mass human deaths

We always talk about the mass animal deaths but what about the mass human deaths too.

I will update this later but this is as of 2004.

 

What are the deadliest natural disasters recorded?

A death toll is the number of dead as a result of war, violence, accident, natural disaster, extreme weather, or disease.

Below is a list of death tolls for various infamous natural disasters. Most numbers are estimates and are often in dispute. The incidents are ranked by the highest estimate given.
Some events overlap categories.
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  What are the deadliest natural disasters? Top 10:

Rank	Event	Location	Date	Death Toll (Estimate)
1.	1931 Yellow River flood	Yellow River, China	Summer 1931	850,000-4,000,000
2.	1887 Yellow River flood	Yellow River, China	September-October 1887	900,000-2,000,000
3.	1970 Bhola cyclone	Ganges Delta, East Pakistan	November 13, 1970	500,000-1,000,000
4.	1201 Earthquake	Eastern Mediterranean	1201	1,000,000
5.	1938 Yellow River flood	Yellow River, China	June 9th, 1938	500,000 - 900,000
6.	Shaanxi Earthquake	Shaanxi Province, China	January 23, 1556	830,000
7.	2004 Indian Ocean earthquake/tsunami	Indian Ocean	December 26, 2004	225,000-275,000
8.	1881 Haiphong Cyclone	Haiphong, Vietnam	1881	300,000
9.	1642 Kaifeng Flood	Kaifeng, Henan Province, China	1642	300,000
10.	Tangshan Earthquake	Tangshan, China	July 28, 1976	242,000*

* Official Government figure. Estimated death toll as high as 655,000.

  What are the deadliest recorded Earthquakes?

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
830,000	Shaanxi earthquake	China	1556
287,000	Indian Ocean earthquake & tsunamis	outside Indonesia	2004
255,000	Tangshan earthquake	China	1976
230,000	Aleppo earthquake	Syria	1138
200,000	Gansu earthquake	China	1920
200,000	Xining earthquake	China	1927
200,000	Damghan earthquake	Iran	856
150,000	Ardabil earthquake	Iran	893
140,000	Great Kantō earthquake	Japan	1923
110,000	Ashgabat earthquake	Turkmenistan	1948
100,000	Messina earthquake	Italy	1908
100,000	1755 Lisbon earthquake	Portugal	1755
100,000	Chihli earthquake	China	1290
87,000+ (still rising)	2005 Kashmir earthquake	Pakistan, India	2005
80,000	Shemakha earthquake	Caucasus	1667
77,000	Tabriz earthquake	Iran	1727
70,000	Gansu earthquake	China	1932
66,000	Ancash earthquake	Peru	1970
60,000	Sicily earthquake	Sicily	1693
60,000	Quetta earthquake	British India	1935
50,000	Calabria earthquake	Italy	1783
50,000	Iran earthquake	Iran	1990
31,000–41,000	Bam earthquake	Iran	2003
32,700	Erzincan earthquake	Turkey	1939
25,000	Spitak Earthquake	Armenia	1988
23,000	Guatemala earthquake	Guatemala	1976
20,000	Gujarat earthquake	India	2001
20,000	Valparaíso earthquake	Chile	1960
17,118	Izmit earthquake	Turkey	1999
15,621	Tonghai earthquake	China	1970
11,000	Naples earthquake	Italy	1857
10,700	Bihar earthquake	India	1934
10,000	Agadir earthquake	Morocco	1960
9,748	Latur, India earthquake	India	1993
9,500	Michoacán earthquake	Mexico	1985
6,433	Great Hanshin earthquake	Kobe, Japan	1995
6,234	May 2006 Java earthquake	Yogyakarta, Indonesia	2006
3,276	Hsinchu-Taichung earthquake	Taiwan	1935
3,000	1906 San Francisco earthquake	California	1906
2,400	Chi-Chi earthquake	Taiwan	1999
2,914	Irpinia	Italy	1980
1,570	Romania earthquake	Romania	1977
1,100	Skopje earthquake	Yugoslavia	1963
1,266	Meishan earthquake	Taiwan	1905
1,000	Friuli earthquake	Italy	1976
1,084	Luzon earthquake	Philippines	1990
571	Morocco earthquake	Al Hoceima Province	2004
564	Zarand	Iran	2005
258	Napier earthquake	New Zealand	1931
131	Good Friday Earthquake	Alaska	1964
115	Long Beach earthquake of 1933	California	1933
66	Loma Prieta earthquake	California	1989
65+	Sylmar earthquake	California	1971
57	Northridge earthquake	California	1994
27	1872 Lone Pine earthquake	California	1872
13	Newcastle earthquake	Australia	1989

  Notes

A severe earthquake occurred on 5 July 1201 in the area of the eastern Mediterranean - (Upper Egypt, Syria). Every major city in the Near East was disrupted, and contemporary estimates put the total number killed at 1,100,000.

  References

• USGS

  What are the deadliest volcano eruptions?

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
92,000	Mount Tambora (see also Year Without a Summer)	Indonesia	1815
36,000	Krakatoa	Indonesia	1883
29,000	Mount Pelée	Martinique	1902
23,000	Nevado del Ruiz	Colombia	1985
18,000	Mount Vesuvius	Italy	1631
15,000	Mount Unzen	Japan	1792
10,000	Kelut	Indonesia	1586
9,350	Laki	Iceland	1783
6,000	Santa Maria	Guatemala	1902
5,115	Kelut	Indonesia	1912
4,000	Galunggung	Indonesia	1822
3,600	Mount Vesuvius	Roman Empire	79
3,500	El Chichón	Mexico	1982
1,680	Soufrière	St. Vincent West Indies	1902
1,000	Cotopaxi	Ecuador	1887
700	Mount Pinatubo	Philippines	1991
245	Nyiragongo	Congo	2002
152	Mt Ruapehu, Tangiwai	New Zealand	1953
57	Mount St. Helens	Washington	1980

  Notes

A supervolcano that erupted at Lake Toba around 74,000 years ago is thought to have reduced the global human population to less than 10 thousand, which isn't much, as the global population was at most around a million at the time; see Toba catastrophe theory. This eruption is not listed because it occurred before recorded history. Also, the Thera eruption in the Aegean Sea between 1550 and 1650 B.C. may have caused a large number of deaths throughout the region, from Crete to Egypt.

  References

• Volcanoworld.org
• Global Volcanism Program
• USGS

  What were the deadliest tsunamis?

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
228,000–310,000	Indian Ocean earthquake with tsunami	Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Somalia, Myanmar, and other countries	2004
100,000	1755 Lisbon earthquake, tsunami, earthquake and fire	Portugal and Morocco	1755
70,000	Messina Italy earthquake and tsunami	Italy	1908
40,000	South China Sea	China and Taiwan	1782
36,000	Krakatoa volcano explosion	Indonesia	1883
30,000	Tōkaidō-Nankaidō	Japan	1707
27,000	Japan		1826
25,674	Chile		1868
22,070	Sanriku	Japan	1896
15,030	caused by Mount Unzen, Southwest Kyūshū	Japan	1792
13,486	Ryūkyū Trench		1771
5,233	Tōkaidō-Kashima	Japan	1703
5,000	Nankaidō	Japan	1605
5,000	Moro Gulf	Philippines	1976
4,000	Borneo	Indonesia	1952
3,000	Papua New Guinea	1998
3,008	Sanriku	Japan	1933
2,000	Great Chilean Earthquake	deaths in Chile, U.S. (Hawaii), Philippines and Japan	1960
2,000	Bristol Channel, possible tsunami	United Kingdom	1607
540	Java earthquake		2006
165	Aleutian Island earthquake	deaths in Hawaii and Alaska, U.S.	1946
122	Good Friday Earthquake	Alaska and Hawaii, U.S.	1964
46	Southeast coast of Big Island of Hawaii		1868
27 or 51	Placentia Bay	Newfoundland	1929
23	Nice	France	1979

  Limnic Eruptions

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
1,800	Lake Nyos	Cameroon	1986
37	Lake Monoun	Cameroon	1984

  Extreme Weather

  Heatwaves

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
35,000	European Heat Wave of 2003	Europe	2003
1,250 - 10,000	1980 United States heat wave	United States	1980
4,000	heat waves in Texas, Middle East and India		1998
739	Chicago Heat Wave of 1995	Chicago	1995
437	Southern regions, Australia 1895-1896	Australia	1895-1896
271	heat waves in Midwest and Northeast		1999

  Hail

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
'several hundred'	Roopkund, Uttaranchal	India	eighth century
246	Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh	India	1888
25	Henan Province	China	2002

  Smog

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
4,000	Great Smog of 1952	United Kingdom	1952

  Storms

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
15,000	torrential rains and mudslides	Venezuela	1999
669 (and 695 missing)	heavy storms ("Winnie")	Philippines	2004
250+	Great Lakes Storm of 1913	Great Lakes basin region	1913

  Lightning Strikes

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
81	lightning struck Boeing 707 airliner	near Elkton, Maryland	1963

  What are the deadliest tornadoes?

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
1,300	The Saturia-Manikganj Sadar Tornado	Manikganj, Bangladesh	1989
695	The Tri-State Tornado	MO-IL-IN, USA	1925
500	The Narail-Magura Tornadoes	Jessore, Bangladesh	1964
317	The Great Natchez Tornado	LA-MS, USA	1840
255	The St. Louis-East St. Louis Tornado	MO-IL, USA	1896
233 The Tupelo Tornado	MS, USA	1936
203	The Gainesville Tornado	GA, USA	1936
181	The Glazier-Higgins-Woodward Tornadoes	TX-OK-KS, USA	1947
160	The Chakislampur-Goborghata Tornado	West Bengal-Orissa, India	1998
150	The Purunabandha and Keonjhargarh Tornadoes	Orissa, India	1978
143	The Amite-Pine-Purvis Tornadoes	LA-MS, USA	1908
139	The Assam Tornado	Assam, India	1963
118	The Dhaka Tornado	Dhaka, Bangladesh	1888
117	The New Richmond Tornado	WI, USA	1899
115	The Flint Tornado	MI, USA	1953
114	The Waco Tornado	TX, USA	1953
114	The Goliad Tornado	TX, USA	1902
94	The Worcester Tornado	MA, USA	1953
54	The San Justo Tornado	Buenos Aires Province, Argentina	1973

  Cyclones, Hurricanes and Typhoons

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
500,000	Bhola cyclone	Bangladesh	1970
300,000	India cyclone		1839
300,000	cyclone Haiphong	Vietnam	1881
229,000	Super Typhoon Nina - contributed to Banqiao Dam failure	China	1975
138,000	1991 Bangladesh cyclone	Chittagong Bangladesh	1991
60,000	typhoon	China	1922
60,000	1864 Calcutta cyclone	India	1864
50,000	typhoon	China	1912
40,000	cyclone	India	1942
30,000	cyclone	Bangladesh	June 1, 1965
22,000	Great Hurricane of 1780	Barbados, Martinique, St. Eustatius	1780
22,000	cyclone	Pakistan	1963
20,000	cyclone	India	1977
18,277	Hurricane Mitch	Central America	1998
17,000	cyclone	Bangladesh	May 11, 1965
10,000	cyclone	Karachi, Pakistan	1965
10,000	cyclone in Orissa	India	1999
10,000	typhoon	Hong Kong	1906
9,574	cyclone	India	1999
8,000	Galveston Hurricane of 1900	Texas United States	September 8, 1900
8,000	hurricane	Dominican Republic	1930
8,000	Hurricane Fifi	Honduras	1974
7,200	Hurricane Flora	Haiti	Cuba	1963
6,000	Typhoon Thelma	Philippines	1991
6,000	cyclone	Pakistan	1960
5,000	Typhoon Vera	Japan	1958
4,170	Newfoundland Hurricane	U.S., Newfoundland	1775
4,075+	Lake Okeechobee Hurricane	U.S.	1928
4,000	hurricane	Canada	1775
3,433	hurricane	Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic	1899
3,107	hurricane	Cuba	1932
3,037	Hurricane Jeanne	Haiti	2004
3,000	hurricane	Atlantic Ocean	1782
3,000	hurricane	Cuba	1791
3,000	1737 Calcutta cyclone	India	1737
2,500	cyclone	Andhra Pradesh	1996
2,334	Typhoon Iris	China	1959
2,150	hurricane	Caribbean	1935
2,060	Hurricane David	Dominican Republic, U.S.	1979
2,000-3,000	hurricane	Central America	1934
2,000	hurricane	Gulf of Mexico	1780
2,000	hurricane	Florida	1781
2,000	hurricane	Cuba, Florida	1870
2,000	Chenier Caminada Hurricane	Louisiana	1893
1,836 not including the 705 missing	Hurricane Katrina	United States	2005
1,620	Hurricane Stan	Mexico, Central America	2005
1,600	Typhoon Mary	China	1960
1,500-2,500	hurricane	Windward Islands	1831
1,500-2,500	hurricane	Central America	1931
1,500	hurricane	Greater Antilles, Mexico	1909
1,300	Typhoon Ike	Philippines	1984
1,200	Hurricane Hazel	Grenada, Bahamas, Haiti, U.S., Canada	1954
1,145	Hurricane Gordon	Haiti, U.S.	1994
1,115	hurricane	Jamaica, Cuba	1780
1,000-2,000	Sea Islands Hurricane	Georgia, South Carolina	1893
1,000	Hurricane Inez	Greater Antilles, Mexico	1966
1,000	cyclone	India	1998
921	hurricane	Greater Antilles, Mexico	1888
709	hurricane	Cuba	1926
700	hurricane	Georgia	1881
700	hurricane	Greater Antilles	1891
600-700	hurricane	U.S.	1788
682	New England Hurricane of 1938	U.S.	1938
602	Hurricane Georges	Greater Antilles	1998
600	hurricane	Florida, Gulf of Mexico, Texas	1919
600	Hurricane Fox	(Cuba	1952
540-680	Hurricane Janet	(Honduras, Mexico	1955
424	hurricane	North Carolina	1857
408	Labor Day Hurricane	Florida	1935
400	Last Island Hurricane	(Louisiana	1856
400	Cyclone Mahina	Australia	1899
400	Hurricane Hattie	Belize	1961
400	hurricane	Texas	1915
399-550	Hurricane Audrey	Louisiana	1957
390	hurricane	U.S.	1944
387	hurricane	U.S.	1866
383	hurricane	Windward Islands	1898
364	Hurricane Donna	(every U.S. state on east coast	1960
350	hurricane	Louisiana	1909
318	Hurricane Gilbert	Jamaica and Mexico	1988
265-350	Great Miami Hurricane	Florida, Louisiana	1926
256	Hurricane Camille	U.S.	1969
228	Hurricane Allen	Caribbean U.S.	1980
217	Hurricane Cleo	Caribbean and Florida	1964
216	Hurricane Joan	(Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador	1988
200	Hurricane Hilda	Mexico	1955
200	Hurricane Diane	North Carolina	1955
122	Hurricane Agnes	Eastern United States	1972
120	Hurricane Ivan	Caribbean, Alabama, Florida	2004
113	Hurricane Rita	Florida, Mississippi, Texas	2005
96	Hurricane Diana	Mexico	1990
96	Typhoon Nari	Taiwan	2001
86	Hurricane Hugo	Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, South Carolina	1989
80	Hurricane Eloise	Hispaniola and Eastern United States	1975
76	Hurricane Betsy	Louisiana	1965
72	Typhoon Toraji	Taiwan	2001
71	Cyclone Tracy	Australia	1974
62	Hurricane Andrew	Bahamas, Florida, Louisiana	1992
60	Hurricane Carol	New England	1954
59	Hurricane Beulah	Texas 1967
59	Hurricane Opal	Guatemala, Mexico, Florida	1995
57	Hurricane Floyd	Bahamas, North Carolina	1999
51	Hurricane Cesar	Nicaragua, Central America, Colombia ,Venezuela	1996
51	Typhoon Herb	Taiwan	1996
45	1939 Long Beach Tropical Storm	California	1939
43	Hurricane Celia	Texas	1970
42	Hurricane Hortense	Leeward Islands	1996
41	Tropical Storm Allison	Texas	2001
40	Hurricane Isabel	North Carolina	2003
38	Hurricane Hilda	Louisiana	1964
35	Hurricane Charley	Jamaica, Cuba, Florida	2004
34	Hurricane Fran	North Carolina	1996

  References

• CRED EM-DAT
• Forces of Nature: Worst Disasters
• Epic Disasters: Deadliest Hurricanes

  Floods and Landslides

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
1,000,000–3,700,000	1931 Huang He flood	China	1931
900,000–2,000,000	1887 Huang He flood	China	1887
500,000-900,000	1938 Huang He flood	China	1938
231,000	Banqiao Dam failure. Approximately 86,000 people died from flooding and another 145,000 died during subsequent epidemics.	China	1975.
145,000	1935 Yangtze river flood	China	1935
100,000	flood	North Vietnam	1971
100,000	1911 Yangtze river flood	China	1911
30,000	1954 Yangtze river flood	China	1954
25,000–?	Grote Mandrenke, storm tide	Netherlands, Germany, Denmark	1362
10,000	Great Iran Flood	Iran	1954
2,200	Johnstown Flood	Pennsylvania	1889
2,142	North Sea flood of 1953 storm surge	(Netherlands, United Kingdom	1953
2,000–5,000 some reports list as many as 12,000 dead	Manchhu River dam burst	(Morvi, Gujarat, India	1979
1,909	Vajont Dam landslide and flood	Italy	1963
1,800	2006 Southern Leyte mudslide	Philippines	(2006
1,605–3,363	spring flooding in Haiti and Dominican Republic		2004
1,000	Mumbai (Bombay) and the surrounding state Maharashtra	India	26th July 2005
400	St. Francis Dam failure	California	1928
315	North Sea flood of 1962 storm tide	Germany	1962
270	Great Sheffield flood dam disaster	England	1864
94	Mameyes Disaster lanslide	Ponce, Puerto Rico	1985
81	Holmfirth Flood - Bilberry Reservoir dam failure	West Yorkshire, England	1852
78	Austin Dam failure	Pennsylvania	1911
70	New Orleans dike failure	Louisiana	2005
47	McDonald Dam failure	Austin, Texas	1900
16	Brisbane flood	Australia	1974

  Wildfires, Bushfires

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
418	Hinckley Fire	Minnesota, United States	1894
250+	Thumb Fire	Michigan, United States	1881
160	Miramichi Fire, New Brunswick	Canada	1825
75	Ash Wednesday[1]	Southern Australia	1983
71	Black Friday	Victoria, Australia	1939
62	1967 Tasmanian fires	Tasmania, Australia	1967
60	SE Victoria (incl Gippsland & Dandenongs) Bushfire [2]	Victoria, Australia	1926

  References

• Department of Sustainability and Environment
• Emergency Management Australia

And what about the several hundred millions deathes caused by malaria throughout the centuries ???

  Blizzards

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
4,000		Iran	1972
400	Great Blizzard of '88	Northeastern United States	1888
318	1993 North American Storm Complex	Northeastern United States	1993
235	Schoolhouse Blizzard	Great Plains, USA	1888
144	Armistice Day Blizzard	Midwest, USA	1940
54	Blizzard of '78	Northeastern United States	1978
29	Blizzard of 1977	Buffalo, New York, USA	1977

  Contractible Diseases

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
300,000,000+	Smallpox		20th Century alone
300,000,000+	Bubonic Plague: Black Death		1300's-1720's;
	Plague of Justinian		540-590
	Third Pandemic (same disease)		1850's-1950's
20,000,000 - 100,000,000	Spanish Flu	worldwide	1918 - 1919
10,000,000 - 100,000,000	deaths from diseases in Europe (millions) and the Americas (tens of millions) from diseases exchanged between continents after 1492
25,250,000	AIDS	deaths worldwide	1981 - present
10,000,000	Bubonic Plague	China	1892 - 1896
5,000,000	Antonine Plague	Roman Empire	165 - 180)
4,000,000	Asian Flu pandemic	worldwide	1957
1,000,000	Hong Kong Flu pandemic	worldwide	1968
130,000	North American smallpox epidemic		1775 - 1782
60,000	Great Plague of London	London, UK	1666
775	Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)	Mostly East Asia, few cases in Europe, Canada and United States	2002-2003
677	West Nile Virus outbreak	(North America	1999 - 2004
256	H5N1 strain of Bird Flu	(mainly in Asia, few in Africa and Middle East)	2003-present

  Famine

Please Note: Some of these famines may be partially or completely caused by humans.

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
1,000,000–43,000,000	Period of Three Difficult Years (most estimates are between 20 and 30 million)	(China	1958 - 1961) * 24,000,000 Chinese Famine of 1907
5,000,000	Chinese Famine of 1936	China	1936
5,000,000	Holodomor	USSR	1932-1934
5,000,000	Ukraine and Volga Famine	USSR	1921-1922
3,000,000	Chinese Drought 1941	China	1941
3,000,000	Chinese Famine of 1928-1930	China	1928 - 1930
3,000,000	Indian Drought of 1900	India	1900
1,500,000 - 3,000,000	Bengal Famine of 1943	India	1943
1,500,000	Indian Drought of 1965-1967	India	1965 - 1967
1,200,000	North Korean famine	North Korea	1995 - 1998
1,100,000	Irish potato famine	Ireland	1846-1849
1,000,000	Ethopian famine	Ethopia	1984
150,000	Finnish famine of 1866-1868	Finnland	1866-1868
30,000	Dutch famine of 1944	The Netherlands	1944