August 13 in Medical History
18 entries: discoveries, epidemics, drugs and the people who shaped medicine.
Observed today
- Christian feast day: — Clara Maass (Lutheran Church)
- Christian feast day: — Florence Nightingale, Octavia Hill (Lutheran Church)
- World Organ Donation Day
Events
- American soul singer Curtis Mayfield becomes paralyzed from the neck down after stage lighting equipment falls on him at an outdoor concert at Wingate Field in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York; although unable to perform live, he continues to compose, sing, and record
- Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus is stripped of her shot-put gold medal after failing a drug test
- More than 60 children are reported to have died at Gorakhpur Hospital, India, prompting an investigation
- Measles cases triple worldwide in 2019 according to WHO, with 364,808 reported compared to 129,239 in 2018
Born on this day
- Rasmus BartholinDanish physician, mathematician and physicist, born in Roskilde, Denmark (d. 1698)
- Salvador LuriaItalian-American microbiologist (Nobel Prize for medicine 1969 genetic structure of viruses), born in Turin, Italy (d. 1991)
- Frederick SangerBritish biochemist (worked out structure of insulin, developed Sanger sequencing to sequence complete genome, Nobel Prize 1958, 1980), born in Rendcomb, Gloucestershire, England (d. 2013)
- Jocelyn Elders15th US Surgeon General (1993-94) 1st African American holder, born in Schaal, Arkansas
- Lars EngqvistSwedish politician (Minister of Health and Social Affairs), born in Sala, Sweden
- Tony Santini [Scott Powell]American rock singer (Sha Na Na, 1969-81), and orthopedic surgeon, born in Dallas, Texas
Died on this day
- René LaënnecFrench physician who invented the stethoscope, dies of tuberculosis at 46
- Ignaz SemmelweisHungarian physician who discovered the cause of puerperal (childbed) fever and introduced antisepsis into medical practice, dies at 47
- Florence NightingaleBritish nurse who revolutionized nursing during the Crimean War, dies at 90 (1820-1910)
- Jan KřesadloCzech-British psychologist and writer, dies at 68
- David RandallBritish priest and founder of AIDS/HIV center Cara, dies of AIDS at 49