The most notable eruptions of Krakatoa culminated in a series of massive explosions over 26–27 August 1883, which were among the most violent volcanic events in recorded history.

[7][5] One of the earliest mentions of the name Krakatoa is in the Old Sundanese text Bujangga Manik, which was probably written in western Java in the late 15th century.

The Javanese Book of Kings (Pustaka Raja), a 19th-century compilation of historical traditions from Central Java, records that in the year 338 Śaka (416 AD): A thundering sound was heard from the mountain Batuwara [now called Pulosari, an extinct volcano in Bantam, the nearest to the Sunda Strait] which was answered by a similar noise from Kapi, lying westward of the modern Bantam [(Banten) is the westernmost province in Java, so this seems to indicate that Krakatoa is meant].

[18] David Keys, Ken Wohletz, and others have postulated that a violent volcanic eruption, possibly of Krakatoa, in 535 was responsible for the global climate changes of 535–536.

In February 1681, Johann Wilhelm Vogel, a Dutch mining engineer at Salida, Sumatra (near Padang), on his way to Batavia (now Jakarta) passed through the Sunda Strait.

The rising smoke column of this island can be seen from miles away; we were with our ship very close to shore and we could see the trees sticking out high on the mountain, and which looked completely burned, but we could not see the fire itself.

A paraphrased account follows: On 8 September 1832, US sloop-of-war Peacock anchored off the north end, also visiting Lang Island, in search of inhabitants, fresh water and yams.

Roberts, Captain Geisinger, and marine lieutenant Fowler visited Forsaken island, having mistaken the singing of locusts for the sound of running water.

Corals of every shape and hue were there, some resembling sunflowers and mushrooms, others cabbages from 1 to 36 inches (3 to 91 cm) in diameter, while a third type bore a striking likeness to the rose.

The hillsides were typical of tropical climate; large flocks of parrots, monkeys in great variety, wild-mango and orange groves—a superb scene of plants and flowers of every description, glowing in vivid tints of purple, red, blue, brown, and green—but not water or provisions.

Sometime in the late 17th century, an attempt was made to establish a pepper plantation on Krakatoa, but the islands were generally ignored by the Dutch East India Company.

[citation needed] The combined effects of pyroclastic flows, volcanic ashes, and tsunamis had disastrous results in the region and worldwide.

There are numerous documented reports of groups of human skeletons floating across the Indian Ocean on rafts of volcanic pumice and washing up on the east coast of Africa up to a year after the eruption.

Eventually, a fourth island, named Anak Krakatau (meaning "child of Krakatoa" in Indonesian), broke water in August 1930 and produced lava flows more quickly than the waves could erode them.

On October 2, 1883, five weeks after the eruption, a Dutch soldier was repeatedly stabbed by a bearded, white-robed man while paying for tobacco in the small town of Serang.

The would-be assassin was never captured, but a similarly-dressed man attacked a sentry at the garrison six weeks later, blaming the Dutch for bringing divine vengeance upon the area.

The "extreme religious zeal" noted by the man's interrogators seen as widespread, and historians suggest it was exploited by rising Muslim conservatives and anticolonial leaders (such as Abdul Karim Amrullah) to foment the Banten Peasant's Revolt in 1888, and to prey upon the Dutch conscience made uneasy by Max Havelaar and subsequent revelations of abuses.

From descriptions and drawings made by HMS Discovery, the flora appears to have been representative of a typical Javan tropical climax forest.

From a biological perspective, the Krakatau problem[37] refers to the question of whether the islands were completely sterilized by the 1883 eruption or whether some indigenous life survived.

In the 1953 film Fair Wind to Java, an American sea captain and a pirate leader race one another to recover a fortune in diamonds hidden on Krakatoa, which begins its final eruption as they search the island for the treasure.

[43] In 1961, the anthology series One Step Beyond ended its run with the episode "Eye Witness," which dramatized the mysterious reporting of Krakatoa's eruption weeks before the news could have reached the newspaper in Boston.

The island was a prominent part of the plot of '"Crack of Doom," episode six of the Irwin Allen television series The Time Tunnel in 1966.

In the episode Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V, Squidward adopts the persona of a superhero named Captain Magma whose catchphrase is "Krakatoa".

[45] An Indonesian martial arts action film, Krakatau (1977), starring Dicky Zulkarnaen and Advent Bangun, set the story on the mountain.

[citation needed] In Klaus Teuber's board game Seafarers of Catan, the "Krakatoa Variant" is a scenario involving an island composed of three volcano tiles.

[46] In 1973, the American progressive rock band Styx released a spoken-word track called "Krakatoa" on its album The Serpent Is Rising.

Written by then-guitarist John Curulewski along with Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause, the song tells the story of Krakatoa's eruption and the subsequent return of life to the island.