Smallpox was eradicated on this day in 1977, according to the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The earliest evidence we have of smallpox goes back over three millennia, found in some Egyptian mummies. It has killed a massive number of people over the centuries, with over 500 million estimated to have succumbed to it in just the 20th century. Researchers believe variolation, meaning inoculation against smallpox, has been practiced for over 2,000 years, first in Asia and some parts of Africa.
Variolation entailed taking small bits of smallpox sores and putting them in an uninfected person. Most of the time, that same person would experience only minor illness, preventing their death. It grew popular in Europe during the 1700s, protecting both the masses and royal families whose deaths from smallpox threatened to destabilize their kingdoms. In 1796, Edward Jenner found that he could variolate patients with the less-dangerous cowpox and still achieve immunity from smallpox; shortly afterward he developed the first ever smallpox vaccine.
It was only in the 1960s, however, that a lot of funding was put behind ending the disease’s existential threat. President Lyndon B. Johnson poured money into the WHO’s coffers and used his government to distribute vaccines widely.
The disease was officially eradicated on this day in 1977 in what’s now Somalia, when doctors identified Ali Maow Maalin, a young man exhibiting fever, headaches and a rash, as having smallpox on Oct. 26. He ended up fully recovering, but not before spending time with a ton of fellow hospital patients and family members. The WHO, well-experienced with smallpox at this point, tracked down every person who came in contact with him and kept them under surveillance. They got lucky — Maalin’s case ended up being the last ever observed.
Maalin himself ended up spending much of his life trying to eradicate other outbreaks, encouraging families to get their children vaccinated for polio, using his own experiences as a cautionary tale. The WHO considered him one of their best local coordinators. Sadly, he passed away in 2013 after contracting malaria while helping administer polio vaccines.
