FACT CHECK

Fact check: List of 'deadliest days in American history' is partly false

Ella Lee
USA TODAY

Claim: First 4 days of December were among the 8 deadliest days in American history due to COVID-19 deaths

An infographic that's gone viral suggests the first four days of December comprise half of the eight deadliest days in American history. But while the events listed did indeed take a terrible toll, other more deadly events were omitted.

According to the infographic, the number of coronavirus deaths on Dec. 1-4 fall only behind the Galveston Hurricane in 1900; the Battle of Antietam in 1862; and Sept. 11, 2001.

The figures appear to have first been compiled by Twitter user @Sundae_Gurl on Dec. 8 and later amplified by long-standing politics blog Political Wire on Dec. 9.

The Oklahoma Source also posted the graph, which has over 500 shares, to Facebook on Dec. 8. USA TODAY reached out to the page for comment. 

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America's deadliest days

Given that the infographic lists events and not dates, it's reasonable to assume it's attempting to rank the highest death tolls caused by a specific event or cause that took place on a single day. The events on the infographic are certainly among America's deadliest, but the list omits several one-day events and causes that saw higher death counts than those of Dec. 1-4.

Here's the ranking, based on USA TODAY's findings, as of Dec. 8, the date the list appears to have first been shared. 

1. Galveston Hurricane – 8,000 deaths

A Category 4 storm swept through the Caribbean and Florida in 1900, making landfall on Sept. 8 in Galveston, Texas, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report. The deadly combination of the hurricane's surge and winds up to 145 mph killed an estimated 8,000 people — about 20% of the city's population. 

2. Battle of Antietam – 3,650 deaths

In the bloodiest one-day battle of the Civil War, the Union army lost approximately 2,100 soldiers and the Confederate army lost about 1,550, totaling about 3,650 deaths, according to the National Park Service. An estimated 19,070 more soldiers combined were wounded, missing or captured. The NPS noted that the "catastrophic nature" of the Battle of Antietam makes it "virtually impossible" to compile the exact number of casualties; its data is from the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion and the Antietam Battlefield Board. 

3. San Francisco earthquake – 3,000 deaths

On the morning of April 18, 1906, an earthquake that lasted less than a minute devastated San Francisco, according to the National Archives. An estimated 3,000 people were killed and nearly half the city's population was left homeless. 

4. Sept. 11, 2001,terrorist attacks – 2,977 deaths

A series of terrorist attacks orchestrated by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden killed a total of 2,977 people on Sept. 11, 2001. When the World Trade Center collapsed after hijacked planes crashed into the twin towers, 2,753 people were killed, according to the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner. Following the initial attack, 343 New York City firefighters, 23 New York City police officers and 37 Port Authority officers perished, CNN reported. At the Pentagon in Washington, 183 people were killed after another hijacked plane flew into that building. And 40 passengers and crew members aboard another hijacked plane died after it crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, the theory being that those individuals attempted to retake control of the flight so that it would not reach its intended target. 

5. Dec. 3, COVID-19 – 2,879 deaths

6. Dec. 2, COVID-19 – 2,804 deaths

7. Dec. 4, COVID-19 –  2,607 deaths

8. April 15, COVID-19 – 2,603 deaths

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the above figures represent the number of individuals who died from COVID-19 on those dates, three of which occurred during the first four days of December. 

It's important to note that COVID-19 data varies on different sites. According to the New York Times death tally, the deadliest days due to COVID-19 at the time the list was made were April 15 (2,752), May 6 (2,708) and April 14 (2,705).

Other possible contenders 

Taegan Goddard, founder of Political Wire, told USA TODAY that the list is not intended to be complete.

"Instead, it should be used to compare the daily deaths from the pandemic to some of the more tragic days in our country’s history," Goddard said. 

There are a number of other events with lower death counts that might bump Dec. 2-4 off the list of America's deadliest days with more information. 

On Sept. 16, 1928, a hurricane hit Lake Okeechobee in Florida, filling it to the brim and crumbling its dikes. The farmlands around it flooded, leading to the deaths of an estimated 2,500 people, according to a report by the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center. But the report notes that the death toll could be as high as 3,000 people. 

The 1918 flu pandemic is also worth noting. There is no data available of daily death counts, but the U.S. Census Bureau kept records of how many deaths occurred in the year 1918; 79.8% of the deaths occurred in "the last four months of the year," according to its records. With 477,467 total deaths that year, that's 381,019 deaths in the last four months – an average of 3,123 per day. 

The San Ciriaco Hurricane barreled across the island of Puerto Rico in 1899, killing an estimated 3,300 people in six to nine hours, according to New York City archives. Whether this event counts as a U.S. tragedy depends on the perception of when the island became a U.S. possession. Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the U.S. in 1898 under the Treaty of Paris – a year before the hurricane – but it was not officially made a U.S. territory until 1917, when its people became U.S. citizens, according to the Library of Congress. 

And, there were a number of battles on U.S. soil that could have surpassed the list's tally if deaths per day were recorded. The 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, for example, lasted three days and resulted in 7,058 deaths of Union and Confederate soldiers combined.That averages about 2,352 deaths per day, but it's unlikely an equal amount of soldiers died each day. 

COVID-19 deaths may soon surpass several deadliest days

It's also important to note that because the list seemingly began circulating on Dec. 8, the list of deadliest days does not include more recent dates. But as the daily COVID-19 death toll continues to rise, it's possible that future dates will override this list.

For example, the U.S. recorded 3,124 COVID-19 deaths on Dec. 9, according to Johns Hopkins. That figure bumps Wednesday to the third single deadliest day on the list. 

Our rating: Partly false

We rate the claim that this list shows Dec. 1-4 as half of the eight deadliest days in U.S. history as PARTLY FALSE because some of it was not supported by our research. The events on the infographic are certainly among America's deadliest, but the list omits several key one-day events that saw higher death counts than those of Dec. 1-4. 

Our fact check sources: 

Contributing: McKenzie Sadeghi

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