Newton was born in 1642, and I suspect they're referring to the Great Plague of London in 1665 rather than the first and largest Black Death pandemic in the 14th century. Just in case the pedantry is important to you.
Lists would be great but (forgive if this is a stupid question, I'm one of the émigrés who literally just got here and don't know what I'm doing) how do you subscribe to other instances/communities/whatever if you don't find them via the platform you signed up on? I found a bunch of other places I'd like in my feed but I can't figure out how to subscribe to them without being logged in on each respective platform, which defeats the point.