18. The Spanish Flu killed the rich and famous
One of the enduring names of the American automobile industry – Dodge – was the surname of two brothers who founded the company, John and Horace Dodge. Both died of complications from Spanish Flu. Rose Cleveland, sister of former American President Grover Cleveland, died of the flu on November 22, 1918. Austrian artist Gustav Klimt succumbed during the third wave in 1919. Walt Disney contracted the illness and survived, as did the King of Spain, Alphonse XIII. Franklin Delano Roosevelt contracted the flu while serving as Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
General John J. Pershing was stricken by the flu, though he too survived. Another survivor of the second wave was Amelia Earhart, who served as a nurse among Canadian troops suffering from the flu near Toronto. Earhart was sickened, developed pneumonia, and nearly died. After she recovered she required surgery for sinus problems caused by the flu, which recurred for the rest of her life, causing her considerable discomfort on many of her famous flights. Yet another who contracted the flu and survived was the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II, who abdicated his throne at the end of the First World War.