The Terrible 14th Century on This Day in History

 

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara W. Tuchman

This day in history: The St. Mary Magdalene's flood, the largest recorded flood in central Europe, happened on this day (July 22) in 1342. 

The 14th century was a particularly bad century. For instance:

The Saint Marcellus' flood killed at least 25,000 people on the shores of the North Sea in 1362.

The Great Famine of 1315-1317 killed millions of people in Europe.

The Hundred Years' War began in 1337. There was also the Teutonic takeover of Danzig (Gdansk), the Crusade of the Poor, Rebellion of mayor Albert, the Battle of Morgarten (1315), the Bruce campaign in Ireland, the Shepherds' Crusade (1320), the Swedish–Novgorodian Wars (1322), the Despenser War, the War of Metz (1324-1326), the First War of the Rügen Succession (1326-1328), the War of Hum (1326-1329), the Polish–Teutonic War (1326–1332), the Tver Uprising of 1327, the Serbian civil war of 1331, the Eltz Feud (1331-1337), the Second War of Scottish Independence (1332-1357), the Bulgarian–Ottoman Wars (1340-1396), Byzantine civil war of 1341–47, the Thuringian Counts' War (1342-1346), the Second War of the Rügen Succession (1342-54), the St. George's Night Uprising (1342-46), the Neapolitan campaigns of Louis the Great (1347-52), plus over 30 more conflicts.

The 1347–1351 Black Death killed around a third of the population of Europe. Even before this though in the early 1300's there were outbreaks of typhoid fever, dysentery and diphtheria. It has been estimated that in 1316 about 10% of the population died from these three diseases. 

A 6.9-magnitude 1348 Friuli earthquake centered in Northern Italy was felt across Europe. There was also the 1303 Crete earthquake, the 1341 Crimea quake, the 1356 Basel earthquake, and the 1382 Dover Straits earthquake. 

The Chinese Battle of Lake Poyang resulted in one of the largest naval battles in history.

1381 saw the Peasants' Revolt in England.

Anti-Jewish pogroms spread throughout Spain and Portugal in 1391, and thousands of Jews are massacred.

The 14th century also saw the transition from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age, which led to many crop failures.

There was actually another flood on this day as well. In 1993, the levees broke near Kaskaskia, Illinois, forcing the entire town to evacuate by barges operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.

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