Curio | December 26, 2025

On This Day | Out of the War and into the Petri Dish

145 words • 1 min read

Author

Josh Wolsky

The first case of Spanish influenza, known in North Dakota, developed at New Rockford, where a marine, who presumably had not fully recovered from the disease, visited a few days before the original epidemic broke out. The disease became epidemic in less than three weeks, in all parts of the state, and to date approximately seven thousand lives have been lost from its cause in North Dakota.
1918-12-26 | Ward County Independent

Why We Chose It

The end of the war was welcomed, the returning troops brought a hitchhiker. This was in the midst of the first wave of the Spanish Flu; t would circle the globe for two more seasons. It is estimated to have killed between 50-100 million.