1977 — The Last Smallpox Case on Earth

On October 26, 1977, in Merca, on the Somali coast, hospital cook Ali Maow Maalin woke with a fever and a rash. It was smallpox, a virus that for centuries had killed up to half of those it struck. His case would prove to be the last naturally occurring case the world would ever see, after a global vaccination campaign run by the World Health Organization had chased the virus across the planet.

The response in Merca was total. Teams vaccinated everyone in the town, set up checkpoints, and searched house by house, and found no further case. Maalin recovered, later helped vaccinate children against polio, and in 1980 the WHO declared smallpox eradicated.