The Year Without a Summer

The year 1816 had no summer anywhere on Earth because of a single volcanic explosion.

Mount Tambora in Indonesia erupted so violently that it launched ash 28 miles into the

atmosphere, creating a global winter that lasted months. Crops failed worldwide,

people starved, and snow fell in June across Europe and North America. But here's the crazy

part: this disaster accidentally created some of humanity's greatest innovations. Mary Shelley was

stuck indoors during that freezing summer, so she wrote Frankenstein to pass time. The crop failures

forced German inventor Karl Drais to create the first bicycle because horses were dying from lack

of food. Artists started painting those iconic orange and red sunsets because volcanic