between 1894 and 1940, 15 million people died of the plague. it was the plague's third global pandemic.

between 1618 and 1648 ad, 60 million europeans died of smallpox.

if there ever was a worldwide plague or zombie apocalypse, it would only take about 10 days for all of the nuclear reactors in the world to evaporate their cooling tanks and start belching massive radioactive clouds for the next 10,000 years or so.

(and every city would burn because the gas lines would no longer be maintained, so there goes whatever shelter you thought you had. even the grain silos on farms would become potential time bombs.)

poveglia island, located near venice, italy, has been the site of plague quarantines going back to roman times. more than 160,000 charred corpses make up much of the island's topsoil, and bones still wash ashore to this day. that may be why the island is uninhabited.

2 years before the pilgrims landed, a plague hit north america, reducing the native american population by more than 90%.

during wwii, japan bombed china with fleas that were infected with bubonic plague.

there is good evidence that a strain of fu common since the 1970's that kills roughly 50,000 americans each year was released by a research lab in china or russia.

contrary to what you probably learned in school, the black death that killed off 1/4 of europe was not spread by fleas carried by rats. it was airborne.

native americans had no resistance to the smallpox virus. it killed off 90% of their entire population. although sometimes used as a biological weapon by european settlers, most of the infections were likely unintentional. if not for this disease, it is doubtful that european settlers would have successfully colonized north america.