Commerce was already associated with infection during the Black Death, though it would be hundreds of years before rats were singled out as its carrier, and the first quarantines followed soon after.

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Indeed, the decay of Congo's Belgian-built roads, which in 1960 ran to over 100, 000km, must rank as one of the greatest boons to forests since the Black Death.

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There is supreme irony in the death of Michael Jackson the same year as the inauguration of the first black president.

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The incident came as Sanford remains in the national spotlight because of the 2012 shooting death of an unarmed black teenager.

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