One hundred years ago this week, on September 21, 1918, the worldwide “Spanish Flu” pandemic officially arrived in Washington with the report of 11 cases at Camp Lewis. Within two weeks, 700 cases were reported in Seattle, including one death at the University of Washington’s Naval Training Center. Meetings and public gatherings were canceled throughout the state. Schools were closed. By the end of October, six-ply gauze masks were mandatory for anyone who dared venture outside.

The flu remained prevalent until the spring of 1919, when the disease disappeared as quickly as it had arrived, but it remains the most widespread and lethal outbreak of disease to afflict humankind worldwide in recorded history. Nearly 5,000 people were killed in Washington and, while the death toll was highest in the state’s most populous cities — 1,441 people died in Seattle, and 428 flu deaths were recorded in Spokane — the pandemic touched nearly every community. Outside of Washington the numbers are even more staggering. More than 500,000 people died nationwide, and the worldwide death toll soared into the tens of millions.

But numbers don’t tell the human story behind the tragedy. This week we end our examination of the 1918 pandemic with a look back at three lives affected by its course: singer Linnie Love, who was stricken performing for troops at Camp Lewis; journalist Emmett Watson, who lost his mother and twin brother to the influenza; and noted author Mary McCarthy, who with her brothers was orphaned in the epidemic and later wrote of the difficulties she faced afterward.

Where Planes Flew

Two noteworthy events in the history of military aviation took place in Washington on September 21, 1942. The first, at Boeing Field, was the maiden flight of the B-29 bomber, a top-secret aircraft that the Boeing Company had been working on prior to America’s entry into World War II. Although the project later suffered a setback, thousands of B-29s were eventually used in the Pacific theater and the Superfortress became the only aircraft to drop atomic bombs during war.