1 00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:02,600 Speaker 1: Well, we all know smoky skies have been huge in 2 00:00:02,640 --> 00:00:05,200 Speaker 1: the news in the past few years. But what if 3 00:00:05,200 --> 00:00:09,119 Speaker 1: the smoke was so intense that crops failed, animals died, 4 00:00:09,520 --> 00:00:12,159 Speaker 1: and more than one hundred thousand people were lost to 5 00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:15,960 Speaker 1: starvation and illness. I'm Patty Steele. The year without a 6 00:00:16,040 --> 00:00:23,400 Speaker 1: Summer is next on the backstory. Ah love those clear 7 00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:27,280 Speaker 1: blue skies. Summer days. Haven't had a lot of that lately, 8 00:00:27,360 --> 00:00:32,640 Speaker 1: have we. We've had record wildfires out west also in Canada, 9 00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:35,680 Speaker 1: which have been blanketing us with smoke and ash recently. 10 00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:39,240 Speaker 1: But now, try to imagine so much smoke in the 11 00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:42,760 Speaker 1: skies that it leads to an entire year or more 12 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:46,000 Speaker 1: without a summer, and on top of that, you have 13 00:00:46,040 --> 00:00:50,560 Speaker 1: absolutely no way of even knowing why it's happening. Okay, 14 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:53,880 Speaker 1: it's eighteen sixteen and folks in much of North America 15 00:00:53,920 --> 00:00:57,000 Speaker 1: and most of Europe saw the skies darken, but there 16 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:00,960 Speaker 1: were no storms arriving and the skies never fully cleared 17 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:05,399 Speaker 1: for several years. There's snow in June, freezing temperatures in July, 18 00:01:05,720 --> 00:01:09,280 Speaker 1: a killer frost in August, and more crops failed and 19 00:01:09,319 --> 00:01:13,360 Speaker 1: starvation killed tens of thousands of people. Now They didn't 20 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:16,240 Speaker 1: know it at the time, but it was actually caused 21 00:01:16,240 --> 00:01:20,280 Speaker 1: by the eighteen fifteen eruption of the biggest volcano in 22 00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:22,920 Speaker 1: Earth's modern history. On the other side of the world, 23 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:26,759 Speaker 1: it was Mount Tambora in Indonesia, which put out one 24 00:01:26,840 --> 00:01:30,839 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty times more ash than Mount Saint Helenstead 25 00:01:30,880 --> 00:01:37,280 Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty. This thing spewed millions of tons of dust, ash, 26 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:42,000 Speaker 1: and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere and temporarily changed the 27 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:46,839 Speaker 1: Earth's climate. It happened all across Europe and in the US. 28 00:01:47,400 --> 00:01:51,160 Speaker 1: Folks who lived through it said August felt more like October. 29 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:55,480 Speaker 1: There were freezing temps and heavy frost, which killed crops 30 00:01:55,480 --> 00:02:00,000 Speaker 1: from Maine all the way down through South Carolina. Eventually, 31 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:03,040 Speaker 1: the crop failure also took a toll on animals used 32 00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:06,720 Speaker 1: for travel and to feed people, and ultimately there wasn't 33 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:11,120 Speaker 1: nearly enough food of any sort, and that meant widespread famine, 34 00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:15,840 Speaker 1: which alone killed at least eighty thousand people. Riots, arson, 35 00:02:15,919 --> 00:02:20,360 Speaker 1: and looting took place in many European cities. Food rioters 36 00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:29,080 Speaker 1: carried flags that said bread or blood. The drastic change 37 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:34,120 Speaker 1: in temperatures also meant more disease. Viruses that caused colds 38 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:38,359 Speaker 1: and other respiratory illnesses thrive in cooler temps, and between 39 00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:41,440 Speaker 1: eighteen sixteen and all the way to eighteen nineteen, there 40 00:02:41,440 --> 00:02:46,959 Speaker 1: were major typhus epidemics in parts of Europe, including Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, 41 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:51,919 Speaker 1: and Scotland, caused by malnourishment. Famine killed more than sixty 42 00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:56,320 Speaker 1: five thousand people. And think about this, Parts of Europe 43 00:02:56,320 --> 00:02:59,400 Speaker 1: and North America had snow in the spring in summer 44 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:05,240 Speaker 1: that was brown, blue, yellow, and in some cases red again. 45 00:03:05,639 --> 00:03:08,680 Speaker 1: They had no idea why this was happening. How scary 46 00:03:08,760 --> 00:03:12,720 Speaker 1: is that, in addition to hunger and disease, the dark 47 00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:17,120 Speaker 1: skies and cold weather caused folks to migrate, and it 48 00:03:17,160 --> 00:03:20,440 Speaker 1: also led to all sorts of religious revivals and even 49 00:03:20,440 --> 00:03:24,519 Speaker 1: eventually led to new religious movements like Mormonism. They were 50 00:03:24,639 --> 00:03:27,520 Speaker 1: just trying to make sense of the Big Freeze and 51 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:33,600 Speaker 1: had no science to help them understand there actually were 52 00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:37,000 Speaker 1: a few positives to the year without summer. As those 53 00:03:37,080 --> 00:03:40,720 Speaker 1: migrants tried to escape freezing New England, they were encouraged 54 00:03:40,760 --> 00:03:44,000 Speaker 1: to head west, and that began kind of in earnest 55 00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:47,720 Speaker 1: the settling of the American Heartland, Thousands of people left 56 00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:51,360 Speaker 1: the northeast and pushed west in search of better weather, 57 00:03:51,560 --> 00:03:55,960 Speaker 1: richer soil, better growing conditions, and in the creative world, 58 00:03:56,360 --> 00:03:59,600 Speaker 1: artists captured what it all looked like. Much like the 59 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:03,920 Speaker 1: deep gold skies we've been seeing with our current smoky skies, 60 00:04:04,360 --> 00:04:09,520 Speaker 1: there were spectacular sunsets with deep red, orange and golden skies. 61 00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:12,600 Speaker 1: You can actually see it in some of the gorgeous 62 00:04:12,640 --> 00:04:16,160 Speaker 1: paintings from that period. Skies had a much more golden 63 00:04:16,200 --> 00:04:20,839 Speaker 1: appearance than the blue skies of earlier and eventually later paintings. 64 00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:24,960 Speaker 1: In addition to that, because there wasn't enough feed for horses, 65 00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:29,719 Speaker 1: botanists began to develop better fertilizers to encourage plant growth, 66 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:34,400 Speaker 1: and inventors began working on early mechanical forms of transportation, 67 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:38,599 Speaker 1: including an early version of the bicycle. It was called 68 00:04:38,640 --> 00:04:42,760 Speaker 1: a velocipede, sounds a little like a dinosaur from Jurassic Park. 69 00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:46,560 Speaker 1: But the gloom spread its magic to the literary world 70 00:04:46,600 --> 00:04:49,720 Speaker 1: as well, giving us some masterpieces. One of the most 71 00:04:49,720 --> 00:04:57,960 Speaker 1: well known Mary Shelley's epic horror novel Frankenstein. She and 72 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:02,039 Speaker 1: her husband Percy Shelley were vacationing in Switzerland with Lord 73 00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:05,480 Speaker 1: Byron and another writer. When Byron came up with an 74 00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:09,360 Speaker 1: idea to entertain one another, he proposed a contest to 75 00:05:09,360 --> 00:05:12,880 Speaker 1: see who could write the scariest story. Lord Byron and 76 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:15,760 Speaker 1: the other writer came up with a story about vampires 77 00:05:16,080 --> 00:05:21,719 Speaker 1: that eventually was published and inspired Bramstoker's Dracula, and Mary Shelley, 78 00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:25,880 Speaker 1: of course, wrote the first draft of Frankenstein. Now this 79 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:29,560 Speaker 1: is the interesting part, she said. The darkness, intellectual chat 80 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:34,680 Speaker 1: and their indulgence in opium made for a fascinating creative holiday. 81 00:05:36,279 --> 00:05:40,200 Speaker 1: Byron wrote a poem about the experience called Darkness. It 82 00:05:40,279 --> 00:05:43,719 Speaker 1: tells the story of the Year without a Summer. I 83 00:05:43,839 --> 00:05:47,120 Speaker 1: had a dream which was not all a dream. The 84 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:52,040 Speaker 1: bright sun was extinguished, and the icy earth swung blackening 85 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:56,719 Speaker 1: in the moonless air. Morn came and left and came again, 86 00:05:57,320 --> 00:06:01,960 Speaker 1: and brought no Day eighteen. The Year without a Summer 87 00:06:02,320 --> 00:06:05,800 Speaker 1: seems a little bit spookier than what we've been dealing 88 00:06:05,839 --> 00:06:19,159 Speaker 1: with lately. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is a production 89 00:06:19,279 --> 00:06:23,680 Speaker 1: of iHeartMedia and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. 90 00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:27,719 Speaker 1: Our executive producer is Steve Goldstein of Amplify Media. We're 91 00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:30,960 Speaker 1: out with new episodes twice a week. Thanks for listening 92 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:34,160 Speaker 1: to the backstory, the pieces of history you didn't know 93 00:06:34,279 --> 00:06:35,080 Speaker 1: you needed to know.