The 1889–1890 pandemic, often referred to as the "Asiatic flu"
or "Russian flu", was a worldwide respiratory viral pandemic. It was the last great
pandemic
A pandemic ( ) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic (epi ...
of the 19th century, and is among the
deadliest pandemics in history.
The pandemic killed about 1 million people out of a world population of about 1.5 billion (0.067% of population).
The most reported effects of the pandemic took place from October 1889 to December 1890, with recurrences in March to June 1891, November 1891 to June 1892, the northern winter of 1893–1894, and early 1895.
According to researchers' estimates, excess mortality from Russian influenza in the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
for the period 1889–1890 could be from 60,000 to 90,000 people, with lethality from the virus, a little more than 0.2%.
Although contemporaries described the pandemic as
influenza
Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These sympto ...
and 20th-century scholars identified several influenza strains as the possible pathogen, several authors from the early 2020s suggest that it may have been caused by
human coronavirus OC43
Human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43) is a member of the species ''Betacoronavirus 1, Betacoronavirus gravedinis'', which infects humans and cattle. The infecting coronavirus is an Viral envelope, enveloped, Sense (molecular biology), positive-sense ...
.
Outbreak and spread
Modern transport infrastructure assisted the spread of the 1889 pandemic. The 19 largest European countries, including the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
, had about 200,000 km of railroads, and transatlantic travel by sea took less than six days (not significantly different from current travel time by air, given the timescale of the global spread of a pandemic).
It was the first pandemic to spread not just through a region such as
Eurasia
Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...
, but worldwide.
It is conventionally believed that the disease was first reported in May 1889 in the
Central Asia
Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...
n city of
Bukhara
Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region.
People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...
(modern Uzbekistan), then the capital of the
Emirate of Bukhara
The Emirate of Bukhara (, ) was a Muslims, Muslim-Uzbeks, Uzbek polity in Central Asia that existed from 1785 to 1920 in what is now Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. It occupied the land between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rive ...
, a protectorate of the Russian Empire.
This goes back to publications of a local physician and follower of the
miasma theory
The miasma theory (also called the miasmic theory) is an abandoned medical theory that held that diseases—such as cholera, chlamydia, or plague—were caused by a ''miasma'' (, Ancient Greek for 'pollution'), a noxious form of "bad air", a ...
Oskar Heyfelder, who ignored the lack of catarrhal symptoms in the outbreak.
Both a local independent commission of four doctors in August 1889 and historians in 2023 identified the infectious agent in Bukhara from May to August 1889 as not influenza, but malaria, which is endemic in the region, and the latter suggested anomalously cold and snowy winter and anomalously high ground water levels as possible reasons for the severeness of the outbeak.
Most likely the first outbreak of Russian flu occurred in Western Siberia – Tomsk province. It was preceded by an epizootic of pneumonia in cattle.

It is also conventionally believed that the newly built
Trans-Caspian railway
The Trans-Caspian Railway (also called the Central Asian Railway, ) is a railway that follows the path of the Silk Road through much of western Central Asia. It was built by the Russian Empire during its expansion into Central Asia in the 19t ...
enabled the disease to spread farther into
Samarkand
Samarkand ( ; Uzbek language, Uzbek and Tajik language, Tajik: Самарқанд / Samarqand, ) is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central As ...
by August, and
Tomsk
Tomsk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast in Russia, on the Tom (river), Tom River. Population:
Founded in 1604, Tomsk is one of the oldest cities in Siberia. It has six univers ...
, 3,200 km away, by October.
However, the Russian military had not detected any flu in Samarkand in August, and despite a significant military presence along the railway the first flu cases were not diagnosed in the
Turkestan Military District at all until late November.
[На страницу книги](_blank)
kp.rusneb.ru (in Russian) Retrieved 9 April 2023
Despite the fact that the
Trans-Siberian Railway had not yet been constructed (which is often cited as the reason for slow transmission of the virus to European Russia), the anomalous rise in flu cases was detected in the military in the second half of October from multiple European cities all the way to
108th meridian east.
By November the pandemic had reached
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
(infecting 180,000 of the city's under one million inhabitants) and
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
.
By mid-November
Kyiv
Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...
was infected, and the next month the
Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is a rift lake and the deepest lake in the world. It is situated in southern Siberia, Russia between the Federal subjects of Russia, federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast, Irkutsk Oblasts of Russia, Oblast to the northwest and the Repu ...
region was as well, followed by the rest of
Siberia
Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
and
Sakhalin
Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, p=səxɐˈlʲin) is an island in Northeast Asia. Its north coast lies off the southeastern coast of Khabarovsk Krai in Russia, while its southern tip lies north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. An islan ...
by the end of the year.
From St. Petersburg, the infection spread via the Baltic shipping trade to
Vaxholm in early November 1889, and then to
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
and the rest of Sweden, infecting 60% of the population within eight weeks.
Norway, and then Denmark, followed soon after.
The
German Empire
The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...
first received it in
Posen in December, and on 12 November 600 workers were reported sick in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
and
Spandau
Spandau () is the westernmost of the 12 boroughs of Berlin, boroughs () of Berlin, situated at the confluence (geography), confluence of the Havel and Spree (river), Spree rivers and extending along the western bank of the Havel. It is the smalle ...
, with the cases in the city reaching 150,000 within a few days, and ultimately half of its 1.5 million inhabitants.
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
was infected around the same time.
Rome was reached by 17 December.
The flu also arrived in Paris in December, and towards the end of the month had spread to
Grenoble
Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...
,
Toulon
Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department.
The Commune of Toulon h ...
,
Toulouse
Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...
and
Lyon
Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
on the mainland, and
Ajaccio
Ajaccio (, , ; French language, French: ; or ; , locally: ; ) is the capital and largest city of Corsica, France. It forms a communes of France, French commune, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Corse-du-Sud, and head o ...
on
Corsica
Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...
.
At this point Spain was also infected, killing up to 300 a day in
Madrid
Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
.
It reached London at the same time, from where it spread quickly within Great Britain and Ireland to
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
,
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
,
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
, and
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
.

The most satisfactory statistical data in the Russian Empire were observed in Livonia province. At the end of November 1889, the newspaper ‘Riga Herald’ reported: ‘Influenza has visited Riga - this is beyond any doubt. There are quite a lot of diseases, especially in places where many people are crowded together. By the way, the disease appeared in the non-commissioned officers' battalion.... Fortunately, the course of the disease is quite easy, but it is unpleasant in that it distracts the sick from classes’. Doctors - contemporaries of the epidemic - noted that after the peak of morbidity, pneumonia began to be observed, often leading to the death of the patient. ‘An accountant fell ill with Influenza, but paid no attention to it, and remained on his feet all the time; he died in three days with pneumonia. Yesterday they buried two ordinary workers, who also caught cold after Influenza and died on the fourth day’. Among the complications of the disease were prolonged weakness, adverse effects on cognitive ability, neuroses, otitis media, veins, lymphatic vessels and glands. Influenza affected members of all classes. From the middle of December 1889 the general morbidity of the population in the town began to decline, but the number of cases of pneumonia increased.The estimate of excess mortality in Livonia province in November 1889 showed an increase of 8 per cent in November 1889 and 67 per cent in December 1889, compared to the average for the seven-year period 1888-1895. The highest mortality was observed in the population over 35 years of age. Influenza also had an impact on fertility: the birth rate in September 1890 (conceived in December 1889) was the lowest for the period 1888 to 1895.
The first case on American soil was reported on 18 December 1889.
It then quickly spread throughout the East Coast and all the way to
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
and
Kansas
Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...
in days.
The first American death, Thomas Smith of
Canton, Massachusetts
Canton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 24,370 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Canton is part of Greater Boston, about southwest of Downtown Boston.
History
The area that is present ...
, was reported on 25 December.
San Francisco and other cities were also reached before the month was over, with the total US death toll at about 13,000.
From there it spread to Mexico and to South America, reaching
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
by 2 February.
India received it in February 1890, and
Singapore
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
and the
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...
(now Indonesia) did by March.
These were followed by Japan, Australia, and New Zealand by April, and then
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
in May; the infection continued to spread, reaching its original starting point in Central Asia.
Cases in Africa began to appear in port cities in late December 1889 and in January 1890, although there may have been an early outbreak in
Durban
Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal.
Situated on the east coast of South ...
, South Africa, in November 1889.
In four months it had spread throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Deaths peaked in Saint Petersburg on 1 December 1889, and in the United States during the week of 12 January 1890. The median time between the first reported case and peak mortality was five weeks.
In Malta, the Asiatic flu took hold between January 1889 and March 1890, with a fatality rate of 4% (39 deaths), and a resurgence in January to May 1892 with 66 fatalities (3.3% case fatality rate).
When this flu began, it was debated whether it was in fact a
human-to-human contagious disease; its virulence and rapid spread across all climates and terrains demonstrated that it was.
Responses
Medical treatment
There was no standard treatment of flu:
quinine
Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. This includes the treatment of malaria due to ''Plasmodium falciparum'' that is resistant to chloroquine when artesunate is not available. While sometimes used for nocturnal leg ...
and
phenazone
Phenazone (International Nonproprietary Name, INN and British Approved Name, BAN; also known as phenazon, antipyrine (United States Adopted Name, USAN), antipyrin, or analgesine) is an analgesic (pain reducing), antipyretic (fever reducing) and an ...
were used, as well as small doses of
strychnine
Strychnine (, , American English, US chiefly ) is a highly toxicity, toxic, colorless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine, when inhaled, swallowed, ...
and larger ones of whisky and brandy, and as cheaper treatments linseed, salt and warm water, and glycerin.
Many people also thought that fasting would 'starve' the fever, based on the belief that the body would not produce as much heat with less food; this was in fact poor medical advice.
Furthermore, many doctors still believed in the miasma theory of disease rather than infectious spread:
for example, notable professors of the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...
,
Hermann Nothnagel and
Otto Kahler considered that the disease was not contagious.
Public health
US public health departments did little prevention in advance, even though they knew through
transoceanic telegraph cable reports, that the Russian influenza was on its way.
A result of the Asiatic flu in Malta is that influenza became for the first time a compulsorily notifiable illness.
Identification of virus responsible
Influenza virus
Researchers have tried for many years to identify the subtypes of
Influenza A responsible for the 1889–1890, 1898–1900 and 1918 epidemics.
Initially, this work was primarily based on "seroarcheology"—the detection of antibodies to influenza infection in the sera of elderly people—and it was thought that the 1889–1890 pandemic was caused by Influenza A subtype H2, the 1898–1900 epidemic by subtype H3, and the 1918 pandemic by subtype H1.
With the confirmation of
H1N1
Influenza A virus subtype H1N1 (A/H1N1) is a subtype of influenza A virus (IAV). Some human-adapted strains of H1N1 are endemic in humans and are one cause of seasonal influenza (flu). Other strains of H1N1 are endemic in pigs ( swine influen ...
as the cause of the
1918 flu pandemic
The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the Influenza A virus subtype H1N1, H1N1 subtype of the influenz ...
following identification of H1N1 antibodies in exhumed corpses,
reanalysis of seroarcheological data suggested Influenza A subtype H3 (possibly the
H3N8 subtype) as a more likely cause for the 1889–1890 pandemic.
This view is corroborated by converging seroarcheological and mortality data. In blood sera collected in 1956–1957, birth cohorts likely exposed early in life to the 1889–1890 pandemic had the highest percentages of detectable antibodies against the H3 strain that was later responsible for the 1968 pandemic. Correspondingly, excess mortality decreased sharply during that pandemic for these cohorts, who were 78 years old or older at the time.
Coronavirus
After the
2002–2004 SARS outbreak, virologists started sequencing human and animal
coronavirus
Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the comm ...
es. A comparison of two virus strains in the ''
Betacoronavirus 1'' species
bovine coronavirus and
human coronavirus OC43
Human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43) is a member of the species ''Betacoronavirus 1, Betacoronavirus gravedinis'', which infects humans and cattle. The infecting coronavirus is an Viral envelope, enveloped, Sense (molecular biology), positive-sense ...
indicated that the two had a
most recent common ancestor
A most recent common ancestor (MRCA), also known as a last common ancestor (LCA), is the most recent individual from which all organisms of a set are inferred to have descended. The most recent common ancestor of a higher taxon is generally assu ...
in the late 19th century, with several methods yielding most probable dates around 1890. The authors speculated that an
introduction
Introduction, The Introduction, Intro, or The Intro may refer to:
General use
* Introduction (music), an opening section of a piece of music
* Introduction (writing), a beginning section to a book, article or essay which states its purpose and g ...
of the former strain to the human population, rather than influenza, might have caused the 1889 epidemic.
A Belgian team performed a similar analysis of OC43, identifying a crossover date in the late 1800s.
In 2021, examination of contemporary medical reports noted that the pandemic's clinical manifestations resembled those of COVID-19 rather than influenza, with notable similarities including multisystem disease, loss of taste and smell perception, central nervous system symptoms and sequelae similar to
long COVID
Long may refer to:
Measurement
* Long, characteristic of something of great duration
* Long, characteristic of something of great length
* Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate
* Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...
.
Other scientists have pointed to the fact the mortality curve for Russian Flu is J-shaped, as found in COVID-19, with little mortality in the very young and high mortality in the old, rather than the U-shaped mortality found in influenza infections, with high mortality in the very young and very old.
While a small sample of dental remains has been tested and lends weight to the hypothesis,
there is still no scientific consensus that the 1889–1890 outbreak was caused by a coronavirus, with one analysis of the literature suggesting that the evidence for this causality is still "conjectural".
Before the first outbreak of Russian influenza, Tomsk province was experiencing an epizootic of pneumonia in cattle. Every year from June to November, up to 13,000 cattle, mostly from the Kulunda steppes, Barnaul district and Semipalatinsk region, were brought to Tomsk for slaughter. In autumn 1889, pneumonia was recorded among cattle in Tomsk. But despite the outbreak, the cattle were not isolated and moved freely through the streets of the city. Meat prices dropped to 1 ruble per
pood. Because of the resulting disease, the inhabitants of the city either slaughtered the cattle or sold the animals very cheaply (a cow cost from 5 to 8 rubles). The inhabitants of Siberia hoped that with a drop in temperature the epizootic would subside. The newspapers wrote: "Siberians obediently waited for the onset of cold weather, with the appearance of which, however, the epizootic even more intensified, yes, in addition to it came and obnoxious Influenza. Notes on the relationship between influenza and animal diseases were found in the newspaper "Physician" 1889 г.: "...the connection of influenza with epizootics on horses, dogs and cats is undoubted; these epizootics have much in common with influenza...".These data are in favour of the theory that the "Russian influenza" of 1889 could have been caused by a coronavirus transmitted from cattle to humans.
Patterns of mortality
Unlike most influenza pandemics such as the 1918 flu, primarily elderly people died in 1889.
Due to generally lower standards of living, worse hygiene, and poorer standard of medicine, the proportion of vulnerable people was higher than in the modern world.
Notable infections
Deaths
First outbreak
* 1 January 1890 Henry R. Pierson
* 7 January 1890 Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Dowager German Empress, Queen of Prussia
* 14 January 1890 Ignaz von Döllinger
Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger (; 28 February 179914 January 1890), also Doellinger in English, was a German theologian, Catholic priest and church historian who rejected the dogma of papal infallibility. Among his writings which proved c ...
* 15 January 1890 Walker Blaine
* 18 January 1890 Amadeo I of Spain
* 22 January 1890 Adam Forepaugh
* 22 February 1890 Bill Blair
* 12 March 1890 William Allen
* 26 March 1890 Afrikan Spir
* 23 May 1890 Louis Artan
* 19 July 1890 James P. Walker
* 14 August 1890 Michael J. McGivney
Recurrences
* 23 January 1891 Prince Baudouin of Belgium
* 10 February 1891 Sofya Kovalevskaya
* 18 March 1891 William Herndon
* 22 April 1891 John Ballou Newbrough
* 5 May 1891 William Connor Magee
* 8 May 1891 Helena Blavatsky
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (; – 8 May 1891), often known as Madame Blavatsky, was a Russian-born Mysticism, mystic and writer who emigrated to the United States where she co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. She gained an internat ...
* 15 May 1891 Edwin Long
* 3 June 1891 Oliver St John
* 9 June 1891 Henry Gawen Sutton
* 1 July 1891 Frederic Edward Manby
* 20 December 1891 Grisell Baillie
* 28 December 1891 William Arthur White
* 7 January 1892 Tewfik Pasha
Mohamed Tewfik Pasha ( ''Muḥammad Tawfīq Bāshā''; April 30 or 15 November 1852 – 7 January 1892), also known as Tawfiq of Egypt, was khedive of Khedivate of Egypt, Egypt and the Turco-Egyptian Sudan, Sudan between 1879 and 1892 and the s ...
* 8 January 1892 John Tay
* 10 January 1892 John George Knight
* 12 January 1892 Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau
* 14 January 1892 Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, grandson of Queen Victoria and second-in-line to the British throne
* 17 January 1892 Charles A. Spring
* 20 January 1892 Douglas Hamilton
* 12 February 1892 Thomas Sterry Hunt
* 15 April 1892 Amelia Edwards
Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards (7 June 1831 – 15 April 1892), also known as Amelia B. Edwards, was an English novelist, journalist, traveller and Egyptologist. Her literary successes included the ghost story ''The Phantom Coach'' (1864), the nov ...
* 5 May 1892 Gustavus Cheyney Doane
* 24 May 1892 Charles Arthur Broadwater
* 10 June 1892 Charles Fenerty
Charles Fenerty ( January 1821 – 10 June 1892) was a Canadian inventor who invented the wood pulp process for papermaking, which was first adapted into the production of newsprint. Fenerty was also a poet, writing over 32 known poems.
Early li ...
* 21 April 1893 Edward Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby
Edward Henry Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby (21 July 182621 April 1893; known as Lord Stanley from 1851 to 1869) was a British statesman. He served as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs twice, from 1866 to 1868 and from 1874 to 1878, and also ...
* 2 July 1893 Georgie Drew Barrymore
* 7 August 1893 Thomas Burges
* 31 August 1893 William Cusins
* 15 December 1893 Samuel Laycock
* 16 December 1893 Tom Edwards-Moss
* 3 January 1894 Hungerford Crewe, 3rd Baron Crewe
* 24 January 1894 Constance Fenimore Woolson
* 24 January 1894 Laura Schirmer Mapleson
* 14 March 1894 John T. Ford
* 19 June 1894 William Mycroft
* 19 February 1895 John Hulke
* 1 March 1895 Frederic Chapman
* 2 March 1895 Berthe Morisot
* 5 March 1895 Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet
* 20 March 1895 James Sime
* 24 March 1895 John L. O'Sullivan
* 2 August 1895 Joseph Thomson
Survivors
* Alexander III of Russia
Alexander III (; 10 March 18451 November 1894) was Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 1881 until his death in 1894. He was highly reactionary in domestic affairs and reversed some of the libera ...
* Alfonso XIII of Spain
* Srinivasa Ramanujan
Srinivasa Ramanujan Aiyangar
(22 December 188726 April 1920) was an Indian mathematician. Often regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, though he had almost no formal training in pure mathematics, he made substantial con ...
* John Thomas Banks
* Marie François Sadi Carnot
* Charles I of Württemberg
* Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until Death and state funeral of Edward VII, his death in 1910.
The second child ...
* Empress Elisabeth of Austria
Elisabeth (born Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie in Bavaria; 24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898), nicknamed Sisi or Sissi, was Empress of Austria and List of Hungarian consorts, Queen of Hungary from her marriage to Franz Joseph I of Austri ...
* Archduke Ernst of Austria
* William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British politican, starting as Conservative MP for Newark and later becoming the leader of the Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party.
In a career lasting over 60 years, he ...
* Maurice de Hirsch
Moritz Freiherr von Hirsch auf Gereuth (; ; 9 December 1831 – 21 April 1896), commonly known as Maurice de Hirsch, was a German Jewish financier and philanthropist who set up charitable foundations to promote Jewish education and improve the ...
* Johanna von Puttkamer
Johanna, Princess of Bismarck, Duchess of Lauenburg (born Johanna Friederike Charlotte Dorothea Eleonore von Puttkamer; 11 April 1824 – 27 November 1894) was a Kingdom of Prussia, Prussian and German Empire, German noblewoman and the wife of t ...
* Karl Ludwig of Austria
* Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII (; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2March 181020July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the Ap ...
* Maria Feodorovna
* Archduchess Marie Valerie of Austria
* Olga Nikolaevna of Russia
* Oscar I of Sweden
Oscar I (born Joseph François Oscar Bernadotte; 4 July 1799 – 8 July 1859) was King of Sweden and List of Norwegian monarchs, Norway from 8 March 1844 until his death. He was the second monarch of the House of Bernadotte.
The only child of Ki ...
* Pierre Tirard
* Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (; 3 February 183022 August 1903), known as Lord Salisbury, was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom three times for ...
* Edward Villiers, 5th Earl of Clarendon
See also
* '' Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co'' – case in English contract law, concerning an advertisement of 1891 for a putative flu remedy
* Spanish flu
The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. The earliest docum ...
* Hong Kong flu
The Hong Kong flu, also known as the 1968 flu pandemic, was an influenza pandemic that occurred between 1968 and 1970 and which killed between one and four million people globally. It is among the deadliest pandemics in history, and was caus ...
* 2009 swine flu pandemic
The 2009 swine flu pandemic, caused by the H1N1/swine flu/influenza virus and declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) from June 2009 to August 2010, was the third recent flu pandemic involving the H1N1 virus (the first being the 1918� ...
* COVID-19 pandemic
Notes
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:1889-1890 flu pandemic
1889–1890 flu pandemic,
Influenza pandemics
1889 in biology
1890 in biology
1889 disasters
1889 in health
19th-century disease outbreaks
1890 disasters
1890 in health
1880s epidemics
1890s epidemics
Epidemics in India
Amadeo I of Spain