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THIS DAY IN HISTORY: 
Spanish Flu Pandemic Begins (1918)
One of the most devastating pandemics in human history, the Spanish flu was first observed at Fort Riley, Kansas, which was home to some of the tens of thousands of soldiers waiting to be deployed to Europe for combat in World War I. It came to be known as the Spanish flu after spreading to Spain, but its reach was global. Estimates vary, but at least 20 million people died from the pandemic.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY:
Spanish Flu Pandemic Begins (1918)
One of the most devastating pandemics in human history, the Spanish flu was first observed at Fort Riley, Kansas

Wonder what the odds were that it started there? I had read that it was called the Spanish Flu because it was supposedly 1st reported en masse there. When it was bouncing around the front lines but the warring countries kept a lid on it as the war already had a brutal effect on the front

1794 Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin, revolutionizing the cotton industry in the southern US states

1888 Second largest snowfall in NYC history (21")

1899 German Ferdinand von Zeppelin receives a US patent for a "Navigable Balloon"

1913 John D. Rockefeller gives $100 million to Rockefeller Foundation

1923 US President Warren G. Harding becomes 1st president to pay taxes

1926 Train in Costa Rica falls into the Río Virilla, killing 248 and injuring 93

1937 Battle of the Century: US comedians Fred Allen and Jack Benny meet on radio during their "feud" The feud is considered one of the most successful running gags in American entertainment history.

1940 "The Road to Singapore" directed by Victor Schertzinger starring Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour, first of seven such films, premieres

1973 Future US senator John McCain is released after spending over five years in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp

1976 American jockey Bill Shoemaker wins his 7,000th race

2006 Mike Wallace retires from US news program "60 Minutes" after 37 years

2013 Xi Jinping is named President of the People's Republic of China

2016 NASA releases data showing February 2016 warmest month ever recorded globally - 1.35C above the long-term average

2017 World's oldest golf club, Muirfield in Scotland, votes to admit women as members for the first time in 273 years. Chivalrous bastards I'll give them that

2018 NASA twin study finds that Scott Kelly is no longer identical to his twin brother after one year in space, 7% of his genes altered

2018 World Happiness Report names Finland as world's happiest country and Burundi the unhappiest

2020 Longest-ever scheduled passenger flight by distance is flown by Air Tahiti Nui from French Polynesia to mainland France, covering 9,765 miles (15,715 km) as a domestic flight due to COVID-19

2023 Czech free diver David Vencl completes record dive beneath ice to 170.9 feet, without a wetsuit, in Switzerland’s Lake Sils in temperatures between 1C and 4C (34F to 39F)

2025 A severe storm system begins across the US South and Midwest bringing high winds, dust storms and more than 60 tornadoes over two days, killing at least 42 people

2025 Price of gold on the New York Mercantile Exchange hits $3,000.00 an ounce for the first time

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: 

Russian Settlers Establish Fort Ross, California (1812)
Located in what is now Sonoma County, California, Fort Ross was in operation from 1812 to 1841 as a trading outpost for the Russian-American Company. The southernmost settlement in the Russian colonization of North America, it was established as an agricultural base to supply Alaska. Fort Ross was the site of California's first windmills and shipbuilding yards, and Russian scientists there were among the first to record California's cultural and natural history.

FACT OF THE DAY:

Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) is regarded as the father of French opera, though he was born in Italy. He pioneered the conducting stick concept, but unfortunately, he hit his foot with a heavy conducting staff. His foot became gangrenous, ultimately killing him.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY:
Samoset Walks into Plymouth Colony, Greets Pilgrims in English (1621)
Half of the English pilgrims from the Mayflower perished during their first winter in the New World, and as the survivors struggled to build their settlement at Plymouth, they had several tense encounters with Native Americans. That spring, a Native American named Samoset unexpectedly walked into their settlement and greeted them in English. Within days, he had introduced them to their neighbors. As it happened, Samoset was merely visiting the area.

Only years later did I realize how much wild game and other food would have been in the area, and how ill prepared those first settlers were to not be able to get it, even with the day's rudimentary weapons.  They were basically today's equivalent of suburbanites, trying to make it in the wilderness.