The racial unrest broke out in the United States after a Minneapolis police officer killed a Black man, George Floyd. The hurricane season broke a slew of records. Also, much of the Western U.S. went up in flames.
Here comes the elephant in the room, a pandemic that took the lives of a million and a half people worldwide (so far), and over 300,000 in the U.S., where it has also caused a recession that put more than ten million people out of work. 2020 was undoubtedly horrible, terrible, no good year.
Still, it’s not the worst year ever. The world has witnessed some pretty lousy years, too many downright terrible ones to mention in a single article. Here are just three that could easily give 2020 a run for the title.
Volcanic Eruption in the of Year 536
We can all agree that 2020 stunk, but at least we had some sunshine. In 536, a volcanic eruption in Iceland threw up so much ash that most of the world was enveloped in a sun-blocking fog. Crops failed, temperatures plummeted, and famine was widespread. It eventually wiped about 50% of the Roman Empire’s population.
The End of WWI in 1918 May Sound Positive But…
Just as World War I was coming to an end, a novel avian influenza virus made the jump to humans, a deadly pandemic that lasted for more than a year. It surely sounds familiar, doesn’t it? The flu killed at least 50 million people worldwide and 675,000 in the U.S.
1933 and the Reason for WWII
In 1933, Hitler took advantage of a fire in the parliament of Germany to arrest his political enemies and seize emergency powers. After taking over Germany, he set out to rule the rest of the world. At least that was his initial plan with World War II, which involved over 30 nations and killed an estimated 75 to 80 million people.