The Alaska

The Alaska Herald, Aug. 3rd 1875 (ed. AA Stickney)

“A disease called ‘the black measles’ appeared at Kodiak and the adjoining islands in 1875, from which the Alaska Herald of August 3, 1875, reports the following deaths to July of that year:

Kodiak 40
Wood Island 60
Afognak 20
Yelona I. 10
Eagle Harbor 10

Total – 130”

Quoted in 'Cruise of the Revenue Steamer Corwin in Alaska and the NW Arctic Ocean', Washington 1883

Events occurring during this month:

1. August 4 – Death of Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer (b. 1805)
2. August 13 - Food and Drugs Act 1875 makes adulteration of food or drugs an offence
3. August 15 – Birth of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, English composer (d. 1912)
4. August 24. J.B. Johnson, a professional swimmer of England, swam from the Lazaretto to Gloucester, about ten miles, in a contest with Thomas Coyle of Chester, PA., who gave up before he had swam more than half the distance.
5. August 25 – Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim the English Channel.