History of 19th September: Moons, Mummies, & Bombay Plague
Explore the captivating history of 19th September, from the discovery of Saturn’s oddly shaped moon Hyperion to the chilling impact of the 1896 Bombay plague. Uncover the intriguing connections between moons, mummies, monumental trees, and Mumbai’s struggle with an epidemic that reshaped its future.
Moons, as we’ve all been taught, are usually nice and round, aren’t they? But while delving into the history of 19th September, I stumbled upon a cracking little discovery that proves otherwise. It was on this day that William Cranch Bond, his son George Phillips Bond, and the astronomer William Lassell discovered the first non-round moon. Not ours, mind you – our moon remains the trusty old romantic disc we’ve all gazed at during those wistful, late-night moments. No, I’m talking about Hyperion, one of Saturn’s moons.
Now, Hyperion isn’t your run-of-the-mill, spherical moon. It’s more like the cosmic version of a squashed rugby ball. Hyperion weighs in at about 15% of the mass of Mimas, the smallest known ellipsoidal body. And the largest crater on this oddball moon is roughly 121.57 km wide and 10.2 km deep. Imagine that! Scientists reckon it might be the result of a colossal cosmic punch-up, where Hyperion’s parent body was smashed to bits. So, what we’ve got floating around Saturn today is essentially a chunk of moon debris. Fancy that!
But let’s hop back down to Earth and shift gears to another intriguing bit of history from 19th September. Cast your mind back to 1893 when New Zealand led the way in women’s suffrage, granting voting rights to all women under the Electoral Act. And speaking of New Zealand, do you remember that viral video of Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke performing the Haka at the New Zealand parliament? If not, do give it a watch – it’s a right eye-opener.
Moving swiftly along the history of 19th September, on this same day in 1991, two German tourists out for a ramble in the Italian Alps stumbled across a rather chilly chap named Ötzi. This five-thousand-year-old mummy, the oldest known natural human mummy in Europe, has been keeping the scientists busy ever since. Who knew a walk in the Alps could lead to such a discovery?
And while we’re talking about record-breaking finds, just last year, in 2022, scientists in northern Brazil discovered the site of the tallest tree in the Amazon. At a whopping 88.5 metres tall (that’s 290 feet for those still clinging to the imperial system), this angelim vermelho stands proudly in the Iratapuru River Nature Reserve. Quite the towering achievement, wouldn’t you say?
Before I move on to the feature story from the history of 19th September, I must give a nod to the legendary Salil Chaudhury, whose birth anniversary we celebrate today. I’ve already shared a cracking story on him, which you can read here if you fancy a trip down musical memory lane.
And there you have it – a jaunt through the history of 19th September, filled with moons, mummies, and monumental trees. Quite the day, if I may say so!
And now the feature story from the history of 19th September – The Bombay Plague
The Bubonic Plague epidemic of 1896 struck Bombay (now Mumbai) like a bolt from the blue, reducing the bustling city to a shadow of its former self. It wasn’t long before the city’s streets, once alive with commerce and chatter, were eerily deserted, as the populace either succumbed to the disease or fled to avoid it. By February 1897, Bombay had lost nearly half its population, a staggering drop from 846,000 to just 450,000 in three months. It’s hard to fathom the scale of the calamity, but to put it in perspective, at the peak of the plague, 2,624 people per week were meeting their maker. Comparisons to modern times, particularly Mumbai during the Covid-19 pandemic, are all too easy to draw—empty roads, the city’s spirit on hold, and a sense of gloom hanging over its once vibrant energy.
Now, this plague wasn’t some newfangled disease sprung from the streets of Bombay. It hitched a ride on fleas carried by rats, most likely stowing away on a ship from Hong Kong in August 1896. Bombay, being the gateway to British India and a hub of industry, was fertile ground for an epidemic. The city was an international port, a financial powerhouse, and home to the textile mills that kept the British Empire’s coffers well-stocked. When the plague hit, it wasn’t just about saving lives—it was also about protecting one of the Empire’s biggest sources of revenue.
Sanitary measures were already part of the city’s routine, given the recurring bouts of cholera and smallpox. However, with the outbreak of the plague, the authorities stepped things up a notch. While today we might be used to hand sanitiser and face masks, back then, it was all about killing rats, contact tracing, and throwing people into Plague Camps. Unfortunately, this didn’t always go down well with the locals, who weren’t too pleased about the manner in which these measures were enforced—imagine having your house declared “Unfit for Human Habitation” and being forcibly carted off to a hospital with little hope of survival. Not exactly the best way to build trust with the population.
The city’s first brush with the plague came courtesy of Dr. Acacio G. Viegas, who diagnosed the initial case in Mandvi on 19th September 1896. Mandvi, with its cramped living quarters and proximity to the docks, was the perfect breeding ground for the plague. It was akin to today’s Covid-19 hotspot, Dharavi—overcrowded and rife for infection. And while the plague had a more direct bacterial cause (versus Covid-19’s viral roots), the way it spread—via infected droplets—was eerily similar.
Initially, the response to the outbreak was handled by the Bombay municipality. But with the death toll rising—33,161 lives lost between September 1896 and March 1897—the British government decided it was time to take over. Enter the Plague Committees, staffed by Europeans who thought they knew best. Their heavy-handed methods, however, left much to be desired. It wasn’t long before public discontent boiled over, culminating in the assassination of Walter Rand, the chairman of the Poona plague committee, in 1897. One might say that enforcing hygiene with a cudgel rather than a carrot didn’t quite win over hearts and minds.
The flight from the city was as dramatic as the outbreak itself. Workers left in droves, fearful of infection, taking the plague with them to the villages they sought refuge in. This exodus wreaked havoc on Bombay’s economy. Mills were at a standstill, and with dock workers gone, goods sat idle, just like today when Covid-19 brought Mumbai to its knees.
Bombay didn’t begin to recover until around 1905, when the textile industry finally found its feet again, and migrant workers, weary of starving in their rural hideaways, returned to the city. Much like the present day, a steady reopening of the economy was seen as the only way forward.
Interestingly, a key turning point in controlling the plague came with the creation of the Haffkine vaccine in 1897. Waldemar Haffkine, the scientist who developed it, was so confident in his work that he tested it on himself—a brave man indeed. This development parallels today’s relentless pursuit of a vaccine to tame Covid-19.
As the plague raged on, the British authorities realised that brute force wasn’t going to cut it. By 1900, they shifted their approach, co-opting local leaders to help with containment rather than bullying the population into submission. One positive outcome of the entire affair was the creation of the Bombay City Improvement Trust in 1898, which sought to decongest the city and improve its infrastructure. Roads like Mohammed Ali Road and Sandhurst Road were laid out, and the garden estates in Dadar were built to relieve the overcrowded southern parts of Bombay.
Today, Mumbai, like its older self, is grappling with a new epidemic, but the lessons of the past remain as relevant as ever. If history has taught us anything, it’s that cities rebuild, populations return, and life, in some form or another, does go on. Let’s just hope this time around, we manage to avoid the more tragic blunders of history. After all, no one fancies another twenty-year pandemic, do they?
That is all from the history of 19th September.
What's Your Reaction?
