What we now call the Black Death was actually the second of three major Bubonic plague pandemics: the first known is the Justinian Plague, which centered around Byzantium in 541–542 AD, reoccurring sporatically until around 750 AD. It is estimated that anywhere from 25 to 100 million people died. The second plague occurred in Europe and Asia in the mid-fourteenth century, carrying off some thirty to sixty percent of the population. This "Great Mortality' or 'Great Pestilence,' as it was then called, is the most catastrophic pandemic ever recorded in human history, and it would shake the social and economic foundations of Europe. It would re-emerge every generation or so, but not as catastrophically, this pandemic ended with the Great Fire of London in 1666. The third pandemic began in China in 1894, and had spread via ports all over the world by 1900. Most deaths occurred in India. The third pandemic continued until 1960.
