Spanish Flu Pandemic begins in Boston.

Originally (and inaccurately) labeled, it is discovered after two sailors report to sick bay on the receiving ship docked at Commonwealth Pier. Long-thought to have originated in Spain, it now seems to have begun at an Army base at Fort Riley, Kansas, on March 11, 1918. Five days after Boston sailors fall sick, the first civilian victim of the flu in the U.S. is diagnosed at Boston City Hospital. The first flu death in Boston occurs on September 8, 1918, soon there are more than 100 deaths daily, and the outbreak peaks until October 15, 1918. Some 30% of Boston residents subsequently contract the disease, 6,225 die from it, and 670,000 people die in the U.S., and 50 to 100 million worldwide.