• 1981 First vaccine developed for hepatitis B
• 1983 HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is identified
• 1984 Alec Jeffreys devises a genetic fingerprinting method
• 1985 Willem J. Kolff invented the artificial kidney dialysis machine
• 1992 First vaccine developed for he...

History Timelines of Events provide fast facts and information about famous events in history. 

• Many historical events, such as detailed in the History of Medicine timeline, occurred during times of crisis or evolution or change. 
• Many of the famous World events as detailed in ...

• 1849 Elizabeth Blackwell is the first woman to gain a medical degree from Geneva Medical College in New York
• 1857 Louis Pasteur identifies germs as clause of disease
• 1867 Joseph Lister develops the use of antiseptic surgical methods and publishes Antiseptic Principle of the P...

• 1818 James Blundell performs the first successful transfusion of human blood
• 1842 Crawford W. Long uses either as a general anesthetic
• 1844 Dr. Horace Wells uses nitrous oxide as an anesthetic
• 1846 William Morton, a dentist, is the first to publish the process of usin...

• 1935 First vaccine developed for yellow fever
• Percy Lavon Julian synthesized the medicines physostigmine for glaucoma and cortisone for rheumatoid arthritis
• 1937 First vaccine developed for typhus
• Bernard Fantus pioneers the use of the first blood bank in Chicago
...

• 1955 Jonas Salk develops the first polio vaccine
• 1963 Thomas Fogarty invented the balloon embolectomy catheter
• 1967 First vaccine developed for mumps
• Dr. Christian Bernard performs the first human heart transplant
• 1970 First vaccine developed for rubella

• 500 BC Alcmaeon of Croton distinguished veins from arteries
• 460 BC Birth of Hippocrates, the Greek father of medicine begins the scientific study of medicine and prescribes a form of aspirin
• 300 BC Diocles wrote the first known anatomy book
• 280 BC Herophilus studies t...

• 1901 Karl Landsteiner introduces the system to classify blood into A, B, AB, and O groups
• 1913 Dr. Paul Dudley White pioneers the use of the electrocardiograph - ECG
• 1921 Edward Mellanby discovers that lack of vitamin D in the diet causes rickets
• Earle Dickson invente...

• 1887 First contact lenses developed
• 1890 Emil von Behring discovers antitoxins and develops tetanus and diphtheria vaccines
• 1895 Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovers X-rays
• 1896 First vaccine developed for typhoid fever
• 1897 First vaccine developed for Bubonic pl...

• 1628 William Harvey publishes An Anatomical Study of the Motion of the Heart and of the Blood in Animals which forms the basis for future research on blood vessels, arteries and the heart
• 1656 Sir Christopher Wren experiments with canine blood transfusions
• 1670 Anton van Leeu...