December 11 in Medical History
16 entries: discoveries, epidemics, drugs and the people who shaped medicine.
Events
- First dental use of nitrous oxide in Hartford, Connecticut, by John Riggs on dentist Horace Wells
- Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, takes his last drink and enters treatment for the final time.
- Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek suffers a minor heart attack in his home and is admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
- 20 people are killed by the bubonic plague in a small Madagascan village
- World's first successful penis transplant is performed by a team from Stellenbosch University and Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa
- Landmark trial for Huntington's disease in London announces positive results - first time a drug has been able to slow an incurable brain disorder
- America's FDA authorizes the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use
- Canadian accused poison seller Kenneth Law who allegedly sent 200 packages to people in more than 40 countries, is charged with 14 counts of murder
Born on this day
- Robert KochGerman pioneering bacteriologist (TB, cholera, Nobel Prize 1905), born in Clausthal, Hanover (1843-1910)
- Vera von der HeydtGerman psychoanalyst, born in Berlin (d. 1996)
- Walter DowdleAmerican microbiologist and principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1987-94), born in Irvington, Alabama (d. 2025)
- Andrew LansleyEnglish politician, Secretary of State for Health
- Emmanuelle CharpentierFrench scientist, Director of Max Planck Institute (2020 Nobel Prize for Chemistry), born in Juvisy-sur-Orge, France
Died on this day
- Richard BrocklesbyEnglish physician, Surgeon General of the British Army and friend of Samuel Johnson, dies at 75
- Augusta Fox BronnerAmerican psychologist, specialist in juvenile psychology (born 1881)
- Vincent du VigneaudAmerican chemist and (1955 Nobel Prize for Chemistry - for work on sulphur compounds), dies at 77