Some scientists think the 1600 eruption of Peru's Huaynaputina caused the cooling behind Russia's Great Famine of 1601–1603, which helped spark the Time of Troubles.
The events
- Eruption of Huaynaputina1600 · Southern Peru. In February 1600 Huaynaputina produced the largest recorded eruption in South American history. Its stratospheric ash cooled the Northern Hemisphere, and researchers see a probable link to the Russian famine of 1601–1603 under Boris Godunov, a prelude to the Time of Troubles.
- Time of Troubles1598–1613 · Moscow. After the Rurikid dynasty died out, Russia was engulfed by famine, pretenders, civil war and Polish and Swedish intervention. Minin and Pozharsky's militia freed Moscow in 1612, and in 1613 an assembly elected Michael Romanov tsar.
More amazing facts
- 1582 · 1918 In autumn 1582 Catholic Europe jumped from 4 to 15 October, while Yermak’s Cossacks were marching on the capital of the Khanate of Sibir.
- 1598 · 1605 While False Dmitry I ruled in Moscow (1605–1606), the first part of Don Quixote came out in Madrid.
- 1605 · 1616 Cervantes and Shakespeare died in April 1616 on nearly the same calendar date — but Spain used the Gregorian calendar and England did not, so over a week really separates them.
- 1610 In 1610 Galileo discovered Jupiter's moons — while in Moscow the Seven Boyars ruled and a Polish garrison entered the city.
- 1613 · 1627 The last aurochs, the wild ancestor of cattle, died in a Polish forest in 1627 — 14 years after Michael Romanov was elected tsar.
- 1613 · 1618 Five years after the Romanovs came to power (1613), the Thirty Years' War broke out in Europe.