2020 will be etched in the collective memory and the reasons are many:huge fires, plane crashes, locust invasions, uprisings and - of course - the new coronavirus pandemic.
There are many who claim that this year is also the worst that humanity has experienced. But is it so?
In 1348 the Black Death broke out, which killed more than half the population of Europe in the 5 years the pandemic lasted.
In 1520, smallpox killed between 60% and 90% of the Native American population.
In 1919 more than 50,000,000 people died from the Spanish Flu.
In 1933 came Hitler's rise to power.
And while all of these years could rightfully claim the title of "Worst" for humanity, experts seem to be converging on another year, a little earlier:AD 536.
As Medium reports, medieval historian Michael McCormick has stated that this particular year was "the beginning of one of the worst periods one could live through, and probably the worst year of all time".
This year began with an inexplicable dense fog that spread from Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia, 24 hours a day, for almost two years.
As a consequence, global temperatures fell leading to the coldest decade for more than 2,000 years. Famine followed with crops being destroyed in Europe, Asia and Africa. And 536 was just the introduction to what was to come.
This period of cold and famine led to an economic drain on the European continent, and then the outbreak of the bubonic plague pandemic in 541, which killed 100 million people - almost half of the Byzantine Empire.
With the causes of this dark age haze remaining unknown for many years, it was only very recently that researchers led by McCormick and glaciologist Paul Majewski discovered that a volcanic eruption in Iceland in early 536 sent massive amounts of ash into almost all of the northern hemisphere, thus creating the fog that covered the world.
This explosion, very powerful, changed the climate patterns, affecting the weather and consequently the crops for the following years, with the above disastrous consequences.
All this leads us to the conclusion that 2020 may turn out to be an extremely difficult year for humanity, but it will be very useful to remember that there can always be worse things.