complicated, and it turns out that picking the "worst" is pretty subjective. Itâs not â not even close. 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 â let's be honest â the charred remains of the dinosaurs across the entire planet. 2020 worst year in history for air travel demand: IATA STAT Times Aviation Updated on February 5th, 2021 at 14:21 IST aviation aviation news Covid ⦠The worst years ever globally: 1. While Winston Churchill was becoming the figurehead of the righteous Allied advance, he was also doing something horrible in India. Time magazine has declared 2020 the âworst year ever,â drawing a red âXâ over the year on its latest cover. 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 â and there were so many that it took six months. It turns out that sure, you can demand a unified nation, but what about non-Germans who were living in Germany? It's harder to determine than you might expect. Jews, it was falsely claimed, had been poisoning wells and spreading disease. In 48 BC, he ordered the harbor and all the ships in it to be set on fire ... and that fire spread to the library. 2020 is now over, and many have the feeling that it was one of the worst years in history. The worst years in human history, according to experts, include Within the year, more than half of Iceland's livestock were dead, along with 20 percent of their population.Â. However, many of his citizens were not so lucky. What’s more, history isn’t necessarily linear, with things getting better all the time. 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. But this hasnât been the only worst year we have known. Most people are familiar with the rhyme: "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." Year 536 is known as the worst year in history! The Worst Years In History According To Experts. The title of the worst year in history is easily held by the year 536 AD. Weâre on pace for that right now as the 10-year yield has moved up to 1.30% and US bonds are down 1.6% year-to-date. Consider 1177 B.C., when many of the great civilizations of the Mediterranean Sea and Mideast collapsed , and the survivors struggled through a pre-modern Dark Ages. 1962 â year of the Cuban Missile Crisis; 2001 â American is shaken by the 9/11 terrorist attacks ; 2020 â America records more COVID-19 deaths than any country, as unemployment soars, political divides worsen and the election is supremely bitter; Here are the most stressful years in world history as ranked by historians: 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. The doomed year kicked off a devastating series of events, starting with a volcanic eruption that spewed so much ash into the air that the resulting temperature change led to mass crop failures and widespread starvation. 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. But are you really sure? According to Medievalists, the flooding was so bad that rising seas swallowed entire coastal communities, sending newly homeless people farther inland to already strained communities. The list is pretty shocking: according to Business Insider, Columbus brought things like measles, influenza, smallpox, cholera, typhus, chickenpox, scarlet fever, Lyme disease, and whooping cough along with him (and that's just a partial list). 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. In August, a similar riot kicked off in Harlem, says Baruch College.Â. By the time it was over, almost one-half of Europe's population â between 25 to 50 million people â would be dead. This means that around a quarter of the world’s population was wiped out in the space of two years. 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. It was unspeakably devastating. The closest we've been able to get is "around 66 million years ago... give or take a bit," but what happened was something catastrophic: an asteroid â traveling at around 40,000 mph â hit the Earth in what we now call the Yucatan Peninsula. 2007, 2013, or 2020⦠if we have a quick look at some news from previous years, it looks like it is perfectly okay to consider, âYes, this has to be one of the worst years in history.â. It wasn't nice. Why? No one's sure, but certainly, the year that the world lost so much literature and knowledge has got to be up there among the worst. In doing so, he probably burned a lot of the contents. 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. If someone asked you what the worst year in human history was, what would you guess? Riots and revolutions kicked off in earnest, starting in Milan and Sicily. The 14th century was pretty rough, but 1348 gets a special mention. Luther wasn't excommunicated for his views until 1520 â the point of no return, and the point where the Reformation kicked off in earnest. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, around 200,000 Jews were told to get out on July 30, 1492. We start from Ancient Greece, which could also include 1628 BC among its worst years, with the famous Minoan Eruption, on which, however, science has ⦠1, the Post reported. 1848's heated rebellions amounted to a downright miserable year of largely pointless violence. Notably, this was the first time that contemporary historians recorded a plague as it spread and took root. That all led to a collapse of the world's economic systems, and more than just a bad year or two â it wasn't until 575 that things started looking a little better.Â. Average how many died throughout the year, and that clocks in at around 50 a day. Of course, the question of what actually was the worst year in all of human history is one that is constantly up for debate. Things got... confusing. Perhaps the worst year in history was one of those during World War II, when more men killed each other than any other year. Just what happened to the library is still debated, but the first person who usually gets the blame is Julius Caesar. 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 same panel of 28 historians ranked the following years ahead of ⦠Oops. The year 1918, when manâs technological advances culminated in one of the deadliest conflicts in world history. He pulled through and went on to stay in power for another decade. Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash. Ships were stuck in ports, trade stopped, crops died in the fields, and meat spoiled as soon as it was slaughtered. 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. 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. Which is true? "There have ⦠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. Another happened in 391 AD when then-ruler Theophilus converted the Temple of Serapis into a Christian Church. Columbus wasn't the only reason 1492 was one of the worst: it was also the year of the Spanish Expulsion. Other bad years were simply nadirs set within a longer period of misery. For every great triumph, there has been great disaster. 1347 CE was pretty bad. What followed were layers and layers of terrible. But still, pinpointing single years as being shining examples of badness is very difficult. Concentration camps were no longer just holding centers but, instead, became the sites for mass killings, says the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. According to The Ohio State University, it was Ptolemy I Soter who founded the Royal Library of Alexandra in Egypt around 283 BC. Russia stepped on their revolution before it could really gain momentum, but liberal rebels had all kinds of problems. 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). 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. What else? People were still struggling in 542, and that's when the bubonic plague decided to take advantage of an already weakened world population. 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. Cortés and his 500 men landed, and what they found was a vast, powerful empire of around 16 million people. 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). 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. The fated year of 1968 ended with the election of Richard Nixon as the country was quite literally on fire. 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. 1944 Then, the long-term effects of the impact â like muddy rains, darkened skies, wildfires, and the equivalent of a nuclear winter â would have been able to really get to work. By putting a massive burden on Germany, the treaty laid the groundwork for German discontent â which would ultimately lead to helping put Hitler into power. You could also argue that it set a dangerous precedent: Spain told Muslims the same thing about 100 years later (via The Guardian). Protests and violent confrontations spread to France, where it got so bad that King Louis-Philippe fled to Britain. Or 1918, the year of the st A bad year, indeed. While food rotted in the fields, livestock had it just as bad. Animals starved or drowned in the floods. Translations: 2020 Caída Histórica de Demanda de Viajes Aéreos (pdf) 2020, la pire année de lâhistoire pour ⦠The height of the Black Death, 1348, when as many as 200 million people died, ranked No. Entire Jewish communities were destroyed by rampaging, violent mobs. It should have been a good year: World War I ended on November 11, 1918, and it was smooth sailing from there on out, right? 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. Let's start with the Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919. From the years of 1347 to 1351, the Black Death caused by plague killed off almost 200 million around the world. That's the year the Black Death seriously hit Europe. Riots broke out in more than 100 cities, and politics was a mess. It really doesn't matter which year we're in. This bad year's a little different, in that we don't know exactly when it happened. Deaths due to respiratory failure skyrocketed, and according to the Guardian, effects were far-reaching and long-lasting. On the top of my list, I would put 536 AD era. And with a 10-year treasury yield of 0.92% to start the year, it wouldnât take much of an increase to make this the worst year for bonds in history (-2.9% in 1994). In 536, a massive volcano erupted in Iceland. It was one of the most darkest eras of all. It really doesnât matter which year weâre in. That might have been the end of the story, but throw in a little warfare (and some very literal throwing of diseased corpses) and it started to spread. 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. 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. Any of the years of the Holocaust, between 1941 and 1945. Ask medieval historian Michael McCormick what year was the worst ⦠2016 hardly comes close. Have a quick glance at the news cycle and it seems like it's completely legit to think, "Well, this has to be it. That ultra-hot summer gave way to an ultra-cold winter, and famine was widespread. Every year during World War II could arguably be one of the worst years in history, but let's talk about 1943. Why 536 was âthe worst year to be aliveâ By Ann Gibbons Nov. 15, 2018 , 2:00 PM. 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. What makes for the "worst" year in history? In historyâs immense tapestry of human misery, itâs not even in the top 100 worst years. And also, I ⦠According to the BBC, his policies of exporting food from India to the warfront and to Britain resulted in large-scale famine, and the deaths of around 3 million people.Â, Back on the homefront, the US saw an outbreak of race riots. Also in 1919? 1347 - Black Death . Indeed, the plague that ravished large parts of the world between 541 and 542 led to an estimated 25-50 million deaths. There was a ton of acid rain, too. I do not remember hearing about millions of people killed in World Wars or concentration camps in 2013 or 2014. It was his condemnation of the church's habit of making money by selling forgiveness. The pandemic cost the global tourism industry $1.3 trillion in lost revenue last year, more than 11 times the loss recorded during the 2009 global financial crisis. The worst year in world history, by the way, was not even close, the panel said. History tells us about more such horrible years. Things really started going bad in the summer of 1314: that's when it rained almost constantly, and the ensuing floods ruined crops. That bit of success encouraged German workers to start their own revolts, along with Austria and Prussia. Indeed, there’s plenty of evidence to show that sometimes things can get worse – a lot, lot worse. It's the same year that the Vietnam War was at its peak, and according to the Selective Service System, 296,406 entered into military service that year (more than surrounding years, save 1966). Wikimedia Commons. We'll start with the assassinations: 1968 saw the deaths of both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. It held an estimated half a million documents from all over the known world, and it also had gardens, a zoo, and space for more than 100 scholars to live, write, and research. 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. The year 536, according to the experts, was the worst that there has ever been. This was also the same year that Prohibition was ratified, and that didn't work out for anyone. There's been a ton of casualty-heavy wars, famines, and natural disasters. After all, a lot of people die â all of the time. Well, according to The Conversation, he took over in 1521 with the help of a smallpox epidemic they'd brought with them. Constantinople lost around 90 percent of their entire population in May 1347, and the spread continued its relentless march onwards. That was just the main library â there was also a "daughter" library, housed at the Temple of Serapis. ", While that was going on in the New World, something else was going on in the Old: Martin Luther was busy breaking Christianity.Â. Congratulations, humans, you've outdone yourselves.". All we can do is put forward suggestions and back up our claims with facts and other historical evidence. The eruption lasted for a shocking eight months, and at the time, the world also experienced a surprisingly warm summer. That said, however, some years were certainly worse than others. 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. According to medieval historian Michael McCormick, 536 AD was âthe beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year.â 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. That is, they were the real low points, the worst years of famines or wars or genocide. Discussions were dominated by the US, Britain, France, and Italy, and at the end of the day, the world found itself under a contract that no one was happy with. 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. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, global tourism had its worst year ever in 2020, with international arrivals down 74% compared to 2019. Last year was the worst in history for cord-cutting, according to a new analysis out Tuesday from MoffettNathanson.The state of play: Pay-TV lost 6 million subscribing households in 2020, "with total subscriptions falling by 7.3% over the course of the year, and with penetration dropping to a level not seen in nearly thirty years. The year 2020 will undoubtedly go down in history as the worst year ever â at least to those of us living in it. You might think the worst year in history is the one with the most deaths, but that doesn't really narrow things down. Over the course of 1520, around 40 percent of the entire population of Tenochtitlan was dead. 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. Not quite. Desegregation protests and the Orangeburg massacre, which left three dead and dozens wounded after a confrontation between black citizens and police. Here are five worst years in the history of mankind. The third wave of the Spanish flu, a pandemic that had already killed millions, left countless children orphaned, and devastated entire towns. How'd colonization go? It gets worse: according to National Geographic, there were two volcanoes that erupted in a short time, with 536 being the first. Here are some of the top contenders for the worst years in history. Famine in Europe was so bad, it was linked to causing 1789's French Revolution.