These Are The Deadliest Natural Disasters In Modern History

Spanish Influenza, 1918

In 1918, an influenza pandemic swept across the world. It was the first of two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza. It is said to have infected some 500 million people around the world in Asia, Europe, and North America, and even in remote islands in the Pacific and Arctic.

All in all, it resulted in the deaths of as many as 100 million (which was around five percent of the world’s population), making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. The illness greatly affected life expectancy in the 20th century worldwide. In the United States, life expectancy dropped by 12 years.