August 15 in Medical History
22 entries: discoveries, epidemics, drugs and the people who shaped medicine.
Events
- Arab–Byzantine wars: The Arabs abandon the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople due to failure to secure enough supplies, defeat of their relief army by the Byzantines and an outbreak of plague in the camp.
- M. Waldo Hanchett patents the dental chair
- Dave DraveckyIn his second start since cancer treatment, Giants' Dave Dravecky breaks his pitching arm while throwing to Tim Raines
- NYC radio (WFAN) personality Don Imus 's lung collapses for the second time
- A record 72,000 Americans (up 10%) are killed by drug overdoses in 2017, according to new figures from the Centers for Disease Control
- Russia begins production on the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine.
- Scotland becomes the first country in the world to make period products free for all
Born on this day
- Louisa Aldrich-BlakeBritish pioneering surgeon, born in Chingford, Essex (d. 1925)
- Elvin M. JellinekAmerican physiologist and pioneer in the study of alcoholism, born in New York City (d. 1963)
- Gerty CoriCzech-American biochemist and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1957)
- Lillian Carter (née Bessie Lillian Gordy)American nurse, mother of US President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981), and writer, known as Miss Lillian, born in Richland, Georgia (d. 1983)
- Ruth A. LawrenceAmerican pediatrician and breastfeeding science pioneer (Breastfeeding: A Guide for the Medical Profession), born in Brooklyn, New York City (d. 2025)
- Eugene BraunwaldAustrian-American cardiologist known as "The Father of Modern Cardiology" (Braunwald's Heart Disease), born in Vienna, Austria (d. 2026)
- Dimitris SioufasGreek lawyer and politician, Greek Minister of Health (died 2019)
- Simon Baron-CohenEnglish-Canadian psychiatrist and author
Died on this day
- Jørgen LøvsetNorwegian gynaecologist and academic (born 1896)
- (Axel) Hugo TheorellSwedish biochemist (Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology, 1955, for discovery of oxidoreductase enzymes), dies at 79
- Linda LaubensteinAmerican physician and academic (born 1947)
- Lancelot WareBritish barrister, biochemist, and co-founder of Mensa, the international society for intellectually gifted people, dies at 85
- Sune BergströmSwedish biochemist, (1982 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for identification of prostaglandins), dies at 88
- Bendapudi Venkata SatyanarayanaIndian dermatologist and academic (born 1927)
- Geoffrey OrbellNew Zealand bush walker (rediscovered Takahe, thought extinct), dies at 98