There have been many really bad years in world history. There have been world wars,

pandemics, and horrible natural disasters, all of which have made for very bad years.

However, many historians have come to the conclusion that the worst year in the history of humanity

was a year that in and of itself was pretty bad, but also ushered in a decade of bad years.

Moreover, it wasn't bad for a single region or even continent, it was bad for everyone on the planet.

Learn more about the year 536 and why it very well might have been the worst year in history

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Trying to pick a single year in world history which which is the worst, is a very difficult and subjective task.

There have been massive wars throughout world history, pandemics that have killed tens of millions,

and earthquakes which have killed hundreds of thousands in a matter of minutes.

Nazi Germany systematically took the lives of over 11 million people.

The Ukrainian holodemore took the lives of 5 million people in a famine. The great Chinese famine from 1959 to

1961 might have killed as many as 50 million people. The 1556 Shangsee earthquake in China

killed an estimated 800,000 people in a single day.

On the evening of March 9th and 10th in 1945, the firebombing of Tokyo might have killed

over 100,000 people in a matter of hours. The Spanish flu of

1918 could have killed as many as 50 million people. In 1221 legend says that

Gen. may have killed over a million people in the span of an hour when he sacked the Persian

city of Nyshapur.

I can keep listing all the horrible things which has happened in world history, and it would

be a really long list. However, as bad as all those things were, they were usually

localized events or took place over an extended period of time.

Most of the world didn't see fighting in either of the two world wars.

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