August 16, 1933: First day of amoebic dysentery outbreak at the Chicago World’s Fair. American Journal of Public Health editorial. “There are many reasons why the outbreak of amebic dysentery in Chicago in 1933 still holds intense interest. Some of these are practical and some scientific. On the practical side it will be recalled that the Exposition for 1934 opened in May. Already some of the daily papers are asking whether precautions have been taken to make the city safe for visitors, and repeating the charge that the news last year was suppressed. On the scientific side it must be pointed out that, as far as we have been able to determine, this is the first epidemic of the sort which has ever been recorded. The health officers had an entirely new problem to deal with, and there is no question that it took them by surprise, as it did everyone else. The paper read before this Association on October 9, 1933, attracted little attention; so little, in fact, that a prominent officer of the Public Health Service who heard it went back to Washington and did not even mention it. Some days later the report of a physician in Indianapolis that there were 5 or 6 cases of the disease in that city, all traceable to Chicago, gave the first intimation of its seriousness.