April 17 in Medical History
26 entries: discoveries, epidemics, drugs and the people who shaped medicine.
Observed today
- World Hemophilia Day
Events
- US Marine Hospital at Presidio, San Francisco forms
- Ruth's Ulcer SurgeryNY Yankee Babe Ruth has ulcer surgery
- Braves pitcher Pascual Perez suspended due to cocaine usage
- John Bell aged 115 receives a new pacemaker
- 10 babies with "bubble boy disease" cured using a gene therapy made from HIV at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, according to new study
- Research showing pigs brains partially brought back to life at Yale University, published in "Nature"
- WHO warns Africa could be next epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, with over 300,000 deaths, pushing 30 million into poverty as it records nearly 1000 deaths and 19,000 cases to date
- Canada registers more new daily COVID-19 cases than the US for the first time as infections surge in Ontario
- Global COVID-19 death toll passes three million (Johns Hopkins University figures)
- COVID-19 PandemicFuneral of Prince Philip , consort to Queen Elizabeth II , held under COVID-19 restrictions at Windsor Palace, England
Born on this day
- Ernest StarlingBritish physiologist (Frank-Starling law of the heart), born in London (d. 1927)
- Edouard Wyss-DunantSwiss physician and mountaineer (died 1983)
- Sidney GarfieldAmerican physician and pioneer of health maintenance organizations (Kaiser Permanente), born in Elizabeth, New Jersey (d. 1984)
- Bernard RoizmanRomanian-American virologist known for his work on herpes simplex virus, born in Chisinau, Romania (d. 2026)
- Jean RobinsonBritish health activist and president of Association for Improvements in Maternity Services (2010-18), born in Southwark, England (d. 2025)
- John ChalstreyBritish surgeon and politician (668th Lord Mayor of London. 1995-96), born in the UK (d. 2020)
- Peter MorrisAustralian-English surgeon and academic (died 2022)
- Mike StroudEnglish physician and explorer
- Travis RoyAmerican philanthropist and disability advocate who was paralysed during a Boston University ice hockey game, born in Yarmouth, Maine (d. 2020)
Died on this day
- Juan Bautista SacasaPresident of Nicaragua (1932-36), dies at 71
- Elda AndersonAmerican physicist and health researcher (born 1899)
- Henrik DamDanish biochemist who discovered vitamin K and won the 1943 Nobel Prize in Medicine, dies at 81
- Roger Wolcott SperryAmerican psychologist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1913)
- Robert AtkinsAmerican cardiologist, known for the Atkins diet, dies at 72
- Jean BernardFrench physician and haematologist, dies at 98