The Year the World Froze Over -- Berardelli 2008 (805): 3 -- ScienceNOW

It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but nearly 13 millennia ago Europe was plunged suddenly into a deep freeze that lasted 1300 years--and the change happened in little more than a year, according to new data. The evidence also suggests that strong winds, not ocean currents, drove the rapid climate change.

Soon after the end of the last ice age, some 12,700 years ago, Europe suddenly fell into another perpetual winter...