Wednesday, June 24, 2015

History Trivia - outbreak of St. John's Dance in streets of Aachen, Germany

June 24

109 The Aqua Traiana was inaugurated by Emperor Trajan, the aqueduct channeled water from Lake Bracciano, 25 miles north-west of Rome.

803 Bishop Higbald of Lindisfarne died. In a communiqué to the scholar Alcuin of York (teacher at the Carolingian court at the invitation of Charlemagne), he described in graphic detail the Viking raid on Lindisfarne on 8 January 793 in which many of his monks were killed.

1374 A sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance (Dancing Plague) caused people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapsed from exhaustion. One of the most prominent theories is that victims suffered from ergot (fungus) poisoning.

 

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