August 31 in Medical History
16 entries: discoveries, epidemics, drugs and the people who shaped medicine.
Events
- After a sudden gastric illness, Byzantine Empress Theodora dies childless, thus ending the Macedonian dynasty.
- King Henry V of England dies of dysentery while in France and his son, Henry VI, becomes king at the age of nine months.
- Jerry Lewis's 38th annual Muscular Dystrophy telethon raises $60,505,234
- Jerry Lewis's 43rd annual Muscular Dystrophy telethon raises $65,031,393
- Final edition of Jerry Lewis's 49th annual Muscular Dystrophy telethon airs and raises $56,952,177
- US cases of COVID-19 passes 6 million with 183,300 deaths with California (699,000) and Florida (619,000) recording the most (Johns Hopkins)
- US life expectancy falls to its lowest level since 1996 (76.1 years vs. 79 years in 2019), with COVID-19 the main contributing factor according to the CDC
Born on this day
- Hermann von HelmholtzGerman physician and physicist, born in Potsdam, Kingdom of Prussia (d. 1894)
- Maria MontessoriItalian educator (spontaneous response), born in Chiaravalle, Marche, Italy (1870-1952)
- John DavidsonAmerican physician and politician (died 2012)
- Moran CampbellEnglish-Canadian physician and academic, invented the venturi mask (died 2004)
- Jonathan LaPagliaAustralian actor (Australia Survivor presenter), born in Adelaide, Australia
Died on this day
- Ole WormDanish physician, dies at 66
- John McKinlyAmerican physician. politician and 1st President of Delaware (1777), dies at 75
- Audrey WagnerAmerican baseball player, obstetrician, and gynecologist (born 1927)
- Frank Macfarlane BurnetAustralian virologist (Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for tissue grafting), dies at 85