536

This page lists news articles and events for the year 536.

Events that happen on the specified date are listed under Events: entries. News articles that were published on the specified date are listed under News: entries. Events that only happened in fiction on the specified date are listed under Fiction: entries and are written in italics.

Centuries:	5th Century		6th Century			7th Century
Decades:	500s	510s	520s	530s	540s	550s	560s
Years:	533	534	535	536	537	538	539

Undated

• Event/Ongoing: 536 is one of the primary candidates for the title of worst year ever. The main problem was a series of volcanic eruptions at multiple volcanoes (in the area of modern Iceland, El Salvador, and North America) put up so much soot and smoke and ash into the air that the sun was essentially blotted out by a hazy and mysterious fog. Contemporary writers chronicle that for more than a year, they didn't see more than maybe 4 hours of sunlight a day, and even that was usually blurry and occluded by a thick haze so you couldn't really see the sun. This made the year cold and awful and depressing, and caused snow to fall in the summer. It ruined crops worldwide, triggering large-scale famine in Europe, China, and South America. (For another year with similar disastrously cold weather, see 1816.)
• Event/Disease A Plague tears through Constantinople. It has a high mortality rate, and the main symptom is terrible erupting buboes that spew pus. (Game idea: Erupting volcanoes and erupting sores in the same year… you could spin that as some sort of themed curse. See laws of magic for ideas about 'sympathy' and 'correspondence' in magical workings.)
• Event/Ongoing/War: The Gothic War (535-554) sees the Byzantine Empire fight the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy. One of the more interesting battles is the siege of Naples, where the army of Flavius Belisarius sneaks into and captures the city by traveling inside an old abandoned Roman aquaduct.

January

February

March

April

• April 22:
  • Event: Pope Agapetus I dies in office. He was only Pope for a mere 10 months.

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December