BOSTON (AP) — A highly contagious disease originating far from America’s shores triggers deadly outbreaks that spread rapidly, infecting the masses. Shots are available, but a divided public agonizes ...

The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara languages literally started dying off with the mass deaths caused by smallpox plagues in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The most devastating epidemic was in 1837, an ...

A letter from Catherine the Great – dated April 20, 1787 – sold for $1.3 million dollars at a London auction on Wednesday. The Russian empress supported mass immunization against smallpox in the ...

“Washington had it right on vaccine mandate issue” (Reading Eagle, Oct. 6), fails to mention the reason Gen. George Washington mandated the smallpox vaccine for the military. The mortality rate in ...

A Nov. 15 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) from the liberal group Occupy Democrats includes side-by-side images of a child infected with smallpox and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect ...

This column first appeared Oct. 1, 2010. What did all of these famous (and sometimes infamous) people — Mozart, Beethoven, George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Joseph Stalin, mobster ...