How people celebrated the 1918 holiday season during a pandemic left a lot of lessons for 2020

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By Olivia B. Waxman

Staff Writer

The kinds of health precautions that Americans are taking over the holidays would be familiar to Americans more than a century ago during the 1918 flu pandemic. From cancelled parties to the sight of masked shoppers in stores, the public health recommendations are very similar.

While the 1918 flu and the novel coronavirus are two very different viruses, then, like now, cases spiked after small family gatherings. At this time in 1918, the flu pandemic seemed to be contained, in contrast to the out-of-control COVID-19 pandemic in America, but the warnings seem to be the same. Click here to read historians’ insights on the similarities and differences between the 1918 and 2020 holiday seasons.

Here’s more of the history that made news this week:

HISTORY ON TIME.COM

Mikhail Baryshnikov: Remembering the Joy of My First Nutcracker in this Difficult Year

By Mikhail Baryshnikov and Lisa Rinehart

"I'd never choreographed, or even staged a ballet before..."

How Soviet Russia Banished Their Version of Santa Claus, Then Brought Him Back to Spread Communist Cheer

By Madeline Roache

He has survived a violent social and political revolution that saw him go from beloved to banned as a subversive element, then beloved again and hailed as a symbol of the true Russian spirit.

Column: A Christmas Hymn for Our Troubled Time

By David French

The 1863 hymn was written at a time of great personal suffering against the backdrop of national division and despair.

How 2020 Will Go Down in the History Books, According to Historians

By Olivia B. Waxman

TIME asked historians nationwide to pick a moment in 2020 that stands out to them.

The Anti-Gay 'Lavender Scare' Not Taught in Schools

By Suyin Haynes and Video by Arpita Aneja

Under President Eisenhower, the investigation, interrogation and removal of gay men and lesbians from the federal government became policy.

FROM THE TIME VAULT

Today in 1945: The Nativity

“Beside every U.S. celebrant of Christmas, there watched, like the shepherds, three presences: the war's dead, the wretched and The Bomb. The war's dead included not only those who died that Christians might celebrate Christmas in peace and freedom. They also included the millions who died in concentration camps, the children who perished from exhaustion, cold and fear, in flight from battling armies or in air raids, the children who have died by thousands from hunger and cold in Europe and Asia this year. The wretched included not only war's fugitives, the millions of displaced persons drifting in hunger, cold and anxiety over the hard face of the world; and those others, allies and enemies, who had been shattered in life and soul by defeat in war —and some by victory." (Dec. 24, 1945)

Today in 1965: Gemini Rendezvous

“From 185 miles above the earth, Air Force Major Thomas Stafford reported that he and his fellow astronauts had just made the first manned rendezvous in space. Moving with exquisite precision across the night sky, the spacecraft Gemini 6 tracked down its partner, Gemini 7..Now the moon itself seemed nearer and definitely accessible. Man's technical talents had brought a lunar visit down out of the realm of science fiction. The Apollo program, with its planned lunar landing before the decade runs out, no longer seemed a fanciful goal for overambitious scientists.” (Dec. 24, 1965)

Today in 1973: American children

“Despite the claims of disintegration and despair, the American child turns out to be a good deal more resilient than it at first appears. A hundred years ago Henry James observed that being an American was a complex fate. Surely in contemporary society, being an American child is even more complex, more challenging and bewildering. Yet at Christmas, 1973, America could do far worse than listen to the notions, the insights, the needs -and even the fantasies- of its littlest and most traditional citizens. At Christmas 1973 it is well to remember that Ebenezer Scrooge himself was rescued by a dream and restored by a child.” (Dec. 24, 1973)

HIGHLIGHTS FROM AROUND THE WEB

Thread: On Twitter, historian Joanne Freeman points out a lesson from the election of 1800 for today’s political leaders.

Shell-shock: George Washington’s home Mount Vernon tells the Virginian-Pilot’s Katherine Hafner that the first President’s eggnog recipe is a myth, but offers one real recipe from the estate.

Setting the Record Straight: For Medium’s blog Zora, Morgan Jerkins interviewed two descendants of a man in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study about their efforts to correct misconceptions about that experiment, especially in the era of COVID-19 conspiracy theories.

New New Deal: For Columbia Journalism Review, Jon Allsop looks back at the 1930s Federal Writers’ Project amid talks about reviving it to cover the pandemic.

Remembrance: The New York Times’ Clay Risen wrote an obituary for Jean Graetz, one of few white supporters of the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956), who died on Dec. 16 at the age of 90.