Horrors of History (part 1 of 5) Brought to You by Nature
Dan Fake
by this weekend. Unfortunately, this task is monumental
and may not be completed for several weeks. In the
meanwhile, here is a segment of the 1st post. For those
of you who believe in God, you might want to consider
the part God had to play in the following acts of nature.
...
Use this post as a sanity check when people
start pontificating about the "good old days" or
"the love and mercy of God".
Excerpts from "The Pessimists Guide to History",
by Stuart Flexner with Doris Flexner.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0380762366/qid%3D920243346/002-5464365-0647638
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Some of the horrors of history, brought to you by
nature:
Prior to 1628 B.C. - Countless tragedies over the
millennia, not the least of which is the asteroid impact
65 million years ago on the Yucatan peninsula; said
disaster led to the demise of the dinosaurs, the rise
of the mammals, and the eventual rise of humankind.
ca. 1628 B.C. - Minoan civilization devastated by
volcanic eruption on Thera. Untold thousands killed
by the eruption and accompanying 200-300 foot
tidal waves.
454 B.C. - Roman plague wipes out much of the
city's inhabitants.
430-427 B.C. - Athens plague kills about one-third
of the city's 100,000 inhabitants.
426 B.C. - Greek earthquake kills thousands;
thousands more left injured or homeless.
373 B.C. - Earthquake causes Helice, Greece, to
sink into the Gulf of Corinth.
217 B.C. - Killer earthquake strikes Northern
Africa, killing more than 50 thousand.
164-154 B.C. - Killer smallpox epidemic breaks out
in Rome killing unknown thousands for over ten
years after the initial outbreak.
19 B.C. - Over 100,000 killed by a severe earth-
quake in what is now modern-day Syria.
79 - Pompeii and Herculaneum destroyed by
eruption of Mount Vesuvius; thousands die;
cities plunged beneath fifteen to twenty feet of
ash.
79-88 - Plague in Rome kills upwards of ten
thousand people per day at its height.
115 - Antioch, in what is now modern-day
Syria, destroyed by an earthquake; unknown
thousands killed.
125 - One million killed by plague in North
Africa.
164-180 - Roman legions returning from Syria
bring back a plague which spreads throughout
the empire, depopulating entire cities in some
cases.
186 - One of the most devastating eruptions
in history strikes New Zealand; unknown death
toll.
250-265 - A plague strikes the Roman empire,
leaving much of it depopulated by its end.
365 - Alexandria, Egypt, wiped out by a tidal
wave from an earthquake.
472 - Mount Vesuvius erupts; kills scores and
causes ash to spread out over much of Europe.
526 - Antioch, Syria, earthquake kills 250,000.
542 - Constantinople plague kills 300,000 out of
a total population of 500,000.
746-749 - Plague ravages Constantinople and
spreads to Italy and Greece; 200,000 die.
1040 - Tabriz (in modern-day Iran) earthquake
kills over 50,000.
1169 - Mount Etna volcanic eruption in Sicily
results in 15,000 deaths from earthquakes and
tidal waves.
1200-1202 - Nile dries up; Egyptian famine results;
people resort to cannibalism; in Cairo, people
died by the hundreds each day.
1277 - Holland floods; unknown thousands die.
1347-1351 - Black death strikes; over 25 million
die in Europe; one-third of the world's population
dies.
1347-17th century - Chorea strikes; victims
undergo a twitching leading to uncontrollable
leaping, furious screaming, and foaming at the
mouth. This goes on for hours or for a day or
more before the victim dies. This disease abates
in the 17th century after ranging throughout
central Europe; death toll unknown.
1421 - Dikes near Dort, Holland, burst; 72 cities
swept away. Over 100,000 die.
1456 - Naples, Italy, destroyed by earthquake;
50,000 die.
1485, 1506, 1517, 1528, 1551 - Sweating
sickness in England kills thousands.
1490s - Syphilis epidemic begins in Italy and
spreads throughout Europe and Russia.
1521 - Smallpox, brought by Spanish conquerors,
kills millions of Aztecs, possibly half of the
entire population.
1530 - Holland dikes burst; over 400,000 die.
1531 - Lisbon, Portugal, earthquake kills 30,000.
1556 - January 23, 1556, earthquake in northern
China kills an estimated 830,000.
1570 - Holland dikes burst; over 50,000 die.
1574 - Spaniards invade Holland but the siege
is broken when over 20,000 Spaniards killed by
a flood.
1591 - Volcano Taal in the Philippines erupts;
thousands killed by poisonous gas.
1622 - Vicious hurricane strikes a large convoy
of ships sailing from Havana, Cuba, to Spain.
Thousands die.
1626 - Naples, Italy, earthquake kills 70,000.
1631 - Mount Vesuvius erupts; over 4,000 die.
1638 - Cataclysmic eruption of Indonesian
volcano kills hundreds.
1665 - Great plague of London kills 100,000.
1666 - West Indies hurricane kills thousands.
1669 - Mount Etna erupts; 20,000 die.
1672 - Naples, Italy, Black Plague kills 400,000.
1692 - Jamaica hit by tidal wave; 3,000 die.
1693 - Naples, Italy, earthquake kills 93,000.
Catania, Italy, earthquake kills 60,000. Mount
Etna erupts, killing 18,000 on the island of
Sicily.
1694 - Barbados hurricane sinks 26 British ships;
3,000 die.
1703-1704 - Tokyo earthquake kills 37,000. Resulting
tidal waves wipe out entire villages.
1711 - Black Plague kills 500,000 in the Holy Roman
Empire.
1715 - Spanish ships struck by hurricane off the
Florida coast; 1,000 die.
1719 - Caravan of travelers in Sweden, headed towards
Norway, struck by snowstorm; 7,000 die.
1722 - Bread in Russia infected by a fungus; results
in a disease called ergotism, causing a severe nervous
disorder resulting in delusions, convulsions, burning
pain, and finally, death; 20,000 die.
1727 - Persian earthquake, in Tabriz (in modern-day
Iran) kills over 75,000.
1731 - Beijing, China, struck by massive earthquake;
100,000 die.
1735-1740 - Diphtheria outbreak in New England
kills 80 percent of the children under 10 years
of age.
1737 - Calcutta, India, struck by a cyclone on
October 7, sending a 40 foot tidal wave crashing
ashore; 300,000 die. Four days later, a devastating
earthquake hits the city, killing another 300,000.
1754 - Cairo, Egypt, rocked by an earthquake;
40,000 die.
1755 - Lisbon, Portugal, struck by a massive earth-
quake, felt across North Africa and Europe; up to
100,000 die.
1755 - Boston, Massachusetts, hit by the worst
earthquake in its history; no one dies.
1769-1770 - 18 month drought in Hindustan, India,
causes a terrible famine; millions starve to death.
1769 - Gun powder, stored in a church in Brezia,
Italy, struck by lightning; the church and surrounding
buildings devastated by an explosion; over 3,000 die.
1770 - Storm sinks French merchant ship carrying over
700 off the coast of Chile; only a handful survive.
1772 - Papandayan, Java, volcano erupts, blowing about
4,000 feet off the top of its volcano cone; 3,000 die.
1776 - Caribbean hurricane sinks French and Dutch
merchant ships; 6,000 die.
1780 - West Indies hurricane kills 20,000 to 30,000.
1781-1782 - Worldwide influenza epidemic starts in
China and spreads to strike 30,000 daily in Russia;
in Rome, two-thirds are stricken by the disease; the
death toll is unknown.
1782 - Hurricane kills thousands in Barbados.
1783 - Eight years of earthquakes strike Italy, with
the worst leveling Calabria and more than 180 towns in
the area, on February 4-5; 30,000 die outright, with
up to 30,000 dying as a result of the aftershocks and
famine which follow.
1783 - Iceland volcano erupts; 9,000 die.
1787 - British slave ship hit by a storm; almost 500
slaves die.
1789 - Cyclone hits India; 20,000 die.
1790-1792 - Droughts devastate India; cannibalism
becomes widespread; death toll unknown.
1792 - Plague sweeps across Egypt; 800,000 die.
1793 - Japanese volcano Unsen erupts on a small
island off the coast of Japan; the island sinks into
the sea; 53,000 on the island perish.
1793 - Yellow fever strikes Philadelphia; thousands
die.
1794 - Combination volcano-earthquake kills 40,000
in Ecuador.
1797 - Earthquakes and volcanoes in Ecuador kill
40,000 or more.
1798 - New England blizzard kills hundreds.
1799-1800 - Yellow fever strikes Spain and North
Africa; 80,000 die in Spain and thousands die
in North Africa.
1805 - Naples and Calabria, Italy, earthquake kills
over 26,000.
1810 - British frigate Minotaur runs aground in
high seas; 480 die.
1811 - Tornado strikes Charleston, South Carolina.
Over 500 die.
1811 - Storms strike British ships returning from duty
in the Baltic; 2,000 die.
1811-1812 - Earthquakes strike New Madrid, Missouri;
death toll unknown; Mississippi River runs backwards
for hundreds of miles; tremors felt over an area of over
1.5 million square miles, nearly half the area of the
continental United States; death toll unknown.
1812 - Caracas, Venezuela, earthquake kills 20,000.
1814 - Philippine volcano erupts; 12,000 die.
1815 - April 15, 1815, Indonesian volcano Tambora
erupts, blowing off its 36 cubic miles of ejecta, the
largest eruption in history; 12,000 die. In 1816, the
year without a summer results, bringing cold weather
and famine to North America and Europe.
1816-1817 - As a result of the year without a summer,
in Switzerland people were reduced to catching cats
for food. Sickness and fever accompanied the
starvation, and in Ireland an estimated 50,000
eventually died as a result of a typhus epidemic
precipitated by the harsh famine.
1819 - Genoa and Palermo, Italy, demolished by
an earthquake; 20,000 die.
1822 - Earthquakes strike Aleppo and Antioch,
Syria; 20,000 die.
1822 - Cyclone strikes the mouth of the Ganges
River in India; 50,000 die.
1822 - Galung Gung, Java, volcano erupts twice;
4,000 die.
1824 - Saint Petersburg, Russia, flood drowns
10,000.
1826-1837 - Cholera epidemics ravage Europe; over
900,000 die in 1831 alone. Worldwide Cholera
epidemics occur in 1840-1842, 1863-1875, and
1893-1894 - the total death toll from these epidemics
is in the millions.
1829 - Dike breaks in Gdansk Poland; flood kills
1,200.
1831 - Hurricane in Barbados kills 1,500.
1833 - Cyclone in Calcutta, India; 50,000 die.
1835 - Charles Darwin witnesses earthquake in Chile;
5,000 die.
1840 - Tornado in Natchez, Mississippi; 317 die.
1841 - Hurricane wipes out Saint Jo, Florida; 4,000 die.
1842 - Tornado in Natchez, Mississippi; 500 die.
1845-1848 - Irish potato famine; 1.5 million die.
1847 - Massive earthquake in Nagano, Japan; 34,000 die.
1851-1855 - Tuberculosis epidemic in Britain; 250,000 die.
1856 - Lightning strikes Churt of St. John on the island
of Rhodes; being that the church was used by the occupying
Ottoman army to store huge quantities of gun powder, the
church blows up and kills 4,000.
1857 - Earthquake strikes Tokyo, Japan; resulting fire kills
most of the 107,000 victims of this disaster.
1857 - Russian warship Leffert sinks in a storm off the
Gulf of Finland; 826 die.
1859 - Merchant ship Royal Charter runs aground and
breaks apart in heavy seas off Liverpool; 459 die.
1862 - Typhoon devastates Canton and Whangpoo, China;
40,000 die.
1864 - Cyclone strikes Calcutta, India; 50,000 die. Another
30,000 die from disease after the storm.
1866-1870 - Northern India drought causes famine, killing
1.5 million; 250,000 die in a fever epidemic which breaks
out in northwest India after the famine.
1868 - Much of South America racked by an earthquake;
20,000 die.
1870 - Storm causes British ironclad turret ship, the Captain,
to founder and sink, in the Bay of Biscay; 483 die.
1873 - British steamship Atlantic sinks in heavy seas off
Halifax, Nova Scotia; 550 die.
1875 - Flood of Garonne River, in France, kills 1,000.
1876-1878 - India famine; 5 million die.
1876-1879 - China famine; 13 million die from hunger,
disease, and predation; thievery, mob violence, suicide,
and cannibalism were commonplace, as hundreds of
thousands of people tried desperately to stay alive.
1876 - Subsea earthquake causes 100 foot tsunamis to
crash ashore along a 300 mile section of coastline in
northeast Japan; 28,000 die.
1876 - Cyclone strikes coastal area around the mouth of
the Megna River in Bengal, India; 100,000 perish. 100,000
more die of disease that spreads after the disaster.
1878 - Yellow fever epidemic in Memphis, New Orleans,
and other parts of the south; 14,000 die.
1881 - Hurricane strikes Florida and Carolinas; 700 die.
1882 - Tidal wave strikes Bombay, India; 100,000 die.
1883 - Krakatoa, a volcanic island between Java and
Sumatra, unleashes the most violent eruption of modern
times. Two-thirds of the island sinks into the sea. Huge
tidal waves sweep over coastal towns; 36,000 die.
1884 - Hurricane sweeps through southeastern U.S.;
800 die.
1886 - Earthquake shakes eastern U.S.; 110 die.
1887 - Earthquake strikes French and Italian Riviera;
over 2,000 die.
1887 - Yellow River (Huang Ho) floods in China;
1.5 million die.
1888 - East coast blizzard; 800 die.
1888 - Hailstorms in India near Delhi; 250 die.
1889 - Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood; over 2,200 die.
1889-1890 - Worldwide influenza epidemic; death toll
unknown.
1891 - Caribbean hurricane; 700 die.
1891 - Earthquake in central Japan; 7,300 die.
1893 - Hurricane hits Charleston, South Carolina; 1,000 die.
1893 - Killer hurricane strikes Louisiana, Mississippi, and
Alabama; 2,000 die.
1893-1894 - Worldwide cholera epidemic kills millions,
including composer Tchaikovsky.
1894 - Forest fire devastates Hinkley, Minnesota, and
surrounding towns; 600 die.
1895 - Spanish warship Reina Regente founders and sinks
in a storm near the Strait of Gibraltar; 402 die.
1896-1897 - 5 million die of famine and disease in India.
1898-1899 - 1.25 million die of drought and famine in India.
1896 - Saint Louis tornado kills 306.
1896 - Subsea earthquake creates a huge tidal wave, 80 feet
high and 300 miles wide, which strikes Japan, sweeping
entire coastal towns into the ocean; 28,000 die.
1898 - Coastal northeastern U.S. struck by blizzard; 455 die.
1900-1907 - Sleeping sickness strikes the area around Lake
Victoria in Uganda; 200,000 die.
1900 - Hurricane strikes Galveston, Texas; 6,000 die. After-
wards, hoards of looters descended on the city by boat;
250 looters were shot and killed.
1902 - British steamer Camorta founders in heavy seas off
Rangoon, Burma; 739 die.
1902 - Mount Pelee volcano erupts near Saint Pierre,
Martinique; 30,000 incinerated in less than 3 minutes.
1902 - Volcano erupts in Guatemala; 6,000 die.
1903-1908 - Plague sweeps over India; 4 million die.
1906 - San Francisco earthquake and fire; 700 die.
1907 - Storms cause a collision of a schooner with the
Joy Line ship Larchmont, off the coast of Providence,
Rhode Island; the Larchmont sinks in 15 minutes; all
332 passengers and crew die.
1908 - Meteor strikes forest in Tunguska, a remote area
of central Siberia; two months of "bright nights" result
in the northern hemisphere, with enough light to read and
take photographs outside all night long; the sky was a
delicate "silent pink" in color; 25 square miles of forest
were flattened; as this occurred in a remote region, the
death toll was minimal.
1908 - Messina, on the island of Sicily, collapses in ruin
from severe earthquakes; up to 250,000 die.
1910-1913 - Black Plague in China and India; millions die.
1912 - Japanese steamer Kichemaru founders and sinks in
heavy seas off the coast of Japan; over 1,000 die.
1915 - Flooding rivers wash away entire villages in
Kwangtung, Kwangsi, and Kiangsi, China; over 100,000 die.
1916 - Dikes break in Holland; 10,000 die.
1917 - Tornadoes strike Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky,
Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, and Arkansas; 249 die.
1918-1919 - Virulent influenza outbreak starts at Fort Riley
and Camp Funston in Kansas; within a year, this new strain
of Spanish flu claims 22 million lives worldwide, including
over 550,000 Americans (10 times greater than the American
losses in World War I).
1918 - American steamer Otranto collides in heavy seas with
a transport vessel in the North Channel between the Scottish
and Irish coasts; the Otranto sinks and 425 die.
1918 - Gale force winds whip savage fires in Minnesota and
Wisconsin; 800 die.
1918 - Steamship Princess Sophia strikes a reef off of Juneau,
Alaska; it recovers but is struck by another storm the following
evening; 398 die.
1919 - Lake-filled volcano Keluit in Java erupts; a torrent of
mud and water results, killing 5,500.
1920 - Earthquake in north central China (Gansu) kills 180,000
1921-1923 - Famine strikes Soviet Union; millions starve to
death.
1922 - Two typhoons strike Shantou, China; 60,000 die.
1923 - Earthquake strikes 60 miles offshore from Tokyo,
Japan; 30 foot tsunami and fires follow; 140,000 die.
1925 - Deadliest tornado in U.S. history tears a 300 mile
path of destruction through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana;
689 die.
1926 - Hurricane strikes Florida; 450 die.
1927 - Mississippi valley floods; 313 die.
1927 - Earthquake in north central China (Gansu) kills 100,000.
1928-1929 - Famine strikes northwest China; 3 million die.
1928 - Saint Francis dam breaks (San Francisquito Canyon,
California) due to heavy rain; 350 die.
1928 - Hurricane strikes Lake Okeechobee area near West
Palm Beach, Florida; 2,500 die in Florida with another 2,500
dead in the Caribbean.
1931 - Severe diphtheria outbreak sweeps U.S.; 17,000
children die.
1931 - Chinese Yangtze River floods; 3.7 million die from
flood, disease, starving.
1932 - Earthquake in north central China (Gansu) kills 70,000.
1935 - Earthquake in northwestern India (now part of
Pakistan); 50,000 die.
1935 - Hurricane strikes Florida keys; 400 die.
1936 - As the result of a civil war and subsequent unrest,
a famine strikes Szechwan (now Sichuan), China; 5 million die.
1938 - 500-ton meteor strikes just outside Pittsburgh; had it
struck Pittsburgh, a city of over half a million people would
have been destroyed.
1938 - Hurricane strikes New England; 500 die.
1939 - Earthquake strikes Chillan, Chile; 50,000 die.
1939 - Flood and famine strikes much of northern China;
200,000 die.
1939 - High winds, heavy seas, and blizzard cause wreck
of Soviet steamship Indirka, near Japan; 750 die.
1939 - Earthquake strikes wide area of eastern and northern
Turkey; 50,000 die.
1941 - Torrential rains unleash a mud slide in 185 miles
northwest of Lima, Peru; 3,000 die.
1942 - Hurricane strikes Bengal province in India; 40,000 die.
1942 - Fire strikes Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston,
Massachusetts; 491 die.
1944 - Hurricane strikes New England; 389 die.
1949 - Earthquake destroys over a half dozen cities and towns
in Ecuador; 6,000 die.
1950 - Flood in Anhui province in eastern China; 489 die.
1953 - Flood tides devastate east coast of England, the
Netherlands, and Belgium; 1,835 die.
1954 - Yangtze River floods in China; 40,000 die.
1954 - Pilgrims praying at a Muslim shrine, in Farahzad, Iran,
struck by a 90 foot high wall of water pouring through a
gorge; 2,000 die.
1954 - Typhoon strikes Japan; 1,600 die.
1954 - Hurricane Hazel strikes South Carolina and travels
upward through New England to Canada; 411 die.
1957 - Hurricane Audrey slams into Texas, Louisiana,
and Mississippi; 550 die.
1959 - Typhoon Vera strikes Nagoya, Japan; 5,000 die.
1960 - Earthquake strikes Agadir, Morocco; 12,000 die.
1960 - Cyclones strike Bay of Bengal, India; 10,000 die.
1962 - Avalanche hits Ranrahirca, Peru; 450 die.
1962 - Earthquake strikes western Iran; 10,000 die.
1963 - Cyclone strikes East Pakistan; 22,000 die.
1963 - Hurricane Flora hits Haiti and Cuba; 6,000 die.
1963 - Avalanche falls into a lake behind a dam in the
Piave River Basin in Italy; 2,000 killed by a resulting
torrent of water.
1964 - Alaska earthquake; 118 die.
1965 - 35 Midwest tornadoes; 271 die.
1966 - Avalanche hits schoolhouse at Aberfan, Wales;
one of the children recalls "We were laughing and playing . . .
waiting for the teacher to call the register"; 116 children
and 29 adults die . . . the children were finally buried in a
mass grave marked by a one-hundred foot cross.
............................ to be continued ............................
This post, as well as the following 4 Horrors of History posts,
will be completed upon further research ...
- Horrors of History (part 2 of 5) Brought to You by War
- Horrors of History (part 3 of 5) Brought to You by Religions
- Horrors of History (part 4 of 5) Brought to You by Hate, Greed, Madness
- Horrors of History (part 5 of 5) Brought to You by Bad Luck, Negligence,
Lack of Planning
-Dan Fake, Atheist #1468
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Pseudo-Judeo-Christian horror was no match for
genuinely hypoglycemic hunger.
-Peni R. Griffin, "The Goat Man"
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LP
wrote:
It is interesting to note that many Christians claim that these
natural disasters have greatly increased in the last few years, a sign
of the coming apocalypse.