But in 536 A.D., much of the world went dark for a full 18 months, as a mysterious fog rolled over Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia. The fog blocked the sun during the day, causing temperatures to drop, crops to fail and people to die. It was, you might say, the literal Dark Age.

536 is the current consensus candidate for worst year in human history. A volcanic eruption, or possibly more than one, somewhere in the northern hemisphere would seem to have been the trigger

In 535 AD Mount Krakatoa (in the Sunda Straight between the islands of Sumatra and Java, Indonesia) exploded. Vast quantities of volcanic ash was thrown high up into the earth's atmosphere with disastrous effects.

Due to the antiquity of this pandemic, it is hard to estimate with accuracy the actual number of deaths, but it is presumed that around 50 to 100 million people died

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