January 23, 1556—a day so devastating it makes modern disasters look like minor inconveniences. On this fateful Thursday, an ...

However, the world cannot forget what happened on January 23, 1556. The 1556 Shaanxi earthquake, which struck China’s Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces on January 23, is referred to as the world’s ...

In 1556, the global population was less than half a billion so the death toll of 830,000 is almost certainly the greatest relative loss of lives in a day. Compare this to the two atomic bombs that ...