1918 Flu Pandemic
Elizabeth Lizzie Cummiskey died the same year that the Spanish Flu decimated the world population.
In 1918, a flu pandemic swept the world, taking the lives of nearly 50 million people, making it one of the world's deadliest natural disasters. It is no coincidence the outbreak coincided with World War I—millions of soldiers living in cramped conditions throughout the far reaches of the globe sped up transmission of the virus. Unlike most other influenza outbreaks, this virus particularly affected the young and healthy, leaving a workforce already compromised by the war even further shrunken. In an effort to maintain morale, the Allied Powers, including the United States, tried to hide the flu's devastating effects from its citizens. The press, however, was free to report the damage in countries that had remained neutral in the war, like Spain. Because accounts of infection and death tolls were limited, many came to believe that Spaniards were hit especially hard by the flu, which is why the illness today is commonly known as the Spanish flu.