August 6 in Medical History
19 entries: discoveries, epidemics, drugs and the people who shaped medicine.
Events
- World War II: Hiroshima, Japan is devastated when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.
- Russian cosmonaut Gherman Titov is the second Russian in space, making 17 orbits of earth aboard Vostok 2, he is also the first to sleep in space, and the first to report motion sickness in space
- Stevie Wonder is involved, as a passenger, in a car crash in North Carolina and goes into a four-day coma
- Erwadi fire incident: Twenty-eight mentally ill persons tied to a chain are burnt to death at a faith based institution at Erwadi, Tamil Nadu.
- The Philippines declares a national dengue epidemic with 622 people killed and 146,000 cases so far in 2019
- COVID-19 detected cases in Africa surpass one million with 21,983 deaths
- The US COVID-19 death toll could reach 300,000 by 1 December, with about 70,000 lives saved if masks are worn consistently, according to a University of Washington study
Born on this day
- Susie TaylorAmerican writer and first black Army nurse (died 1912)
- Alexander FlemingScottish bacteriologist (discovered penicillin; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1945), born in Lochfield, Scotland (1881-1955)
- Dudley BenjafieldBritish auto racer (24 Hours of Le Mans 1927; President BRDC 1928-29), born in London, England (d. 1957)
- Janet Asimov (née Janet Opal Jeppson)American science fiction writer (The Second Experiment; The Norby Chronicles), and psychoanalyst, born in Ashland, Pennsylvania (d. 2019)
- Kemi Omololu-OlunloyoNigerian journalist, activist, social media expert, and pharmacist
Died on this day
- Girolamo FracastoroItalian physician (born 1478)
- Jennie de la Montagnie LozierAmerican physician (born 1841)
- Feodor Felix Konrad LynenGerman biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1911)
- Shan RatnamSri Lankan physician and academic (born 1928)
- Fe del MundoFilipino pediatrician and National Scientist of the Philippines, dies at 99
- Ivo PitanguyBrazilian celebrity cosmetic surgeon, dies at 93
- Margaret HecklerAmerican politician and 15th U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services (1983-85), dies at 87