The 1918 influenza pandemic
More died of flu than of the war
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The H1N1 virus infected an estimated third of the world's population in three waves. The name misleads: Spain was neutral and had no wartime censorship, so Spanish papers were the only ones reporting freely. The mortality among young adults is linked to an overreacting immune response. The pandemic accelerated the construction of public health systems in many countries, and remains the reference point epidemiologists use when modelling worst cases.
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Right after the First World War an influenza spread around the world on trains and troopships. It killed perhaps 50 million people — more than the war itself. Strangely, it hit young, healthy adults hardest.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org