Laki Erupts: Volcanic Haze Starves Europe for Seven Years
Laki volcano in Iceland began an eight-month eruption that released a poisonous haze across Europe, killing over 9,000 Icelanders and triggering a seven-year famine. The sulfur dioxide cloud dropped temperatures across the Northern Hemisphere, devastating crops from Scotland to Egypt and contributing to the social unrest that preceded the French Revolution.
June 8, 1783
243 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on June 8
The Roman Senate proclaims Galba as emperor, marking the beginning of a tumultuous year in Roman politics that would see the empire's stability further eroded d…
Galba was 70 years old when the Senate handed him Rome. Seventy. The oldest man to ever take the throne, and he knew it. He'd spent decades as a loyal general, …
The teenage priest Elagabalus, backed by his grandmother's gold and the loyalty of Syrian legions, defeated Emperor Macrinus outside Antioch after Macrinus's ow…
Attila the Hun breached the Alps and descended upon northern Italy, systematically dismantling cities like Aquileia to force a Roman surrender. This campaign cr…
Abu Bakr seized political authority immediately after Muhammad's death, launching invasions against the Byzantine and Sassanid empires that launched a historica…
The monks never saw them coming — because no one thought the sea was a threat. Lindisfarne's abbey sat on a tidal island off Northumbria's coast, seemingly prot…
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