25 Worst Years in Human History

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]When you look at history through numbers, some years are impossible to ignore. Sometimes those years stand out because of famine. Sometimes it's war or disease. And sometimes it's everything thrown at us all at once. In every case, it changed the world as people knew it.

[00:00:19]In every case, the losses were severe.

[00:00:22]I'm Michael 25, and here in no particular order, are the 25 worst years in human history.

[00:00:30]25 536.

[00:00:33]Let's just open this list with the year everyone calls the worst year to be alive. There was a massive volcanic eruption in the northern hemisphere.

[00:00:42]Some think Iceland that clouded us with ash that led to an 18-month fog and volcanic winter that blocked the sunlight from reaching large parts of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

[00:00:54]Contemporary accounts actually say that the sky looked like a dim twilight.

[00:00:59]And that went on for months. That led to the world's temperatures dropping by as much as 2 1/2° C, which wrecked growing seasons across entire regions.

[00:01:11]People's crops failed. Food shortages became widespread and famine followed close behind. Records from Ireland even mentioned multiple years without proper harvests.

[00:01:22]24 541.

[00:01:25]More bad times followed in the years after 536.

[00:01:29]Another eruption hit and then came the Justinian plague which tore through the Eastern Roman Empire. It circulated through trade routes carried by fleas and rats hiding in grain shipments moving between major cities.

[00:01:42]Constantinople was hit especially hard with accounts describing entire parts of the city overwhelmed as the number of dead climbed faster than they could be handled. From there, it pushed outward across Europe, Asia, and North Africa.

[00:01:56]Estimates vary widely, but the scale of the plague was enormous with somewhere between 30 and 100 million lives lost.

[00:02:04]23. 1918.

[00:02:07]We've all heard of the horrific Spanish flu. Right at the time World War I was coming to an end, something else started killing people all over the planet. This specific strain of the H1N1 influenza virus ended up infecting almost 500 million people, which was about a third of the world at the time. What made it especially brutal was who it targeted.

[00:02:30]Instead of hitting the very young and the elderly the hardest, this one went straight for healthy adults in their 20s to 40s. Many didn't just die from the virus itself, but from their immune systems going into overdrive, a reaction now known as cytoine storm. The war also made everything worse. Troop movements, crowded camps, [music] and packed transport routes helped to distribute it faster than anyone could contain. By the end, millions of people were dead. Some places life expectancy dropped by more than a decade in a single year. 22 1520.

[00:03:07]The Spanish weren't the only threat moving into the Aztec Empire in 1520.

[00:03:11]Smallox came with them and once it reached central Mexico, it tore through the indigenous populations that had never been exposed to it before. In Penositlan, the disease spread so fast that it crippled leaders, warriors, and civilians all at once. Entire households were affected, making the management of the city's daily life increasingly difficult as more people became sick.

[00:03:35]The loss of life was severe and immediate. More importantly, it hit the structure of the empire at a very critical moment. When Arnan Cortez returned, he wasn't walking into the same fight. The population had taken a serious hit. Leadership was in rough shape, and the dynamic had changed enough to change the outcome of the conflict. 21. 1816.

[00:03:58]Have you ever heard of the year without a summer? In 1816, late frosts kept killing crops in the northern hemisphere just as they started to grow. In Europe, weeks of cold rain made it nearly impossible to get reliable harvests in.

[00:04:12]The cause sat thousands of miles away.

[00:04:16]Mount Tambbora had erupted the year before, and in the aftermath, crops failed, food ran short, and people started going hungry. Just like in 536, it disrupted the climate on a global scale and set off a chain reaction. Some people actually left their homes and moved in search of better conditions, but that was only if they had the means, since oats and other grains became so expensive that even travel took a hit.

[00:04:42]20. 1665.

[00:04:45]Up to a quarter of London's population died when the plague hit the city in 1665.

[00:04:51]In just over a year, about 100,000 people were gone. At its peak, the city was losing thousands every week. Today, we know that fleas carry the disease from rats into homes. But at the time, most people simply blamed bad air, so they kept fires burning in the streets, while doctors wore long coats and beaked masks filled with herbs, believing it would filter out whatever was causing the illness. Once a house was infected, it was marked and sealed, sometimes with the whole family still inside with watchmen posted outside to make sure no one left. So avoiding the disease wasn't really an option. 19 1231 [music] Japan was hit by the Kongi famine from around 1230 to 1231.

[00:05:38]But in 1231 things reached their breaking point. A too long stretch of cold weather and relentless rain damaged the country's harvests and rice production had taken repeated hits across multiple [music] regions. With hardly any reserves [clears throat] to fall back on, the ongoing food shortages eventually turned into outright starvation. In places like Kyoto, [music] it got so bad that people couldn't keep up with the number of dead. We also know from some of the records of the time that there was a surge in all kinds of desperate behaviors as people tried to get access to food any way they could. But since so many regions were going through it together, there was [music] little anyone could do to help. And it took a very long time before the country recovered.

[00:06:24]18 1842.

[00:06:27]Breaking away from famines, humans have been known to do pretty terrible things to ourselves. When the British arrived in Australia in 1788, they set up a penal colony and gradually expanded beyond the coast. As more land was taken for farming and grazing, settlers pushed further inland, often into areas that were already occupied by Aboriginal communities. By the 1840s, that expansion had reached what is now Queensland, and conflict became something common. Possibly one of the worst incidents happened at Kilhoy Station, when poison flour was deliberately handed out to the Aboriginal people from the area. Records from the time aren't consistent, but estimates suggested between 30 and 60 people died after eating it. It was investigated, but no one was ultimately held responsible.

[00:07:16]17. 1931.

[00:07:19]When you look at the city of Napier in New Zealand, it doesn't look like a place that almost got wiped out. But pay attention to the landscape. You start to notice that something here's not quite the same as it used to be. A powerful earthquake measuring around 7.8 hit the Hawk Bay region in 1931, and it kept going for nearly 2 and 1/2 minutes, which is a long time when buildings are already starting to fail around you.

[00:07:45]Large parts of Napier and Hastings were leveled. 256 people were killed and thousands more were injured as the damage spread through the cities. The shaking broke gas lines across the area and fires followed almost immediately, [music] burning through sections that had already been hit hard with very little in place to stop them once they started. The coastline itself changed by as much as 6 f feet in some areas, draining lagoons and exposing new land where there used to be water. And that's still part of what you're looking at today.

[00:08:17]16. 1965.

[00:08:20]After a failed coup attempt in September 1965, things in Indonesia escalated quickly. The military moved in and started going after anyone connected to the Indonesian Communist Party or anyone who even looked like they might be. As Suarto rose to power, people were being taken, executed, or simply disappearing.

[00:08:41]And it wasn't just the army doing it.

[00:08:44]Local groups got involved as well, which made it spread even further and pulled in people who had nothing to do with the original political situation. The death count is still being debated today, but most people agree that between 500,000 and over a million were killed. Zakarno was pushed out and Saharto stepped in to take control. for several years after that. Just talking about what happened could get you into serious trouble, which is why so much of it has never really been told. 15. 1972.

[00:09:17]In 1972, the Philippines went from a functioning democracy to something very different almost overnight. President Ferdinand Marcos signed a proclamation that placed the entire country under martial law, saying it was necessary because of growing unrest and the threat of communism. But what followed was the consolidation of power in one place.

[00:09:41]Congress was no longer part of the picture. The media was tightly controlled and criticism usually went handinhand with severe consequences.

[00:09:51]Reports of torture, disappearances, and killings built up as the years went on while the government promoted its new society program and pointed to development projects as proof that things were improving. That period ran for about 14 years. Finally ended when large crowds took to the streets in 1986 and forced a change. 14. 1969.

[00:10:14]Koala Lumpur's horror year came after a general election that didn't land well for the ruling coalition. Celebrations and protests ended up colliding and before long violence broke out between the Malay and Chinese communities in parts of the city. The government responded by declaring a state of emergency, bringing in the military [music] and suspending parliament while strict curfews were put in place. For many people, whatever normal was, it ended right there. Curfews were enforced, soldiers took over the streets, and people kept their doors shut because it wasn't safe to be outside. Hundreds died while fires destroyed homes and businesses.

[00:10:55]Thousands of people were eventually forced out of their neighborhoods.

[00:10:59]13. 1945.

[00:11:02]The uprisings in Vietnam during the 1940s [music] were building up for a long time. The famine in 1945 pushed things to a breaking point. In northern Vietnam, people were starving while rice was still being collected and stored under colonial control. Japan was occupying the region and redirecting food for its war effort. While the French administration continued its system of extraction, even as shortages became obvious. Flooding had already damaged harvests and the transport network had broken down to the point where food couldn't be moved where it was needed. Entire areas ran out of food at the same time. Families left their homes trying to find anything to eat. In many cases, they didn't make it back. Up to 2 million people died. 12. 1976.

[00:11:53]Students at Tamastat University in Bangkok had been demonstrating against the return of former dictator Tanam Kitikon. Tensions had been building for weeks. Then over 6th, security forces and right-wing groups invaded the campus. What followed was one of the most violent incidents in modern Thai history. Students were shot, beaten, and in some cases lynched with violence unfolding both inside the university and in the surrounding area. The official death toll that was released said 46, but many estimates place it higher with some believing the real number was significantly under reportported. 11.

[00:12:32]1942.

[00:12:34]The journey out of Burma in 1942 stretched close to 1,000 miles. And for a lot of people, it was a walk they didn't finish. Japan had invaded earlier that year. And once Rangon fell, both military forces and civilians began moving north if they wanted any chance of getting out. Columns of soldiers, families, and refugees pushed toward India, crossing rough terrain in extreme heat, often without enough food or medical support. When the monsoon arrived, conditions became even worse, turning the route into something far more difficult to survive. People died along the way from exhaustion, illness, and lack of supplies. Many were left behind because there was simply no way to carry them any further. 10. 1947, the end of British colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent created two new countries, India and Pakistan. And that division triggered one of the largest migrations in history. Around 15 million people left their homes, moving toward regions where their religion would place them in the majority. The problem was that the change happened too quickly.

[00:13:46]Infrastructure couldn't handle it.

[00:13:48]Authorities struggled to maintain control and violence broke out in multiple areas at the same time.

[00:13:54]Communities turned on each other and the situation escalated into widespread killings, abductions, and assaults.

[00:14:01]Nine. 1779.

[00:14:04]The 1770s in Morocco had already brought earthquakes, flooding, heat, and disease. Then came years of drought that dragged on from the middle of the decade right up to the end. Harvests kept failing and in the final stretch, a locust invasion made things even worse.

[00:14:21]The weather also went haywire with a heat wave followed by a cold snap which only added more pressure to an already fragile system. So by 1779, the ensuing famine wasn't a sudden event, but the result of years where almost nothing went right. Food shortages were already in place, and there was very little left to fall back on. And to top it all off, an outbreak of plague lasting from 1779 to 1780 followed. It was all in all a terrible time to be alive. 8. 2010. Did you know that by the mid2010s, parts of central Chile were already running out of water? The country experienced a mega drought and had rainfall well below normal for over a decade. Snowpack in the Andes dropped, reservoirs sank, and groundwater became the fallback, which only added more pressure. That had a direct effect on agriculture. Crops failed, livestock died, and smaller farms struggled to keep going without reliable water. At the same time, the landscape itself became more vulnerable.

[00:15:31]Dry vegetation and higher temperatures fed into wildfire seasons that caused repeated damage and forced evacuations in affected areas. Researchers now link a portion of the rainfall decline to climate change. Something that even though it's very controversial, is becoming more and more of a reality for people all over the world. Seven. 1989 prices in Argentina were climbing so fast in 1989 that the price you paid for a loaf of bread in the morning could be completely different by the afternoon.

[00:16:05]Their inflation didn't just creep up. It blew past 2,000% for the year. Driven by years of heavy government spending, rising debt, and a currency that people were losing faith in by the day after the Austro plan collapsed. Their money lost value almost as quickly as it was printed. Your basic everyday life started breaking down. Shops struggled to keep prices stable. Wages couldn't keep up. And people actually rioted and began rushing supermarkets before goods disappeared or became unaffordable.

[00:16:36]Six. 1934.

[00:16:39]Bolivia's push into the Choco Bial gave way to a series of setbacks that exposed deeper problems with their planning and logistics.

[00:16:48]As the fighting intensified, Bolivian forces moved into areas where supply became harder to maintain, and that left units vulnerable when Paraguayan forces began cutting them off. Large scale surround and isolate maneuvers became more common, and whole groups of soldiers ended up trapped without reliable access to water or reinforcements.

[00:17:09]Under those conditions, survival quickly became as much of a problem as the fighting itself. Hundreds died from dehydration and disease while thousands were forced to surrender and ended up as prisoners of Paraguayan forces. Bolivia ended up losing its men faster than it could replace them. Five 1877 large groups of people left northeast Brazil during this period because staying meant running out of food. A horrific drought had already stretched on long enough to damage crops and livestock across the region, and a strong El Nino pattern made it even harder for conditions to recover. With very little rainfall and no reliable system to bring in supplies, food shortages were the order of the day. and weakened outbreaks of smallox and yellow fever followed pushing the death toll into the hundreds of thousands with estimates ranging from 400,000 to 500,000.

[00:18:06]Those who left became known as Heterantes, moving toward places like Forala or into the Amazon in search of work. So many people left that it actually changed who was living where across parts of Brazil. Four. 1999.

[00:18:22]Entire sections of Venezuela's coastline were wiped out in December 1999 after [music] days of heavy rain soaked the mountains above the state of Vargas. In a short stretch of time, close to a year's worth of rain came down and the slopes of the Sierra de Aila just couldn't hold together anymore. Wave after wave of mud and debris started coming down through the valleys and straight into the towns below. Houses were buried where they stood. Roads disappeared. And in some places, whole neighborhoods were pushed out toward the sea. Between 10 and 30,000 people died.

[00:18:59]Only about 1,000 bodies were ever recovered. A lot of the victims were either buried under the thick layers of mud or carried out into the ocean along with everything else. Three. 1545.

[00:19:12]The damage from the 1520 smallox outbreak in the Americas was already severe. But by 1545, another epidemic made things a h 100 times worse. This one known as Kokoisti again spread through the indigenous populations that were still recovering from the earlier waves of disease and disruption. There are reports from the time that described people falling sick with high fevers and heavy bleeding. And once it took hold in the community, it moved quickly. With limited medical knowledge and already weakened populations, there was very little that could be done to slow it down. An estimated 5 to 15 million people died. Two, 1867.

[00:19:54]Still on the trail of famines, Sweden came up with a couple of very unique dishes because of them. One of them was bark bread made by grinding tree bark into flour. The horrors started after an unusually long winter kept the ground frozen far past the normal planting season. Crops went in late and struggled to grow and a drought hit them. With very little support reaching those areas, shortages turned into starvation.

[00:20:21]Disease followed soon after. The famine and everything that came after it started a crisis that eventually made a fifth of the country's people leave. and that ended up being one of the largest waves of immigration Sweden would ever see. One, 1847.

[00:20:38]For many people, the only way out of Ireland in 1847 was by sea. Even that came with serious risk. Ships heading to North America were packed with passengers, often carrying far more people than they were meant to handle.

[00:20:52]Food was limited, sanitation was poor, and disease spread easily. Thousands of people died at sea before ever reaching their destination. Back on land, the situation driving people to leave had already reached its worst point.

[00:21:07]Repeated crop failures led to a famine, and those seeking help were often forced into overcrowded workhouses where disease spread just as quickly. And that's a wrap. We should all probably just take a moment and be thankful for what we have. right now. If you had to choose one of those years to live through, knowing everything [music] that comes with it, which one would you choose? The one you'd think you'd have the best chance of surviving. Drop your answers below. Kind of want to see what you guys think about that. And when you're done here, check out our related video, 25 most important events in history. Let me show you the moments that push things forward instead of, you know, pulling everything apart. As always, I'm Mike Estrin and I'll see you in the next one.