Flu Pandemic Precautions
January 25, 2008 7:06 am > MAUI TODAY, > Maui Yesterdays |
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Opposite Day
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Ku‘e: Contrary PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Arasait: Opposite HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “Seek life outside.”January 25th, 1919: By emergency proclamation of the territorial government of Hawaii, all public enclosed places, including theaters, schools and even churches, are closed due to the flu epidemic sweeping the world.
Known as the “Spanish Flu,” the virus that swept the globe eventually killed between 20 and 40 million people. That’s more people than died in all of World War I. It’s more people than died in the great bubonic plague outbreak in the late 1300s. And much like the bubonic plague which spawned the nursery rhyme, “Ring around the rosy, a pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down,” the flu pandemic spawned many children’s songs, including a jump rope ditty like this: “I had a little bird, it’s name was Enza, I opened the window, and in-flu-enza.”
There are no records indicating how many people in Hawaii, or on Maui, died from this disease. Coming as it did at the end of World War I, the flu racked the country, already tired and devastated from the European fighting. So widespread and infectious was it that the life expectancy of an American dropped by 10 years during this period. Most victims either drown in their own mucus and blood or suffocated from infected lungs that were unable to process oxygen.
It is speculated that the flu began in China as a variation on a common strain, and rapidly made its way overland to the theater of war in Europe, where tired populations and soldiers were very susceptible. The first known American case of the flu was in Boston in late 1918, where troop ships flooded the harbor after the war.
HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY — January 25th
- 1504: Michelangelo completes the statue of David
- 1533: England’s King Henry VIII secretly marries Anne Boleyn
- 1802: Napoleon is elected president of the Italian (Cisalpine) Republic
- 1907: Julia Ward Howe is the first woman elected to the National Institute of Arts & Letters
- 1915: Transcontinental telephone service is inaugurated
- 1918: Russia is declared to be a republic of the Soviets
- 1919: Founding of the League of Nations
- 1949: The first popular elections are held in Israel
- 1959: The first transcontinental commercial jet flight in the U.S. (LA to NY for $301)
- 1964: Beatles first U.S. hit goes #1 (“I Want to Hold Your Hand”)
- 1993 Sears announces closing its catalog sales department after 97 years
BORN ON THIS DAY — January 25th
- 1627: Robert Boyle, physicist/chemist/author
- 1759: Robert Burns, Scottish poet
- 1874: Somerset W Maugham, novelist/poet
- 1882: Virginia Woolf, author
- 1938: Etta James, blues singer
- 1946: Ronnie Brandon, rocker (McCoys)
- 1950: Michael Cotton, rocker (Tubes)
- 1953: Malcolm Green, rocker
- 1954: Richard Finch, rock bassist (KC & Sunshine)
- 1955: Joe Strummer, rock vocalist/guitarist (Clash)
- 1958: Gary Tibbs, rocker (Roxy Music)
- 1960: Andy Cox, rock guitarist (Fine Young Cannibals)
- 1963: Carl Fysh, rocker (Brother Beyond)
- 1971: Ana Ortiz, actress (”Ugly Betty”)
- 1971: Alicia Keys, singer
- 1975: Mia Kirshner, actress
