What are the origins of this fun-filled festive custom?
So, we often think we’ve made it this far because we’re pretty smart, right? But when you look back, there’s a ton of stuff that could have gone seriously wrong. Think about all the natural disasters, global health crises, and even our own goof-ups. It’s not just our smart survival skills that got us to the 21st century, but also a whole lot of luck. By looking at the close shaves in history, we can learn some important stuff about how to dodge and tackle future problems.
Keep on reading to find out about the crazy close calls that could have totally changed or even wiped out life as we know it today.
Around 47,000 years ago, one of the largest volcanic eruptions in history occurred—the Toba supervolcano in what is now Indonesia. It covered around 4,350 miles (7,000 km) of Southeast Asia with ash and spewed out 700 cubic miles (2,800 cubic km) of magma.
Around the same time of the eruption, human life in the area declined dramatically and was almost completely wiped out. For the ancient inhabitants of the region, this was a truly apocalyptic event. Today, the huge caldera of the volcano is filled with water and known as Lake Toba (see picture).
There have been more than a few times when objects from outer space have come dangerously close to Earth. One such heart-stopping moment happened in 1981, when the asteroid 4581 Asclepius passed by our planet. If the asteroid arrived six hours earlier, it would have hit the Earth with a force 12 times greater than that of an atomic bomb.
The event known as the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction was a real game-changer. About 65 million years ago, a comet smashed into Earth and wiped out almost all life forms. The fact that a few small mammals and underwater creatures survived and repopulated the Earth is one of the biggest lucky breaks in biological history.
The closest the world came to nuclear war was in 1962, during a tense time that we now know as the Cuban Missile Crisis. The fate of humanity hung by a thread controlled by just three men: John F. Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev, and Fidel Castro.
When the USSR started setting up missile silos and shipping materials to its ally Cuba, the United States took it as a clear war threat. This sparked a nuclear face-off that kept the world on edge for 13 days, until Khrushchev agreed to cancel his Cuban missile program.
Smallpox, one of the most dangerous and resistant diseases in history, has caused serious and almost irreparable damage to the world's population on several occasions. Fortunately, an effective vaccine was developed in the 20th century before this disastrous disease was given another chance.
One of the many frightening mistakes NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) made during the Cold War occurred in 1971 when an Air Force base accidentally sent out an emergency message confirming that it was not an exercise. Reporters and radio listeners held their breath for about five minutes, waiting for the news that the entire nation had been dreading for years... but it turned out that NORAD officers had sent the wrong recording to radio stations and it was actually a routine drill.
In 1979, NORAD made another potentially catastrophic error when they mistook a practice tape for a genuine nuclear attack. Fortunately there were enough doubters who questioned the authenticity of the alerts, so no action was taken until it was finally confirmed that the alerts were false.
During the Cold War, NORAD had earned a reputation for its unpredictable and potentially catastrophic mistakes. In 1980 it happened again: a faulty microchip falsely indicated that the USSR had 220 nuclear weapons aimed at the United States. President Jimmy Carter was on the verge of ordering a retaliatory strike, but the bug was discovered just in time.
In the 14th century, a well-known and terrible disease known as the Black Death killed around 60% of the European population. This devastating epidemic had long-lasting effects on civilization, potentially setting it back countless decades or even centuries, and could have destroyed European civilization as we know it.
In 1957, an airplane in New Mexico accidentally dropped the largest hydrogen bomb ever. Luckily, the 42,000-pound (19,050-kg) bomb fell in an unpopulated area outside Albuquerque, and didn't explode! No one was injured, but it left a crater 12-foot (3.7 m) deep and 25-foot (7.6 m) wide in the desert.
Although the sun appears to be far away, its mood swings can severely affect our lives on Earth. In 2012, a solar storm flare missed our planet by only a week, but it almost completely destroyed power grids and communication networks worldwide.
The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred in 1859. It was similar to the one in 2012 and brought global communications to a standstill. A solar flare paralyzed the entire telegraph system. There were even reports of sparks shooting out of telegraph machines and electric shocks to employees. Fortunately, governments, bank accounts, and people's livelihoods were not as dependent on electricity as they are today, but it was still a relatively catastrophic event for the time.
The ash from this eruption covered the whole world. In Indonesia, there was complete darkness for several days as the ground was covered with a six feet (1.5 m) thick layer of ash. It is estimated that more than 100,000 people died directly or indirectly as a result of the eruption.
The eruption of Indonesia's Mount Tambora in 1815 was the most destructive volcanic event in modern history, causing mass deaths, crop failures, and sudden and severe climate change.
Many may still remember the feeling of fear when the Chelyabinsk meteor struck south-eastern Russia in 2013. Due to its size and speed, the meteor had a force equivalent to that of a nuclear bomb and could easily have destroyed an entire city if it had landed in a more populated area.
The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 was one of the most terrible nuclear accidents in history. After the collapse of one of the plant's main reactors, astonishing amounts of radiation were released into the surrounding area.
The meltdown turned the neighboring city of Pripyat into a ghost town practically overnight, and it is still dangerously radioactive today. The Chernobyl reactor is currently encased in a huge concrete sarcophagus that will remain intact for the next century.
Nuclear accidents are rated according to their severity on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES), and range from level 1 to 7. Like Chernobyl, the accident in Fukushima was a level 7, but it happened due to natural causes for which the power plant was not prepared.
In 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake triggered a tsunami that caused three reactor meltdowns. Over 1,000 people died and more than 100,000 were displaced. This was one of only two level 7 incidents that have ever occurred. People slowly returned to the evacuated towns around the region, which were gradually cleared. However, the radiation levels in the sea are still worrying.
The explosion in Idaho Falls in 1961 could have had catastrophic consequences for Idaho and might have been the equivalent of a North American Chernobyl. Mistakes were made during the removal of a control rod, the power plant collapsed and could have caused widespread destruction had it not been handled quickly and correctly.
The comets observed by the Mexican amateur astronomer Jose Bollina were not of great significance at the time, but further investigations revealed that the shower of 450 meteorites came dangerously close to Earth and possibly missed our planet by only a few hours.
During the Cold War, war games were a frequent occurrence globally to ensure military readiness. However, at times, these exercises were misinterpreted, leading to potential conflict between superpowers. This is precisely what happened during NATO's Able Archer 83 exercises, which the USSR mistook as genuine preparations for war. The world came dangerously close to a catastrophic misunderstanding before the conclusion of the training program.
When China's most important body of water, the Yangtze, burst its banks in 1931, the consequences were catastrophic and could easily have led to a social collapse in the region. Over 3.7 million people died from the floods and the widespread crop failures they caused.
In the 1990s, scientists came dangerously close to wiping out all agriculture on the European continent. A German GMO manufacturer was on the verge of launching a new organism, Klebsiella planticola. Fortunately, an independent study found that Klebisella would quickly and efficiently decimate all plants it came into contact with. This could have been the worst famine crisis mankind has ever experienced.
In 1556, the Shaanxi province of China was struck by one of the most catastrophic earthquakes known to mankind. The calamity claimed the lives of approximately 830,000 people, undoubtedly stalling the region's progress for many generations.
Rockets are not always launched with violent intent, although one might mistakenly believe so. In 1995, Norway conducted an experimental rocket launch with the objective of studying the Northern Lights. When Russian scanners picked up the missile, they mistook it for an act of war and came dangerously close to retaliating and starting World War III before the truth emerged.
The Hyakutake comet, also known as the Great Comet of 1996, was named after its discoverer Yuji Hyakutake. Its trajectory was extremely close to Earth in 1996, and was in fact the closest encounter with a comet in the last 200 years.
More deadly than the First World War and the Black Plague, the Spanish Flu claimed the lives of 40 million people at the beginning of the 20th century. If it had not been stopped, it would have further decimated the world's population.
During the Cold War, the USSR also had its share of false alarms. A glitch in Soviet radar technology triggered a warning of a major US nuclear attack. The technician on duty, Stanislav Petrov (pictured), relied on his instinct that something was wrong and decided not to alert his superiors, who could have ordered an immediate counterattack.
Sources: (Gizmodo) (List25) (Genetic Literacy Project)
See also: Doomsday songs about the end of the world
Almost history: events that nearly changed the world
This is how we've been dodging Armageddon!
LIFESTYLE World
So, we often think we’ve made it this far because we’re pretty smart, right? But when you look back, there’s a ton of stuff that could have gone seriously wrong. Think about all the natural disasters, global health crises, and even our own goof-ups. It’s not just our smart survival skills that got us to the 21st century, but also a whole lot of luck. By looking at the close shaves in history, we can learn some important stuff about how to dodge and tackle future problems.
Keep on reading to find out about the crazy close calls that could have totally changed or even wiped out life as we know it today.