100 Fun Facts About Bubonic Plague

Which bacterium causes bubonic plague?

It was originally named Pasteurella pestis and was renamed in 1944 after its discoverer.

How many types of plague does the bacterium cause, depending on the route of infection?

Bubonic, septicemic and pneumonic, depending on whether the bacteria settle in the lymph nodes, blood or lungs.

What is the swollen, painful lymph node that gives bubonic plague its name called?

They usually appear in the groin, armpit or neck nearest the flea bite and can grow until they burst.

The word "bubonic" comes from a Greek word meaning what?

The buboes most commonly appear in that area because flea bites are usually on the legs.

Which insect species is the most effective transmitter of bubonic plague?

Xenopsylla cheopis regurgitates infected blood into its bite because the bacteria clog its gut.

How long after exposure do flu-like symptoms of bubonic plague typically develop?

Fever, headache and vomiting come first, followed by the swollen nodes near the entry point.

Without treatment, roughly what share of people infected with plague die?

With modern antibiotics the risk falls to around 10%, and death, when it comes, is usually within ten days.

Which of these antibiotics is used to treat bubonic plague?

Gentamicin, doxycycline and ciprofloxacin also work; treatment should start within 24 hours of symptoms.

Which three countries recorded the most plague cases between 2010 and 2015?

Globally there were 3,248 documented cases and 584 deaths in that period.

On average, how many human plague cases did the United States record per year between 1900 and 2015?

They cluster in rural New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and California; two 2015 cases were caught in Yosemite.

A Mongolian couple died of plague in 2019 after hunting and eating which animal?

A teenager died the same way in 2020 after eating infected meat from the same rodent.

The first recorded plague pandemic is named after which Byzantine emperor, who caught it and survived?

The historian Procopius later suggested in his Secret History that the emperor was a demon who had created the plague himself.

In which year did the first pandemic's plague reach Constantinople?

It moved from port to port around the Mediterranean before pushing inland into Asia Minor, Greece and Italy.

Which historian described his personal encounter with the Justinianic plague in his History of the Wars?

He also wrote the scandalous Secret History about the imperial court.

Roughly how many people is the Black Death estimated to have killed?

That was around half of Europe's 14th-century population, and the continent did not recover its numbers until the 16th century.

During which years did the Black Death sweep Europe?

It was the second great natural disaster of the Late Middle Ages after the Great Famine of 1315–1317.

When is the term "Black Death" first attested in English?

It translated the Danish den sorte død; contemporaries called it the pestilence or the Great Death.

A 2022 study traced the Black Death's earliest victims to cemeteries in the Chüy Valley of which country?

Syriac tombstones there record a spike in deaths from pestilence in 1338–1339.

The Black Death reportedly entered Europe during the 1347 siege of which Genoese trading port in Crimea?

The besieging Golden Horde army of Jani Beg is said to have catapulted infected corpses over the walls.

How many Genoese galleys carried the plague into Sicily in October 1347?

One of the galleys expelled from Italy reached Marseilles by the end of January.

The Medical Faculty of Paris blamed the pestilence on what?

This miasma theory held that the alignment had corrupted the air.

About how many Jews were murdered in the Strasbourg massacre of February 1349?

Many Jews fled to Poland, where King Casimir the Great welcomed them.

Which city-state, now Dubrovnik, imposed a thirty-day isolation on arrivals from plague areas in 1377?

The period was later stretched to forty days, giving us the word quarantine.

The word "quarantine" derives from the Italian word for which number?

Ragusa's original isolation period was thirty days before it was extended.

Which Boccaccio work uses a frame story of people fleeing Florence to escape the Black Death?

Chaucer and Petrarch also wrote about the pandemic, and all three are considered part of the Western canon.

Which diarist stayed in London and recorded the Great Plague of 1665 first-hand?

He noted the first cases in the parish of St Michael, Crooked Lane, on 30 April 1665.

Roughly how many people did the Great Plague of London kill in 18 months?

That was almost a quarter of the city's population.

How was a plague house marked in London in 1665?

The words "Lord have mercy upon us" were painted alongside it and a watchman stood guard outside.

To which city did Charles II and his court finally move in September 1665 to escape the plague?

They had gone first to Salisbury but left when plague cases appeared there too.

Who wrote A Journal of the Plague Year, published in 1722?

He was only about five during the actual epidemic, so the vivid book is a reconstruction.

Which Derbyshire village quarantined itself in 1665 after plague arrived in a parcel of cloth from London?

The villagers' sacrifice stopped the disease spreading further across the county.

Who were the "searchers of the dead" appointed by each London parish?

Their unreliable reports fed the weekly Bills of Mortality, which many families bribed them to falsify.

Which September 1666 event destroyed many records of the 1665 epidemic and was thought to end it?

Because only deaths were recorded, nobody knows how many Londoners caught the disease and recovered.

In which Chinese province did the third plague pandemic most likely originate?

The disease stayed localised in the south-west for years before reaching Canton and Hong Kong in 1894.

During which 1894 outbreak did Alexandre Yersin isolate the plague bacterium?

Kitasato Shibasaburō isolated it a few days earlier, but his imprecise description meant only Yersin's name stuck.

Which Japanese bacteriologist isolated the plague bacillus days before Yersin but isn't in its name?

He practised Koch's methodology, while Yersin belonged to the rival Pasteur school.

Which French researcher demonstrated in 1898 that fleas were the vector of plague?

Until then many still blamed miasmas or direct contact with the sick.

Which researcher tested his own plague vaccine on himself in Bombay in January 1897?

He went on to direct the Plague Laboratory that now bears his name.

Roughly how many deaths did the third pandemic cause in British India?

Worldwide the toll was at least 15 million, and the WHO considered the pandemic active until 1959.

Which US law was made permanent in 1902 during the San Francisco plague outbreak?

City authorities had already quarantined all of Chinatown after finding a single case.

Where was the last major plague outbreak in the United States, in 1924?

The bacterium still lives in wild rodents in the western states.

Which Chinese city did the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service bomb with plague-carrying fleas in 1940?

Unit 731 repeated the tactic over Changde in 1941, as its officers later testified at the Khabarovsk trials.

Which country's 1994 plague outbreak caused about 700 infections and a mass internal migration?

Fifty-two people died across five states.

The first mention of the beaked plague doctor is tied to which royal physician in 1619?

The curved leather beak was stuffed with herbs, dried flowers or a vinegar sponge against bad air.

Which Ingmar Bergman film uses the plague as the backdrop for a knight's chess game with Death?

Albert Camus's novel The Plague uses a quarantined modern city in the same allegorical way.

When did the claim that "Ring a Ring o' Roses" is about the plague first emerge?

The symptoms in the rhyme do not match the disease, and older European versions do not fit the story either.

The Black Death reportedly entered Europe after which Mongol khan's army besieged Kaffa in 1345–46?

His Tatar troops are said to have catapulted plague corpses over the walls, though infected rats crossing the siege lines is just as likely.

Which Polish king welcomed the many Jews who fled persecution during the Black Death?

By 1351 some 60 major and 150 smaller Jewish communities in Europe had been destroyed.

In the 17th century, roughly how many people did plague kill in Italy?

France lost at least two million between 1600 and 1670, and Spain more than 1.25 million.

According to Jean-Noël Biraben, plague was present somewhere in Europe every year between 1346 and which year?

The last great western European outbreaks came in the 18th century, and in North Africa in the 19th.

How many separate plague outbreaks did Australia record between 1900 and 1925?

They killed over 1,000 people, chiefly in Sydney, and led to pioneering research on flea transmission.

Where was the deadliest modern plague outbreak, which killed about 170 people in October 2017?

A drug-resistant strain had already been found on the island in 1995.

Roughly what was plague's estimated case fatality rate in the 2010s, with antibiotics?

It may be higher in underdeveloped regions, and drug resistance remains a fear.

Which Mamluk capital lost more than a third of its 600,000 residents when plague arrived in 1348?

The Nile was choked with corpses, and plague returned to the city more than fifty times over the next 150 years.

How did plague reach Mecca in 1348?

In 1351 or 1352 the Rasulid sultan of Yemen carried the disease home after release from Mamluk captivity.

Which historian, writing as 'Mrs Markham', used the term 'black death' for the 14th-century outbreak in 1823?

Swedish and Danish chroniclers had popularised the name; it entered English via a Danish phrase in 1755.

Which ancient poet used the phrase 'black death' to describe the monster Scylla?

In the Odyssey her mouths are 'full of black Death'; Seneca may have been the first to apply the phrase to an epidemic.

A Utrecht University study suggests Black Death depopulation cooled the climate by triggering what?

Thomas Van Hoof's work links the freed-up land to the onset of the Little Ice Age.

In April 1348 plague reached Tunis by ship from which island?

A besieging Moroccan army dispersed that year and carried the contagion home with them.

Between 1701 and 1750, how many plague epidemics were recorded in Constantinople?

Another 31 followed between 1751 and 1800; plague remained a major event in Ottoman society until the 1830s.

Which scientist developed calculus at home after Cambridge closed against the Great Plague in 1665?

Isaac Newton had just taken his degree when the university shut. Over the next two years at Woolsthorpe he developed his theories of calculus, optics and gravitation.

Which playwright published the narrative poem Venus and Adonis while plague kept London's theatres closed in 1593?

William Shakespeare had no stage to write for, so he turned to verse and followed it with The Rape of Lucrece the next year.

Which animals did London's authorities order culled in 1665, fearing they spread the Great Plague?

Dogs and cats were culled on the City Corporation's orders, which may have prolonged the epidemic. They could have helped keep the rat population in check.

Which Bavarian village, tradition says, vowed in 1633 to stage a Passion Play every ten years if spared from plague?

Oberammergau first performed the play in 1634 and still stages it every ten years. Legend holds that nobody in the village died of plague after the vow.

Which French physician fought plague outbreaks in Provence before becoming famous for his book of prophecies?

Nostradamus lost his first wife and two children in 1534, presumably to plague. He later helped fight a major outbreak in 1545 before turning to the predictions that made his name.

Which Pacific city lost its Chinatown to a 1900 fire that began during the destruction of a plague-infected building?

Honolulu had confirmed bubonic plague in December 1899, weeks before the blaze. It was the second great fire to hit the district, after one in 1886.

Which form of plague can spread straight from one person to another, with no rat or insect bite involved?

Pneumonic plague infects the lungs, and its most apparent symptom is coughing, often with blood. The bubonic form settles in the lymph nodes instead.

Which 1975 British comedy film shows a collector wheeling a cart through a filthy village to gather plague dead?

Monty Python and the Holy Grail also has Arthur debating whether coconuts could be found in a temperate climate and defeating the Black Knight.

In which tragedy does a plague outbreak stop Friar John delivering the letter that would have saved both lovers?

Romeo and Juliet turns on that undelivered message. Because travel is impossible, Romeo never learns of the plan for him to rejoin Juliet when she awakens.

Which substance, sold in shops whose owners reportedly all survived, was thought to ward off the Great Plague of 1665?

Tobacco was thought to be a preventive, and it was later said that no London tobacconist had died of plague during the epidemic.

Plague doctors packed their beaked masks with herbs to guard against which supposed cause of disease?

Miasma was a noxious form of bad air, thought to be given away by foul smells such as those of the sick. The idea was abandoned after 1880, when germ theory replaced it.

Which Italian city set up the first lazaretto, a quarantine island for plague ships, in 1423?

Venice placed it on the lagoon island of Santa Maria di Nazareth, now called Lazzaretto Vecchio. The city later built the church of Il Redentore in thanks for surviving a 1570s outbreak.

Which 1381 English uprising led by Wat Tyler grew partly out of tensions created by the Black Death?

The Peasants' Revolt came a generation after emergency wage laws were passed in the plague's wake, and on top of heavy taxes to pay for fighting in France.

Which North African port city is sealed off by an epidemic in Albert Camus's 1947 novel The Plague?

Oran is put under a city-wide quarantine in the novel. Camus drew on a real cholera epidemic that had killed a large share of its population in 1849.

Digging for which London railway uncovered Black Death skeletons beneath Charterhouse Square in 2013?

Crossrail workers found the skeletons 2.5 metres under the road around the square's gardens. The plague pit there was London's largest mass grave of the pandemic.

In which liquid did a quarantined English plague village soak coins left at its boundary stone to pay for supplies?

Vinegar was believed to kill the infection, so the money was soaked in it. Merchants from nearby villages left food and medicine at the stone in exchange.

Which penitents, whose public processions peaked during the Black Death, did a papal bull condemn in 1349?

Flagellants marched through towns whipping themselves, striking in rhythm to songs until blood flowed. Church leaders were told to suppress them.

Which French port suffered Western Europe's last major plague outbreak after a merchant ship docked in 1720?

Marseille's outbreak began after the merchant ship Grand-Saint-Antoine arrived from the Levant. A dry-stone plague wall was built across the countryside to seal the region off.

Which long-running medieval war was interrupted by the Black Death about a decade after it began?

The Hundred Years' War was an intermittent struggle, often broken by truces and by outside shocks such as the plague. It ran in phases from 1337 to 1453.

Which English actor stars beside Eddie Redmayne in the 2010 action horror film Black Death?

Sean Bean leads the cast of the film, set in England in 1348. Every scene was shot in chronological order, a rare thing in film-making.

Which item did plague doctors carry so they could examine patients and lift their clothing without touching them?

A wooden cane let the doctor point out areas needing attention from a safe distance. It was also used to keep people away.

Which Japanese army detachment, led by General Shirō Ishii, bred plague-infected insects for germ warfare?

Unit 731 counted plague among its six chosen pathogens. Its leaders were later granted immunity by the United States in exchange for their research data.

Which endangered North American predator declined as plague destroyed the prairie dogs that make up most of its diet?

Black-footed ferret numbers fell through the 20th century, since prairie dogs make up as much as 90% of what the animal eats. It can also catch the disease directly.

Which English king lost his daughter Joan to the Black Death in 1348 as she travelled to marry a Spanish prince?

Edward III had sent Joan to marry Pedro, heir to the Castilian throne, and she was caught by the outbreak at Bordeaux on the way. He wrote to tell the groom's father himself.

Which art motif, showing skeletons leading pope and peasant alike to the grave, arose after the Black Death?

Danse Macabre scenes pair each mortal, from emperor down to child, with an animated skeleton or corpse. The point was that death takes every rank alike.

In which Southeast Asian country did plague researcher Alexandre Yersin settle, farm rubber trees and die in 1943?

Vietnam still remembers him fondly as Ông Năm, or Mr Five. He set up a small laboratory at Nha Trang to make plague serum and died at his home there.

Which Italian port did Genoese ships from the East reach in October 1347, bringing the Black Death with them?

Messina's inhabitants began to develop abscesses, cough and die after the crews came ashore. Within a few months the disease had spread north into mainland Italy.

Which city's Plague Column fulfils Emperor Leopold I's vow to build a monument if a 1679 epidemic ended?

Vienna lost at least 76,000 people to the outbreak. The emperor made his promise while fleeing the city, and the column stands on the Graben, a street in the old centre.

Which painter showed an army of skeletons overrunning a plague-era landscape in The Triumph of Death?

Bruegel the Elder painted the panel around 1562, when the risk of plague was severe. Its skeletons haul a wagon full of skulls while the living flee or try in vain to fight back.

Which 1351 English law tried to hold wages at pre-plague levels after the Black Death left workers scarce?

The Statute of Labourers set a maximum wage at the rates paid in 1346, before the plague arrived. It backed up an emergency ordinance issued two years earlier.

Which Avignon pope issued two bulls in 1348 condemning attacks on Jews who were blamed for the Black Death?

Clement VI argued that Jews could not be the cause, because the same plague was afflicting them too. Pogroms had erupted around Europe as suspicion fell on them.

Which plague protector is usually painted lifting his tunic to show a sore on his thigh, with a dog beside him?

Saint Roch is said to have survived in a forest hut because a nobleman's dog brought him bread and licked his wounds. He is shown in the dress of a pilgrim.

In which city did a 1771 plague riot end with a mob storming a monastery and killing the archbishop?

Moscow's archbishop had tried to stop crowds gathering at a revered icon, as a quarantine measure. The rioters also destroyed two quarantine zones.

In which region of China did Dr Wu Lien-teh fight a 1910–11 plague epidemic by promoting cloth face masks?

Manchuria saw the first attempt to contain an epidemic by putting masks on doctors, nurses, patients and, as far as possible, the public. Wu also promoted quarantine.

Which Tuscan city abandoned a vast extension of its cathedral after the Black Death halted building in 1348?

Siena had planned a new nave that would have more than doubled the size of the building. The project was officially given up in 1355 and work never resumed.

Which Alessandro Manzoni novel is noted for its description of the plague that struck Milan around 1630?

The Betrothed is set in the Duchy of Milan under Spanish rule. Its plague chapters draw largely on a chronicle of the epidemic published in 1640.

Under the microscope, bipolar staining makes plague bacteria resemble which everyday object?

A safety pin look comes from the stain showing up at both ends of the short rod. The bacterium also makes a slime layer that helps it resist being engulfed by immune cells.

The first plague pandemic was first reported in 541 at the port of Pelusium in which Roman province?

Egypt was the pandemic's gateway to the Mediterranean, around which it spread until 544. The outbreak is thought to have reached the Byzantine capital on grain ships from there.

Which Ken Follett novel, a sequel to The Pillars of the Earth, brings the Black Death to the town of Kingsbridge?

World Without End has thousands die when the plague reaches Kingsbridge, and the town quickly descends into anarchy. Its prior loses his nerve and flees with the monks to a remote priory.

Legend says the Archangel Michael appeared above which Roman landmark in 590, sheathing his sword as a plague ended?

Castel Sant'Angelo was built as the emperor Hadrian's mausoleum and took its present name from the legend. A statue of the archangel holding his sword was later made to crown it.