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Talk:Chicago 1885 cholera epidemic myth

A fact from Chicago 1885 cholera epidemic myth appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 12 September 2006. The text of the entry was as follows: Did you know... that a Chicago urban legend states that 90,000 people died in Chicagooftyphoid fever and cholera in 1885? A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2006/September.

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I'm not great at the coding side of things, so I try to limit any editing I do to spelling and paragraph errors for the most part. Therefore I'm hoping someone will know how to edit the link for the Chicago Tribune's retraction, which I can only find here: [[1]] which would replace the link currently there which, at least on my computer at present, leads nowhere. Thanks! RB3 17:54, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Moving this Talk for now:

Actual deaths One of the most famous people to die from typhoid fever in Chicago was Stephen A. Douglas, a Democrat contender in the 1860 presidential election, who died on June 3, 1861.

Per typhoid fever:

In the late 19th century, typhoid fever mortality rate in Chicago averaged 65 per 100,000 people a year. The worst year was 1891, when the typhoid death rate was 174 per 100,000 persons.

Deaths from typhoid fever were not especially noteworthy, nor is this 1861 death from typhoid fever relevant to a supposed 1885 cholera epidemic. -- 201.53.7.16 (talk) 20:12, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for pointing out the reference. I have expanded the section. --Petri Krohn (talk) 04:28, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I continue to think that the 1861 death of Stephen A. Douglas is not relevant in this article on the supposed 1885 Chicago cholera epidemic. -- 201.53.7.16 (talk) 19:21, 17 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This article is not about the 1885 Chicago cholera epidemic - there never was such a thing. --Petri Krohn (talk) 20:07, 17 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hence my use of the expression "supposed" 1885 Chicago cholera epidemic. The article is entitled and is ostensibly about the Chicago 1885 cholera epidemic myth. IMHO info about Douglas' 1861 death from typhoid fever is not relevant to this particular article, although it is entirely appropriate somewhere else in Wikipedia. -- 201.53.7.16 (talk) 21:22, 18 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The myth is not only about cholera, but specifically refers to deaths from typhoid. Would it help, if we renamed this article Chicago 1885 typhoid fever epidemic myth? -- Petri Krohn (talk) 22:40, 18 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have created a redirect Typhoid fever and cholera in Chicago. This could be expanded into an article. Naturally, the death of Stephen A. Douglas would play a major role in this article. As there is no article yet, the section Actual deaths will just have to do in its place. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 22:49, 18 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I removed the sentence that said:

In stark contradiction to this was the 1893 census not undertaking the residence of 25 million visitors to the Chicago Columbian Exhibition, pushing the total deaths much higher than the mythological 90,000.

This sentence does not make any sense. The U.S. census is conducted in years ending in 0 -- 1890, 1900, etc. -- so I don't know what "1893 census" it was talking about. A census doesn't "undertake" the residence of anyone; it reports people's residences, but doesn't "undertake" them, if that means anything. The visitors to the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893 would have been counted, for any census, in their hometowns, not in a city that they were visiting as tourists, even if the census had been held that year. And the exposition took place eight years after this supposed cholera epidemic. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 21:06, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]