Pandemics
HISTORY.com is covering a range of angles about pandemics of the past to help frame the COVID-19 crisis.
How the World Learned to Manage the Flu
What does it mean for a disease to be “endemic”? It doesn’t mean the disease disappeared. When epidemiologists use the word “endemic,” they mean that a disease is occurring “at an expected level in a location during a period of time,” explains epidemiologist René Najera, editor ...read more
How a Vaccine Slowed the Spread of Chickenpox
Chickenpox is a highly contagious disease caused by the varicella-zoster virus that leads to itchy skin eruptions, which are sometimes compared to a “dew drop on a rose petal.” Until the development of a chickenpox vaccine in the late 20th century, the disease was a common ...read more
The First ‘Vaccine Passports’ Were Scars from Smallpox Vaccinations
At the turn of the 20th century, the United States was in the grip of a full-blown smallpox epidemic. During the five-year outbreak from 1899 to 1904, government health officials confirmed 164,283 cases of smallpox, but the real numbers may have been five times as high. To slow ...read more
How World War I's Legacy Eclipsed the 1918 Pandemic
World War I came to an end on November 11, 1918—nine months after the first cases of what was referred to as the “Spanish Flu” were reported in the United States. Against the backdrop of the war, the 1918 influenza pandemic surged at a time when people were already experiencing ...read more
The Deadliest Events in US History
It’s a grim calculation, counting those Americans who have died in service to their country, as targets of terrorist attacks, amid natural disasters or as victims of pandemic disease. Here are major events from history that have inflicted a devastating toll on American lives. 1. ...read more
When the Supreme Court Ruled a Vaccine Could Be Mandatory
In 1901 a deadly smallpox epidemic tore through the Northeast, prompting the Boston and Cambridge boards of health to order the vaccination of all residents. But some refused to get the shot, claiming the vaccine order violated their personal liberties under the Constitution. ...read more
4 Diseases You’ve Probably Forgotten About Because of Vaccines
Widespread vaccination has helped decrease or virtually eliminate many dangerous and deadly diseases in the United States. Yet because vaccines have been so effective at removing threats, it’s sometimes difficult to appreciate just how significant they have been to public health. ...read more
Why the 1918 Flu Pandemic Never Really Ended
An unthinkable more than 50 million people worldwide died from the 1918-1919 flu pandemic commonly known as the “Spanish Flu.” It was the deadliest global pandemic since the Black Death, and rare among flu viruses for striking down the young and healthy, often within days of ...read more
How the Flu Pandemic Changed Halloween in 1918
“Witches Must Beware,” declared the Baltimore American on October 31, 1918. The Maryland city’s health commissioner had placed a ban on public Halloween events, instructing the police chief to prevent people from holding “carnivals and other forms of public celebrations.” The ...read more
Why African Americans Were More Likely to Die During the 1918 Flu Pandemic
When it came to getting healthcare during the 1918 influenza epidemic, America’s Black communities, hobbled by poverty, Jim Crow segregation and rampant discrimination, were mostly forced to fend for themselves. Opportunities for hospital care proved scarce, leaving many relying ...read more
What Happens When a President Becomes Ill or Incapacitated While in Office?
Illness can impact a president’s ability to conduct the duties of office, but for most of U.S. history, protocol for what happens when a president got sick was minimal. The Founding Fathers anticipated the need for a line of succession, and the Constitution says the vice ...read more
When the US Government Tried to Fast-Track a Flu Vaccine
After Private David Lewis collapsed and died during a basic training exercise at New Jersey’s Fort Dix on February 4, 1976, an investigation into the 19-year-old’s premature death identified a long-dormant, but notorious killer as the cause. Blood tests conducted at the Center ...read more
5 Hard-Earned Lessons from Pandemics of the Past
Humankind is resilient. While global pandemics like the Bubonic Plague and 1918 pandemic wreaked havoc on populations through the centuries, societies honed critical survival strategies. Here are five ways people adapted to life amid disease outbreaks. 1. Quarantine The first ...read more
At Height of the 1918 Pandemic, NYC and Chicago Schools Stayed Open. Here's Why
In the fall of 1918, as the deadly second wave of the influenza pandemic known as the “Spanish flu” swept across the nation, schools in cities around the United States closed in order to limit contagion. But in the nation’s two largest urban centers, New York and Chicago, public ...read more
How the Polio Vaccine Faced Distribution Shortages and Setbacks
On April 12, 1955, every American newspaper and TV set jubilantly announced that Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine was a success. Just three years earlier, during the worst polio outbreak in U.S. history, 57,000 people were infected, 21,000 were paralyzed and 3,145 died, most of them ...read more
When American Students Attended School—Outside
As the 20th century dawned, tuberculosis—otherwise known as consumption, “white plague” or “white death”—had become the leading cause of death in the United States. The dreaded lung disease killed an estimated 450 Americans a day, most of them between the ages of 15 and 44. At ...read more
'Mask Slackers' and 'Deadly' Spit: The 1918 Flu Campaigns to Shame People Into Following New Rules
Many of the methods Americans used in 1918 to try to prevent the spread of the flu are similar to what people began doing during the COVID-19 pandemic: Close schools. Wear masks. Don’t cough or sneeze in someone’s face. Avoid large events and hold them outside when possible. And ...read more
5 Advances That Followed Pandemics
Pandemics have ravaged human civilizations through history. But global health crises have also sparked progress in culture and society, changing lives for the better. Water and sanitation systems improved and revelations led to innovations in limiting disease spread, as well as ...read more
How a New Vaccine Was Developed in Record Time in the 1960s
The invention of the modern mumps vaccine is the stuff of medical textbook legend. In 1963, a star researcher at the pharmaceutical company Merck took a swab of his own daughter’s throat to begin cultivating a weakened form of the mumps virus. And just four years later, in record ...read more
When the Yellow Fever Outbreak of 1793 Sent the Wealthy Fleeing Philadelphia
During the hot, humid summer of 1793, thousands of Philadelphians got horribly sick, suffering from fevers and chills, jaundiced skin, stomach pains and vomit tinged black with blood. By the end of August, as more and more people began dying from this mysterious affliction, ...read more
As the 1918 Flu Emerged, Cover-Up and Denial Helped It Spread
“Spanish flu” has been used to describe the flu pandemic of 1918 and 1919 and the name suggests the outbreak started in Spain. But the term is actually a misnomer and points to a key fact: nations involved in World War I didn’t accurately report their flu outbreaks. Spain ...read more
The Post World War II Boom: How America Got Into Gear
In the summer of 1945, as World War II drew to a close, the U.S. economy was poised on the edge of an uncertain future. Since President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s call in late 1940 for the United States to serve as the “arsenal of democracy,” American industry had stepped up to meet ...read more
How Crude Smallpox Inoculations Helped George Washington Win the War
When George Washington took command of the Continental Army in 1775, America was fighting a war on two fronts: one for independence from the British, and a second for survival against smallpox. Because Washington knew the ravages of the disease firsthand, he understood that the ...read more