July 20 in Medical History
27 entries: discoveries, epidemics, drugs and the people who shaped medicine.
Events
- Children's Hospital Boston is founded by Dr. Francis Henry Brown and other Harvard Medical School graduates, as a 20-bed facility in the South End of Boston, Massachusetts
- The Guinea Pig ClubThe Guinea Pig Club forms, made of severely injured airmen treated by Archibald McIndoe at Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, England
- Connolly's Tragic AccidentAmerican tennis champion Maureen Connolly 's right leg is crushed in a horse riding accident ending a brilliant career at just 19
- First Special Olympics for children and adults with intellectual disabilities is held in Chicago, Illinois
- The Central Intelligence Agency releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind control experiments
- Two hundred aid workers from CARE International, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) and other aid groups leave Afghanistan on orders of the Taliban
- Patrick Sawyer arrives in city of Lagos in Nigeria and collapses; he dies of Ebola five days later
- Australian businessman James Packer announces he has quit 22 directorships due to mental health issues
- Announcement that a COVID-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) is able to trigger immune response and antibodies
- India's COVID-19 death toll likely 10 times its official toll, 3.4 million to 4.7 million (to June 2021), according to The Center for Global Development
- New York records the worst air quality in the world due to smoke from 80 wild fires on the US west coast
- An intense heatwave across Europe results in over 1000 deaths in Portugal and 500 in Spain; while starting wildfires across Spain, France, Italy and Greece
Born on this day
- William BowmanBritish anatomist, born in Nantwich, Cheshire, England (d. 1892)
- Gregor MendelAustrian monk and geneticist (discoverer of laws of heredity), born in Heinzendorf, Austria (1822-1884)
- Thomas AllbuttBritish physiologist (Diseases of the Heart), born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, England (d. 1925)
- Ruggero OddiItalian physiologist and anatomist (died 1913)
- Tadeusz ReichsteinPolish-Swiss chemist (Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine 1950 - isolation and discovery of cortisone ), born in Wloclawek, Poland (d. 1996)
- Leonidas BerryAmerican gastroenterologist (died 1995)
- John Vivian DacieBritish hematologist (discovered hemophilia B), born in London (d. 2005)
- Frantz FanonWest Indian psychiatrist and philosopher (The Wretched of the Earth), born in Martinique, France (d. 1961)
- Óscar Elías BiscetCuban physician and activist, founded the Lawton Foundation
- Anthony ShriverAmerican activist for people with intellectual disabilities (founder of Best Buddies International), born in Boston, Massachusetts
- Melanie WatsonAmerican disability advocate and actress (Kathy Gordon in "Diff’rent Strokes"), born in Orange County, California (d. 2025)
Died on this day
- Reginald HallEnglish endocrinologist, dies at 83
- Mark RosenzweigAmerican psychologist and academic (born 1922)
- Pierre FabreFrench pharmacist and businessman, founded Laboratoires Pierre Fabre (born 1926)
- Augustus RoweCanadian physician and politician (born 1920)