September 28: On this date in 1918 a parade in Philadelphia triggered a flu epidemic in the city that eventually killed 12,000 people there, despite the city being quarantined once the problem became apparent.This was part of the worldwide flu pandemic that killed an estimated 50 million people. Across the United States, 675,000 people fell victim; in Latin America, 1% of the population died, in Africa, 1.5%, in Asia, 3.5%. Twenty percent of the population of India died, as did 10% of Tahiti’s population.The population of Philadelphia was about 2 million and the U.S. population was 103.21 million in 1918. What percentage of the population of the U.S. died during the pandemic of 1918?
