Daily AncestorSpanish influenza
Spanish influenza was the 1918 to 1920 flu pandemic, which killed about 675,000 people in the United States and at least 50 million worldwide.
The name is misleading: the earliest probable cases were in Kansas in March 1918. CDC estimates that about a third of the world's people were infected. Deaths were unusually high among healthy adults aged 20 to 40, as well as young children and the old.
Death certificates of late 1918 and 1919 may say influenza, Spanish influenza, la grippe or influenza and pneumonia. U.S. statistics of the time counted pneumonia and influenza deaths together.
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Daily Ancestor. "Spanish influenza." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/spanish-influenza. Last checked 2026-10-10.