Today in Medical History

August 12 in Medical History

19 entries: discoveries, epidemics, drugs and the people who shaped medicine.

Events

10
  1. 18651st Antiseptic SurgeryBritish surgeon Joseph Lister performs the first antiseptic surgery using carbolic spray on instruments and bandagesSurgery / Procedure / DeviceWikipedia
  2. 1978NFL New England Patriots wide receiver Darryl Stingley suffers a spinal cord injury, leaving him with incomplete quadriplegia after a hit by Oakland Raiders' Jack Tatum in a preseason exhibition gameNotable person's healthOnThisDay
  3. 1988Mandela Treated for TBNelson Mandela is treated for tuberculosis at a Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, South AfricaNotable person's healthOnThisDay
  4. 2014Ebola outbreak death toll exceeds 1000Disease / EpidemicOnThisDay
  5. 2014World Health Organization (WHO) gives its 'cautious blessing' to the use of experimental drugs to treat the Ebola virusDrug / VaccineOnThisDay
  6. 2015In London, archaeologists discover a mass grave of 30 bodies from the 1665 plagueDisease / EpidemicOnThisDay
  7. 2015Carter reveals Cancer DiagnosisFormer US President Jimmy Carter reveals that he has cancerNotable person's healthOnThisDay
  8. 2019Scientists say they are closer to an effective treatment for Ebola after a new drug trial has a 90% success rate in the Democratic Republic of the CongoDrug / VaccineOnThisDay
  9. 2020Europe fights a new COVID-19 surge with Germany, France, and Spain posting their largest daily infection totals for three monthsDisease / EpidemicOnThisDay
  10. 2021US FDA authorizes a third COVID-19 vaccine booster shot for people with weakened immune systemsDrug / VaccineOnThisDay

Born on this day

3
  1. 1907Benjamin ShearesSingaporean physician and politician, 2nd President of Singapore (died 1981)Physician / SurgeonWikipedia
  2. 1942Hans-Wilhelm Müller-WohlfahrtGerman physician and authorPhysician / SurgeonWikipedia
  3. 1951Charles E. Brady JrAmerican physician, Navy Captain and NASA astronaut (STS-78), born in Pinehurst, North Carolina (d. 2006)Physician / SurgeonOnThisDay

Died on this day

6
  1. 1810Etienne Louis GeoffroyFrench pharmacist and entomologist, dies at 84Dentist / Pharmacist / AlliedWikipedia
  2. 1959Max NonneGerman neurologist, dies at 98Physician / SurgeonOnThisDay
  3. 1973Walter Rudolf HessSwiss physiologist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1949 for mapping parts of the brain that control internal organs, dies of heart failure at 92Medical scientistWikipedia
  4. 1979Ernst ChainGerman-British chemist and bacteriologist (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1945 - for his work on penicillin), dies at 73Medical scientistWikipedia
  5. 2004Godfrey HounsfieldBritish electrical engineer and inventor (CT scan, 1979 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine), dies at 84Medical scientistWikipedia
  6. 2012Alf MorrisEnglish politician and activist (born 1928)Health leader / ActivistWikipedia

Sources: onthisday.com and Wikipedia's “On this day” (text under CC BY-SA 4.0), screened for medical relevance. Each entry links to its source.