January 31 in Medical History
15 entries: discoveries, epidemics, drugs and the people who shaped medicine.
Events
- The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital, London
- World War I: Germany is the first to make large-scale use of poison gas in warfare in the Battle of Bolimów against Russia.
- Mary Lund of Minneapolis, the first female recipient of an artificial heart, receives a donor heart
- Family GP Dr Harold Shipman is jailed for life for murdering 15 of his patients, making him Britain's most prolific convicted serial killer
- The Waterfall rail accident occurs near Waterfall, New South Wales, Australia; 7 die when train driver has a heart attack and safety system fails
- "World's Best Chef" French-Swiss Benoît Violier found dead after apparent suicide weeks after being named world's best by La Liste
- At least 20 newborns and children have died in last two months of the cold, trying to get to the Al-Ho Syrian refugee camp according to WHO
Born on this day
- Samuel SarphatiAmsterdam, physician, pharmacist and social activist in Amsterdam, born in Amsterdam (d. 1866)
- Erich GeiringerNew Zealand general practitioner campaigner (founder of the New Zealand Medical Association), born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (d. 1995)
- Morton MowerAmerican cardiologist and inventor (died 2022)
- Drummond RennieBritish-American nephrologist and deputy editor (New England Journal of Medicine, 1977-81; Journal of the American Medical Association, 1983-2013), born in Yorkshire, England (d. 2025)
Died on this day
- John CheyneEnglish physician and author (born 1777)
- Elisha HarrisAmerican physician (founded American Public Health Association, sanitary reform), dies of peritonitis at 60
- Rashad KhalifaEgyptian-American biochemist and imam, stabbed to death at 54 (b. 1935)
- Thérèse Lavoie-RouxFrench Canadian politician (Senator from Quebec, 1990-2001; Minister of Health and Social Services, 1985-89), dies at 80