X-Nico

16 unusual facts about 1918 flu pandemic


1918 flu pandemic

Academic Andrew Price-Smith has made the controversial argument that the virus helped tip the balance of power in the later days of the war towards the Allied cause.

The effort resulted in the announcement (on 5 October 2005) that the group had successfully determined the virus's genetic sequence, using historic tissue samples recovered by pathologist Johan Hultin from a female flu victim buried in the Alaskan permafrost and samples preserved from American soldiers.

1918 Michigan Wolverines football team

Travel restrictions resulted in cancellation of the Cornell and Minnesota games, and the 1918 flu pandemic forced the cancellation or rescheduling of other games.

The 1918 team played in a season shortened by World War I travel restrictions and the 1918 flu pandemic.

1918 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team

Amidst these unsteady times, the 1918 flu pandemic was gripping the world and taking many times more lives than the casualties of the great war in progress in Europe.

1918 Pittsburgh Panthers football team

The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 saw the implementation of quarantines that eliminated much of that year's college football season, including five of Pitt's originally scheduled contests.

In a season cut short by the Spanish flu pandemic, coach Glenn Scobey "Pop" Warner led the Panthers in a schedule played all in one month, including a convincing victory in a highly publicized game over defending national champion and unscored-upon Georgia Tech.

1918–19 NHL season

With the series tied after five games (with one tie), the sixth game was slated for April 1, 1919, when the Spanish Flu epidemic forced the cancellation of the series.

Adolfo García-Sastre

In 2005, as principal investigator of an NIAID program project grant, García-Sastre and his team made headlines when they reconstructed the extinct 1918 pandemic influenza virus.

Ahmed Izzet Pasha

Ahmed Izzet Pasha spent much of his 25 days of premiership bedridden after catching the 1918 Spanish flu.

Belfort Duarte

Belfort Duarte was murdered on his birthday, November 27, 1918, in a favela located in Campo Belo, Minas Gerais state, when he was trying to hide from the Spanish flu.

Harry Elionsky

It was reported on October 13, 1918 that he had died during the 1918 flu pandemic, but that was an error.

Henry Cleary

His war service and his personal sacrifices during the influenza epidemic were recognised in June 1919 by his being made an OBE.

Letter from an Unknown Woman

In the 1918 flu pandemic, the child died and she, ill herself, wrote this letter to be posted before her death.

Repas de bébé

The baby featured, Andrée Lumière, died in Lyon aged 24, as a result of the 1918 flu pandemic.

Taurekareka Henare

In the influenza epidemic of 1918 he assisted the delivery of healthcare to Māori.


Brevig Mission, Alaska

In the late 1990s, a team of scientists led by Johan Hultin exhumed the body of an Inuit woman who had been buried in the permafrost in a gravesite near Brevig Mission in an attempt to recover RNA of the 1918 influenza virus (Spanish flu) that killed her.

Nieuport 12

This aircraft was donated to the Canadian Dominion Archive along with a Canon de 75 modèle 1897 cannon and an extensive collection of propaganda posters by the French Government in 1916 and was used for war bond drives until the 1918 flu pandemic resulted in it being placed in storage until the Royal Canadian Air Force tried to convert it into an RFC example for display.

William Trethewey

His next commission was a memorial in Waimate for Margaret Cruickshank, the first registered woman doctor in New Zealand; she had died from the 1918 flu pandemic.