Today (12-12-2020) is a special day. This would be last time in lifetime of our generation, century and year is going to be same. Next time this would happen would be in 2121, 101 years from now. Considering the pandemic we had this year, I did some research about history of major events when century and year are same.
Here is a summary –
- In year 1010, Nile river in Egypt froze
- In year 1111, in Battle of Shaizar, 16,000 people were killed.
- In year 1212, most of London was burnt in a fire which killed 3,000 people. Year of 1212 also saw foundations being laid for Turkish and Mughal rule in India.
- Year of 1313 saw parts of India under rule of Khilji dynasty.
- In year 1414, rule of Sayyid dynasty began in Delhi which was followed by Lodhi dynasty which was followed by Mughal rule.
- Year of 1515 saw expansion of Portuguese rule along coastal areas in India.
- In 1616, in what’s considered today’s New England area of United States, Indian smallpox epidemic killed about 90% of native Indian population of the region.
- In 1717, an earthquake destroyed much of Antigua Guatemala destroying complete city. Year of 1717 also deadly flooding in North Sea destroying life in Netherlands and Denmark.
- Early part of 1818 saw Maratha empire lose multiple crucial wars against East India Company which resulted in 150 years of British rule in Indian subcontinent.
- In 1919, when world was still recovering from aftermath of World War 1 and deadly Spanish flu, Adolf Hitler began his rise in German politics. 1919 also saw Russian Civil war turning towards Communist party and thus began deadly Lenin era. Jallianwala Bagh Massacre also took place in 1919 (thanks Vibhu for call out).
Based on historical evidence of last 1000 years, it’s clear when century and year is some tragic events have taken place. What would happen in year 2121 only time would tell… (Or perhaps based on this evidence may be world should go from year 2120 to 2122 and skip 2121! 🙃)
PS – while most of us seem to think year 2020 is worst year for mankind, experts don’t agree. According to experts year 536 was worst ever (yet). Due to volcanic eruptions there were drastic weather changes that damaged crops. It affected food supply for couple of years which resulted in famine (and there was no WiFi and Cellular Internet service then)….