In 1347 twelve ships arrived at the Sicilian port of Messina. Those who gathered on the docks were met with a terrifying sight: Most of the sailors on board were either dead or gravely ill and covered in black boils that oozed blood and pus. Italian authorities quickly ordered the fleet of “death ships'' out of the harbor, but it was too little, too late… the Black Death had arrived in Europe. Over the next five years it would go on to kill more than 20 million Europeans, more than a third of the continent's entire population. Be warned.
