Smallpox — the ruthless killer that haunted humanity for 12,000 years.
It even scarred the mummified face of Pharaoh Ramses V, disfigured Queen Elizabeth I, and nearly took Abraham Lincoln. No throne, no nation, no age was safe.
It struck fast and cruel — fevers, pain, pustules that turned faces unrecognizable.
At its peak, one in three infected people died.
By the 20th century alone, over 300 million lives were lost.
Then, for the first time, humanity fought back.
The World Health Organization launched a global vaccination campaign that spanned continents and decades.
In 1977, the last natural case was recorded in Somalia.
In 1978, one final tragedy — Janet Parker, a medical photographer in the UK, died from accidental lab exposure.
Two years later, in 1980, the world declared victory.
Smallpox was gone.
The first — and so far, only — human disease eradicated from the planet.
A virus that ruled for millennia, wiped out by a needle, science, and sheer determination.
👉 History’s full of moments like this — dark, strange, and deeply human. Proof that even our deadliest enemies can be defeated when we fight together.
