http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2016/07/is_2016_the_worst_year_in_history.html
1919 was "Not so nice"
America had won the First World War but effectively lost the peace. An isolationist Senate refused to ratify the League of Nations treaty while President Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke. Meanwhile, as the government ended wartime spending and regulations, inflation skyrocketed and unemployment shot up to 20 percent. An influenza epidemic, one of the worst in history, killed a half-million Americans. The 18th Amendment introduced Prohibition and a decade of lawlessness. More immediately, the infamous "bloody summer of 1919" saw race riots in cities across the country: Chicago erupted in five days of brutal violence that left 500 wounded and 38 dead. Meanwhile, lynchings continued to rise, with 76 black Americans killed, including 10 veterans. And the BAD $HIT cotinued...
People have no perspective...
And sometimes I have trouble taking my historian hat off. After 9/11, a common refrain was "We will never forget" and as a historian, I thought, "oh yes, we will."
Or several years ago, I saw a "12 Greatest Presidents" issue of Life in the checkout line. I looked and something like 7 were after FDR and it included Obama. Now, not to get political, but I generally like Obama, but keep in mind, as I say, this was *several* years ago. Obama was about halfway through his first term. Even if God became president, I wouldn't put him/her on the "greatest" list until at least a decade after he/she was out of office.
I could go on. The lack of historical perspective is a chronic disease and I'm fairly sure it's worse in North American than in Europe or Asia.