The 1918 influenza pandemic
Fifty million people die in two years, and it is largely forgotten.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 2 years
- Known to
- ± 1 year
- Era
- Industrial, Holocene
An H1N1 influenza spreads worldwide in 1918, killing an estimated 50 million and possibly more — more than the war it followed. Unusually it killed healthy young adults disproportionately, probably through an overwhelming immune response. It was called Spanish flu because Spain, being neutral, did not censor reports of it. Wartime censorship elsewhere, and the desire to move on, are why it left so little cultural trace.