1976 Philadelphia Legionnaires' disease outbreak 1976 Philadelphia Legionnaires' disease outbreak The 1976 Legionnaires disease outbreak, occurring in the late summer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was the first occasion in which a cluster of a particular type of pneumonia cases were determined to be caused by the "Legionella pneumophila" bacteria. Previous outbreaks were retroactively diagnosed as being most probably caused by Legionella bacteria. On July 21, 1976, the American Legion opened its annual three-day convention at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. More than 2,000 Legionnaires, mostly men, attended the convention. The date and city were chosen to coincide with America’s celebration of the 200th anniversary of
Polish Legion of American Veterans U.S. military veterans after World War I. Its lineage begins with the Alliance of Polish-American Veterans, created in the summer of 1920 after a gathering of veterans from Illinois, Ohio, and Wisconsin in Hawthorne, Illinois. In December 1920, this association held a provisional convention and in September 1921 it held its first regular convention, at which they changed their name to the "Alliance of American Veterans of Polish Extraction." In September 1931 the Alliance of American Veterans of Polish Extraction merged with the Polish Legion of the American Army and a veteran's organization from Michigan to form the PLAV. On