its-a-date

[its-a-date]

Hardy, nutritious, and with a high yield per acre, potatoes became fundamental to Eurasian diets in the eighteenth century.

"Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History" - Kyle Harper

[its-a-date]

The nineteenth century was the golden age for plant pests.

"Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History" - Kyle Harper

[its-a-date]

Here there is no scenery to describe, but he dutifully records the daily latitude and the ship's progress across the seemingly infinite blue, firstly north-west towards the more hospitable waters of the equator, and then west. 'On the 3rd we went NW and found ourselves in 46°30', reads the first entry of a monotonous list which runs on in identical format – date, heading, latitude – for over ninety days, with only a couple of sightings of uninhabited islands, before the ships finally make contact with humans, at Guam.

"The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper" - Roland Allen

[its-a-date]

The U.S. delegate to the International Congress of Agriculture in 1889 was Charles V. Riley, who organized the American exhibition in Paris.

"Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History" - Kyle Harper

[its-a-date]

In summer 1889, Paris played host to the Universal Exposition – the tenth such convention since the first world's fair in London 1851. In conjunction with the exposition of 1889, France also hosted the first International Congress of Agriculture, which gathered 1,400 experts and officials from around the globe to discuss the state of the industry.

"Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History" - Kyle Harper

[its-a-date]

At least six thousand residents died in summer 1894 from the plague.

"Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History" - Kyle Harper

[its-a-date]

The arrival of plague in Guangzhou and Hong Kong in 1894 was the end point of plague's overland expansion stretching back more than a century.

"Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History" - Kyle Harper

[its-a-date]

The plague became a major problem during the conflicts between the Han Chinese center and the Muslim periphery; for most of the period between 1856 and 1873, Yunnan was the scene of a bloody civil war.

"Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History" - Kyle Harper

[its-a-date]

Plague epidemics had been simmering since the 1770s in the southwestern province of Yunnan. In the later eighteenth century, demographic and economic growth brought humans into greater contact with local rodent reservoirs of the plague throughout the western part of the province.

"Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History" - Kyle Harper

[its-a-date]

The beginning of the Third Plague Pandemic is dated by convention to 1894, when the outbreak reached Guangzhou (Canton) and British-controlled Hong Kong.

"Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History" - Kyle Harper

[its-a-date]

The Second Plague Pandemic that started with the Black Death in the fourteenth century never really ended. Outbreaks of the disease petered out in western Europe, but plague epidemics in eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire continued through the eighteenth century and even beyond.

"Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History" - Kyle Harper

[its-a-date]

The virus that swept the globe in 1918 became a "founder virus," and it has fittingly been called the "mother of all pandemics." Every subsequent epidemic of influenza A, including the seasonal influenza outbreaks, has been caused by a descendant of the virus that caused the 1918-19 pandemic.

"Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History" - Kyle Harper

[its-a-date]

The lingering impact of the 1918-19 pandemic is as remarkable as its explosive beginnings.

"Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History" - Kyle Harper

[its-a-date]

In early fall 1918, it was suddenly "everywhere at once," suggesting that the virus had been disseminating for months before it became apparent that a mortality crisis was already in progress. The pandemic crested in the winter and then returned a year later.

"Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History" - Kyle Harper

[its-a-date]

The genetic material of the 1918-19 influenza virus has been recovered (from tissues preserved in formaldehyde, rather than archaeological material). The pandemic was caused by an H1N1 strain of avian origins.

"Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History" - Kyle Harper

[its-a-date]

Unfortunately the pandemic of 1889-92 was a portent of worse to come. The pandemic of 1918-19 was the ultimate manifestation of a disease event in the age of steamships and railroads.

"Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History" - Kyle Harper

[its-a-date]

There was a surprising lull in the history of influenza in the middle of the nineteenth century. But in 1889, the virus returned with a vengeance. The beginning of the pandemic was heralded in central Asia in spring 1889, and after a few quiet months it spread rapidly in the fall.

"Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History" - Kyle Harper