The deadliest pandemic of the 20th century was named after a country not to blame
The 1918 influenza pandemic killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide, more than World War I itself. It became known as the 'Spanish flu' largely because wartime censorship suppressed outbreak reports in combatant nations, while neutral Spain's uncensored press freely covered it, including the king's own illness, creating the false impression it had originated there.