The 'Spanish' flu wasn't born in Spain

In 1918, at the height of the First World War, a lethal flu began cutting down soldiers on both sides. But the warring nations censored their newspapers: admitting an epidemic meant handing information to the enemy and crushing morale in the trenches.

Spain was neutral, and its press reported what it saw: packed hospitals, closed theatres, even King Alfonso XIII sick in bed. For the rest of the world, reading epidemic news datelined Madrid, the conclusion seemed obvious: this thing came from Spain.

Historians still debate the real origin — a military camp in Kansas and northern France are the leading candidates. The only certainty is that it wasn't Spain.

A century later, the name is still there. It was the price of being the only country that told the truth.