July 4 in Medical History
19 entries: discoveries, epidemics, drugs and the people who shaped medicine.
Events
- Heraclonas and David, sons of Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, are proclaimed augustus and caesar respectively, possibly due to the bad health of their elder brother Heraclius Constantine.
- A massive heat wave strikes the northeastern United States, killing 380 people in eleven days and breaking temperature records in several cities.
- Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, informs a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considers himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth", then announces his retirement from major league baseball.
- Penicillin Creators MetHoward Florey and Norman Heatley meet for the first time and successfully recreate penicillin 11 days later
- On its maiden voyage, the Soviet nuclear-powered submarine K-19 suffers a complete loss of coolant to its reactor. The crew are able to effect repairs, but 22 of them die of radiation poisoning over the following two years.
- 400 New Kids on the Block fans treated for heat exhaustion in Minnesota
- Rocker John Phillips (Mamas & Papas) undergoes a liver transplant
- Amado Carrillo Fuentes undergoes plastic surgery in Mexico City to change his appearance
- Pope in SurgeryPope Francis undergoes surgery to remove part of his colon in Rome
- Australian rules player Heather Anderson first known professional female athlete to be diagnosed with degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) after landmark diagnosis at Australian Sports Brain Bank
Born on this day
- Victor BabeşRomanian physician and bacteriologist, born in Vienna, Austrian Empire (d. 1926)
- Shan RatnamSri Lankan physician and academic (died 2001)
- Purnell ChoppinAmerican virologist and president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (1987-99), born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (d. 2021)
Died on this day
- Karl Ferdinand von GraefeGerman surgeon who helped create modern plastic surgery , dies at 53 (1787-1840)
- Victor ChangAustralian pioneering cardiac surgeon, murdered at 54
- Mark O’BrienAmerican disability advocate, journalist and poet (The Man in the Iron Lung), dies of complications of bronchitis at 49
- Robert Neil ButlerAmerican physician and author (born 1927)
- James FultonAmerican dermatologist and academic (born 1940)
- Leonard AbramsonAmerican pharmacist, philanthropist and the founder of US Healthcare, dies at 93