#19: Strasbourg’s Relentless Dancing Plague
No one remembers Strasbourg in 1518 because people enjoyed a festival. They remember it because the dancing became a crisis. Historical accounts describe a woman beginning to dance in the street, followed by others, until authorities faced a public problem they did not know how to stop. Later versions speak of exhaustion and even deaths, though historians debate the details. Theories have ranged from mass psychogenic illness to religious fear, social stress, and possible environmental factors.
