Historical Quarantines
Quarantine↕ | Year↕ | Disease↕ | Location↕ | Known For↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Venice Quarantina | 1377 | Bubonic Plague | Venice / Ragusa (Dubrovnik) | Origin of the word 'quarantine' — 40 days (quaranta giorni), ships held offshore, first organized disease isolation |
Lazaretto Vecchio Island | 1403 | Plague | Venice, Italy | World's first permanent quarantine station, plague victims isolated on an island, mass graves discovered recently |
Great Plague of London | 1665 | Bubonic Plague | London, England | Red cross painted on doors, 'Bring out your dead', 100,000 died, preceded the Great Fire, Eyam village self-quarantined |
Yellow Fever in Philadelphia | 1793 | Yellow Fever | Philadelphia, USA | US capital shut down, government fled, 5,000 died in 4 months, Benjamin Rush's controversial bloodletting treatments |
Typhoid Mary | 1907–1938 | Typhoid Fever | New York City, USA | Mary Mallon quarantined for 26 years on North Brother Island, first known asymptomatic carrier, ethics of forced isolation |
Ellis Island Quarantine | 1892–1954 | Various (trachoma, TB, cholera) | New York Harbor, USA | Immigrants inspected in 6-second medical exam, chalk marks on clothing, 2% turned away, gateway to America |
San Francisco Chinatown Plague | 1900 | Bubonic Plague | San Francisco, USA | Entire Chinatown cordoned off, racist enforcement targeting only Chinese residents, landmark civil rights case Wong Wai v. Williamson |
1918 Spanish Flu | 1918–1919 | Influenza (H1N1) | Global | Cities that locked down early had better outcomes (St. Louis vs Philadelphia), mask mandates, 50 million dead worldwide |
Gruinard Island Anthrax | 1942–1990 | Anthrax (biological weapon test) | Scotland, UK | British military tested anthrax bombs on sheep, island quarantined for 48 years, decontaminated with formaldehyde and seawater |
Eyam Plague Village | 1665–1666 | Bubonic Plague | Derbyshire, England | Entire village voluntarily self-quarantined to stop plague spreading, 260 of 350 villagers died, heroic sacrifice |
SARS Quarantine Toronto | 2003 | SARS | Toronto, Canada | First major quarantine in North America in decades, 30,000 people isolated, WHO travel advisory devastated tourism |
Ebola Quarantine West Africa | 2014–2016 | Ebola | Sierra Leone / Liberia / Guinea | Entire neighborhoods cordoned off, 3-day nationwide lockdowns, 11,000 dead, West Point slum quarantine nearly caused riot |
COVID-19 Wuhan Lockdown | 2020 | COVID-19 | Wuhan, China | First city-wide lockdown of 11 million people, 76 days sealed, sparked global pandemic response, unprecedented in modern history |
COVID-19 Global Lockdowns | 2020–2021 | COVID-19 | Global (190+ countries) | 3.9 billion people under stay-at-home orders simultaneously, largest quarantine in human history, remote work revolution |
Australia Closed Borders | 2020–2022 | COVID-19 | Australia | Entire continent sealed for nearly 2 years, citizens couldn't leave or return, fortress mentality, Howard Springs quarantine camp |
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Frequently asked questions
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The Historical Quarantines list is currently sorted by the source data's default ordering. Community voting is not enabled on this dataset.
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This dataset contains 15 entries, each with multiple sortable, filterable columns. The full table is visible on this page and can be downloaded as a CSV, JSON, or Excel file.
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Yes. The download buttons at the top of the page give you the full 15-row dataset as CSV, JSON, or Excel. Use of the data is permitted under a Creative Commons Attribution license — credit dtbse.com when you republish.
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