As Covid rages on, the daily death toll regrettably continues to rise across the US. To call attention to the severity of following pandemic-driven safety precautions, a Twitter user named Carey B shared a list of the ‘Deadliest Days in American History.’
Historian, Walt Chantry fills in the blanks of Carey B’s list with each event’s respective date:
9. December 7, 1941 – Pearl Harbor: 8,000
8. December 4, 2020 – COVID-19: 2,439
7. December 1, 2020 – COVID-19: 2,461
6. December 2, 2020 – COVID-19: 2,762
5. December 3, 2020 – COVID-19: 2,861
4. September 11, 2001: 2,977
3. April 18, 1906 – San Francisco Earthquake: 3,000
2. September 17, 1862 – Battle of Antietam: 3,600
1 August 27, 1900 – Galveston Hurricane: 8,000
Walt Chantry appreciates Carey B’s act of shedding light on the severity of Covid with this sombering list of the deadliest days in American history.
Putting Covid-related deaths in a lineup of major historical events, like the Battle of Antietam and 9/11 puts the reality of the current devastation in harsh perspective. To know that four of the nine deadliest days in our nation’s history have happened not only during this single pandemic — but one week! — is shocking, sobering and sickening, all the same. This is not the history any American could’ve imagined we’d be making in 2020. Here’s to hoping that the decade will push on more positively in 2021.