March 12 in Medical History
23 entries: discoveries, epidemics, drugs and the people who shaped medicine.
Events
- Paddle steamer Brother Jonathan docks in Fort Victoria (now Victoria, British Columbia), carrying smallpox-infected passengers from San Francisco. The ensuing epidemic killed an estimated two-thirds of First Nations in the province of British Columbia.
- 2 cyanide-contaminated Chilean grapes found (Philadelphia)
- The World Health Organization officially release a global warning of outbreaks of Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
- UK Faces Public Health CrisisUK PM Boris Johnson says the UK is facing the “worst public health crisis for a generation”, that up to 10,000 people may already be infected with COVID-19
- US Bans Travel to EuropeUS President Trump bans travel with 26 European countries, though not the UK, due to COVID-19 (UK and Ireland added a day later)
- 2020 NCAA men's basketball tournament is cancelled over concerns of the spread of COVID-19; first time 'March Madness' not held since it began in 1939; women's tournament also cancelled
- NHL pauses the 2019-20 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic
- Researchers say world has likely reached 'peak twin' with more twin births than ever before - 1.6 million twins born per year (1 in 42)
- Italy Imposes New RestrictionsItalian Prime Minister Mario Draghi imposes new COVID restrictions warning of a new wave as cases again exceed 25,000 a day
Born on this day
- Jane DelanoAmerican nurse and educator (Red Cross Nursing Service during WWI), born in Montour Falls, New York (d. 1919)
- W. H. R. RiversEnglish psychiatrist, anthropologist, and neurologist, born in Chatham, Kent (d. 1922)
- Henry Drysdale DakinEnglish biochemist known for the Dakin-West reaction, born in London (d. 1952)
- Martha Nierenberg [née Weiss de Csepel]Hungarian-American biochemist, furniture designer and co-founder of Dansk Designs, born in Budapest, Hungary (d. 2020)
- Roland MoyleBritish Labour politician (Member of Parliament, 1966-83; Minister of State for Northern Ireland, 1974-76; Minister of Health, 1976-79), born in England (d. 2017)
- Thérèse Lavoie-RouxFrench Canadian politician (Senator from Quebec, 1990-2001; Minister of Health and Social Services, 1985-89), born in Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec (d. 2009)
- William H. FoegeAmerican physician and the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1977-83), best known for his work eradicating smallpox, born in Decorah, Iowa (d. 2026)
- Virginia BottomleyBritish minister of health and heritage, born in Dunoon, Scotland
Died on this day
- Sun Yat-senChinese revolutionary and father of modern China, dies of liver cancer at 58 (1866-1925)
- Eugene Lindsay OpieAmerican physician and pathologist (born 1873)
- Ragnar GranitFinnish neuroscientist and physiologist (Nobel 1967 - discoveries concerning the primary physiological and chemical visual processes in the eye), dies at 90 (1900-1991)
- Charles Bruce PerryEnglish physician (rheumatism and cardiac disease), dies at 92
- John ChalstreyBritish surgeon and politician (668th Lord Mayor of London. 1995-96), dies at 88
- Susan Cunliffe-Lister [Lady Marsham of Ilton]British disability campaigner and paralympic athlete (longest-serving female member of UK House of Lords), dies at 87