Today in History - August 31: Single act of vandalism ended epidemic, solved long mystery
A major outbreak of cholera in London which began on August 31, 1854, changed what people thought about the disease.
One of the most deadly diseases of the 19th century, cholera was typically blamed on miasma, or foul-smelling air.
Within two weeks of the outbreak, more than 500 people within a few blocks of Broad Street, Soho, had died.
Doctor John Snow examined the location of the victims and noticed none of the workers at the Broad Street brewery were getting sick.
Those workers were taking advantage of the free beer on offer at the brewery.
Snow made a dot map of the homes of the patients, and found they were all drinking water from the same pump.
When the handle of the pump was removed, cases of cholera dropped overnight.
The discovery proved cholera was not spread by air but from tainted water.
It was later found the disease derived from the vibrio cholerae, a species of bacteria.
There hasn't been a death from cholera in London since 1901.
One of the world's most famous paintings was recovered by police on August 31, 2006, two years after it was stolen.
Edvard Munch's masterpiece The Scream was stolen in a daylight armed robbery from a museum in Oslo in 2004.
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