Virginia, July 4, 1816: Water in the cisterns froze and it snowed. Virginians couldn't know that the year before, in a world far away, a volcano was causing their dark, cold summer.
After a thousand years of peace, Mount Tambora in Indonesia began rumbling in early April 1815. On April 15, a cataclysmic eruption took 4,000 feet off the top of the mountain, spewing ash and gas 25 miles into the atmosphere. Ten thousand people died instantly. The effects were world-wide as a haze of dirt and dust blocked sunlight. Crops failed. Animals died. A world-wide famine ensued.
