Today in Medical History

January 25 in Medical History

24 entries: discoveries, epidemics, drugs and the people who shaped medicine.

Observed today

1
  1. National Nutrition Day (Indonesia)Health observanceWikipedia

Events

5
  1. 1945Grand Rapids, Michigan, becomes 1st US city to fluoridate its waterPublic health / PolicyOnThisDay
  2. 1955American alpine skier Jill Kinmont hits a tree & breaks her back in Snow Cup Ski RaceNotable person's healthOnThisDay
  3. 1964One Flew Over the Cuckoo's NestDale Wasserman's stage play "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", adapted from the novel by Ken Kesey, starring Kirk Douglas , Ed Ames; Joan Tetzel, and Gene Wilder , closes at Cort Theatre, NYC, after 82 performancesMental healthOnThisDay
  4. 19741st Heterotopic Heart TransplantDr. Christiaan Barnard transplants 1st heterotopic heart transplant (adding donor heart without removal of old)Surgery / Procedure / DeviceOnThisDay
  5. 1998Queen Mother's Hip ReplacementBritain's Queen Mother gets an emergency hip replacement aged 97Notable person's healthOnThisDay

Born on this day

12
  1. 1755Paolo MascagniItalian physician and anatomist (probable; died 1815)Physician / SurgeonWikipedia
  2. 1794François-Vincent RaspailFrench chemist, born in Carpentras, France (d. 1878)Physician / SurgeonWikipedia
  3. 1813J. Marion SimsAmerican physician and surgical pioneer (vesicovaginal operation) who experimented on enslaved women, born in Lancaster County, South Carolina (d. 1883)Physician / SurgeonWikipedia
  4. 1900Donalee TabernAmerican scientist and inventor of Pentothal - world's most widely used anesthetic, born in Bowling Green, Ohio (d. 1974)Medical scientistOnThisDay
  5. 1923Arvid CarlssonSwedish neuropharmacologist whose work with dopamine to treat Parkinson's disease earned him a Nobel Prize (2000), born in Uppsala, Sweden (d. 2018)Medical scientistWikipedia
  6. 1924Warren BrodeyCanadian psychiatrist and researcher known for his work on cybernetics, born in Toronto, Ontario (d. 2025)Psychiatry / PsychologyOnThisDay
  7. 1933Jerome LowensteinAmerican professor of medicine and the founding publisher of the Bellevue Literary Press, born in the Bronx, New York (d. 2025)Physician / SurgeonOnThisDay
  8. 1937Morris WaxlerAmerican federal health official and advocate turned critic of Lasik surgery (The Unsightly Truth of Laser Vision Correction), born in Washington, D.C. (d. 2026)Health leader / ActivistOnThisDay
  9. 1947Tostão [Eduardo Gonçalves de Andrade]Brazilian soccer forward / attacking midfielder (54 caps; Cruzeiro EC 378 games), born in Belo Horizonte, BrazilPhysician / SurgeonWikipedia
  10. 1949Paul NurseEnglish geneticist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureateMedical scientistWikipedia
  11. 1957Andrew P. HarrisAmerican politician and physician, born in New York CityPhysician / SurgeonWikipedia
  12. 1961Vivian BalakrishnanSingaporean politician, born in SingaporePhysician / SurgeonWikipedia

Died on this day

6
  1. 1627Louis HébertFrench apothecary, kings attorney and colonist of New France, dies at 51 or 52Dentist / Pharmacist / AlliedOnThisDay
  2. 1640Robert BurtonBritish writer and Anglican clergyman (The Anatomy of Melancholy), dies at 62Physician / SurgeonWikipedia
  3. 1844Horace H. Hayden1st American licensed dentist and cofounds 1st dental college, dies at 74Dentist / Pharmacist / AlliedOnThisDay
  4. 1957Kiyoshi ShigaJapanese physician and bacteriologist (b. 1871)Medical scientistWikipedia
  5. 1958Cemil TopuzluTurkish surgeon and politician, Mayor of Istanbul (born 1866)Physician / SurgeonWikipedia
  6. 1966Saul AdlerBelarusian-English microbiologist and parasitologist (born 1895)Medical scientistWikipedia

Sources: onthisday.com and Wikipedia's “On this day” (text under CC BY-SA 4.0), screened for medical relevance. Each entry links to its source.