Tossup
During this decade, a climate event summarized in a 1993 paper by Thordarson and Self aggravated the Chalisa famine, which devastated northern India. A summer of “horrible phenomena” during this decade was recorded in Gilbert White’s The Natural History of Selborne. On a day in this decade, a pastor’s so-called “fire mass” was said to miraculously stop a lava river flowing at his church. A haze killed cattle en masse during the “mist hardships” in this decade, caused by the months-long eruption of Laki in Iceland. A fraudulent report, the Compte rendu au roi (“CONT rahn-DEW oh RWAH”), was issued by a finance minister in this decade, in which a harsh winter led to exorbitant bread prices in a bankrupt country reconvening a legislature that hadn’t met in 175 years. For 10 points, name this decade in which the Estates-General failed to prevent the French Revolution. ■END■
ANSWER: 1780s CE [prompt on the 80s] (The “fire mass” was delivered by Jón Stengrimsson after eruptions in 1783. The finance minister is Jacques Necker.)
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