July 29 in Medical History
21 entries: discoveries, epidemics, drugs and the people who shaped medicine.
Events
- Byzantine–Bulgarian wars: Battle of Kleidion: Byzantine emperor Basil II inflicts a decisive defeat on the Bulgarian army, and his subsequent treatment of 15,000 prisoners reportedly causes Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria to die of a heart attack less than three months later, on October 6.
- First iron lung installed at Bellevue Hospital in New York
- Bob Dylan is not seriously injured in car accident in New York City
- Bob Dylan is hurt in a motorcycle accident near Woodstock, New York
- The Elephant ManDavid Bowie stars in the dramatic stage play "The Elephant Man" at the Auditorium Theatre in Denver, Colorado
- Walter Koenig (Chekov in Star Trek) suffers a mild heart attack
- American minister and anti-abortionist Paul Jennings Hill murders Dr. John Britton and Britton's bodyguard, retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Barrett, outside an abortion clinic in Pensacola, Florida
- Zion Harvey becomes the first child in the world to receive a double hand transplant at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
- 46,000-year-old minuscule pair of roundworms revived from their cryptobiotic state after being frozen in Siberian permafrost, proving life can be stopped and then restarted according tto scientists
- Gaza declares a polio epidemic, blaming the Israeli military offensive for its spread
Born on this day
- Armauer HansenNorwegian physician (1st to identify leprosy as bacteria), born in Bergen, Norway (d. 1912)
- Max NordauAustrian author, physician and Zionist leader, born in Pest, Hungary (d. 1923)
- Bernhard ZondekGerman-Israeli gynaecologist (developed 1st reliable pregnancy test), born in Wronke, Germany (d. 1966)
- Robert KilpatrickBaron Kilpatrick of Kincraig, Scottish physician, academic, and politician (died 2015)
- William DementAmerican researcher known as the "Father of Sleep Medicine", born in Wenatchee, Washington (d. 2020)
- Jean RochonQuebec politician, born in Montreal, Quebec (d. 2021)
Died on this day
- John CaiusEnglish physician, dies at 62
- John Bayard BrittonAmerican doctor who performed abortions, and killed by anti-abortion extremist Paul Hill, in Pensacola, Florida
- Dorothy HodgkinBritish biochemist who developed protein crystallography to study molecular structure, including that of vitamin B12 (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1964), and first woman to receive the Copley Medal, dies of a stroke at 84 (1910-1994)
- René FavaloroArgentine cardiac surgeon (born 1923)
- Bruce E. IvinsAmerican microbiologist and suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks investigation, commits suicide at 62