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    Early in the afternoon in 1816, a Massachusetts farmer walked out into his fields and stopped to take in the unbelievable view that lay before him. It didn’t seem possible. He was experiencing crop failure as snow fell and the wind howled around him.

     He crossed his arms for warmth and trudged through the fields in stunned, silent disbelief. His breath turned to frost, the frozen ground beneath his feet crunched as he walked about gazing in horror at the wilted vines and plants that lay dead and dying at his feet. The farmer pondered why this was happening to him. Was this the wrath of God? How would he feed his family? How was it possible to get a foot of snow in the middle of June?

    It was June of 1816, and a foot of snow lay on the ground in New England. As far south as Pennsylvania, lake and river ice crusted the banks of the bodies of water. The temperature had dropped in a matter of hours bringing with it wintry conditions that destroyed crops and set the stage for famine around the world.   

     In Italy, red snow fell on many cities. Brown snow covered the ground in China where the unprecedented cold weather killed trees, rice crops and water buffalo. Two massive snowstorms held Quebec in its wintry clutches.

    It was the “Year without Summer,” the year following Mount Tambora’s eruption on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia. The eruption occurred on April 5-15 1815 with a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 7. It was a super colossal event that ejected massive amounts of volcanic dust into the upper atmosphere. It was the largest eruption in more than 1,600 years. It was 10 times larger than Krakatoa and 100 times larger than Mount Vesuvius or Mount St. Helens. The eruption shot more than 100 cubic kilometers of molten rock more than 30 miles skyward. But, it was the massive cloud of nearly 400 million tons of gas that was released into the atmosphere that produced the year without summer and caused the most death.

   At the base of the mountain lay the peaceful village of Tambora. The village was home to more than 10,000 natives. All of who died during the initial eruption as a massive river of molten lava, a cloud of poisonous gas and thick clouds of ash raced toward their village. As the temperature in the immediate area around the volcano reached more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, many villagers were vaporized. The village was completely destroyed and a language, culture and race were lost forever.

   As the massive cloud of gas and ash drifted around the globe, the effects were catastrophic. The cloud of sulfuric acid became suspended in the stratosphere causing a veil over the Earth. The veil acted like a mirror bouncing the sun’s radiant heat back into space and decreasing the heat reaching the earth.

   The eruption disrupted China’s monsoon season resulting in the flooding of the Yangtze River in 1816. In India the delay of the monsoons caused torrential rains that aggravated the spread of cholera from a region near the River Ganges all the way to Moscow.  

    In North America, the cooler temperatures brought crop failure, which led to higher prices for produce followed by regional starvation and famine. 

    Europe, still reeling from the Napoleonic Wars, suffered food shortages and food riots broke out in London. In France, grain warehouses were looted. In landlocked Switzerland, the violence reached a fevered pitch where famine forced the government to declare martial law. In Ireland, a major typhus epidemic caused the deaths of more than 100,000. The epidemic was precipitated by the famine caused by the Year without Summer. The total fatalities from the famine in Europe are estimated at more than 200,000.

   This is an excerpt from a new book written by Michael Williams. The book is entitled "Stranger than Fiction: The Lincoln Curse." The 50 strange but true stories will leave the reader convinced that perhaps Mark Twain was right when he said "truth is stranger than fiction."

   Michael Williams has written for more than 30 newspapers and magazines including the Civil War Times Illustrated, The Civil War Courier, the Associated Press and the Knoxville Journal.

    The book is 187 pages in a softbound edition with numerous photos. The book can be purchased from amazon.com for $19.95 plus shipping and handling or you can save shipping cost and save $2 on the purchase price by ordering a signed copy directly from the author. Send $17.95 to P.O. Box 6421 Sevierville, TN. 37864.    

For more information visit this web Site www.strangerthanfictionnews.com.