March 16 in Medical History
23 entries: discoveries, epidemics, drugs and the people who shaped medicine.
Observed today
- Christian feast day: — Finian Lobhar (Finian the Leper)
Events
- Antiseptic SurgeryJoseph Lister first outlines the discovery of antiseptic surgery in an article in "The Lancet"
- Susan Hayhurst becomes 1st US woman graduate of a pharmacy college
- Halabja chemical attack: The Kurdish town of Halabja in Iraq is attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents on the orders of Saddam Hussein, killing 5,000 people and injuring about 10,000 people.
- Rock Musical "Next to Normal" by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey premieres Off-Broadway at the Second Stage Theatre in New York (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2010)
- Indian actor Irrfan Khan reveals he has been diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumour
- COVID-19 study by London Imperial College showing migration approach could lead to 250,00 deaths in UK, over 1 million in US, prompts strategy changes from both countries
- COVID-19: France orders a national lockdown, US recommends meetings 10 or less, 6 counties in San Francisco and surrounding counties told to "shelter in place"
- Global infections and deaths from COVID-19 overtake those in China for the 1st time, 86,000 vs 80,860 infections, 3,241 vs 3,208 deaths according to John Hopkins Uni
- Major League Baseball suspends remainder of Spring Training and delays start of regular season in response to COVID-19 pandemic; return dependent on recommendations by Centers for Disease Control
Born on this day
- François Amédée DoppetFrench general (died 1799)
- James HectorScottish-New Zealand geologist, naturalist, and surgeon, born in Edinburgh, Scotland (d. 1907)
- Rebecca ColeAmerican physician and social reformer (died 1922)
- Martinus BeijerinckDutch microbiologist and botanist (1st to coin the name virus), born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1931)
- Alexander S. WienerAmerican physician known for his work in immunohematology (Rh factor in blood), born in New York City (1907-1976)
- Dr. Josef MengeleGerman SS captain and chief camp physician at Auschwitz, known as the "Angel of Death", born in Günzburg, Germany (d. 1979)
- Raymond DamadianAmerican physician and inventor of the MRI scanning machine, born in New York City (d. 2022)
Died on this day
- Félix SavartFrench surgeon and physicist (Law of Biot & Savart), dies at 49
- August von WassermannGerman bacteriologist and hygienist (born 1866)
- John MacleodScottish-Canadian physiologist (Nobel 1923), dies at 58
- Jean PurdyBritish embryologist and nurse (pioneer in developing IVF), dies from melanoma at 39
- Lewis RowlandAmerican neurologist (born 1925)
- Thomas S. LangnerAmerican sociologist who worked on "Mental Health in the Metropolis: The Midtown Manhattan Study", dies at 102