I don't know why the hell is the 20th year of every century is cursed. 1820, Black death. 1920 IDK flu pandemic? Almost 20 million is the death toll.
Plagues are endemic; they used to happen every generation. Medieval Western Europe (in the Medieval Warming Period) from 700-1349 was notably without plagues but from 1349-1700 the plague (bubonic fever) occurred every generation. Isaac Newton was in Cambridge when the plague struck England in the 1660s (1664-1665 if I remember correctly). He went to a country estate and there had his proverbial epiphany when seeing an apple fall.