March 24 in Medical History
24 entries: discoveries, epidemics, drugs and the people who shaped medicine.
Observed today
- World Tuberculosis Day (International)
Events
- Koch Discovers Tuberculosis and GermsGerman scientist Robert Koch discovers and describes the tubercle bacillus, which causes tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), establishing germ theory
- Event of InterestDeposed Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (60) arrives in Egypt for cancer treatment at Maadi Military Hospital, near Cairo
- Australian Parliament overturns the world's first and only euthanasia law
- Dr. Rüdiger Marmulla performs the first computer-assisted Bone Segment Navigation at the University of Regensburg, Germany.
- Music HistoryWorld Health Organization appoints British singer Craig David as a Goodwill Ambassador for tuberculosis awareness on World Tuberculosis Day
- Event of InterestUS President Donald Trump and Republican party forced to pull their attempt to repeal Affordable Care Act ('Obamacare') after internal opposition
- China's Hubei province, the original center of the COVID-19 outbreak, eases restrictions on travel after a nearly two-month lockdown
- Lockdown in IndiaIndian PM Narendra Modi orders a 21-day lockdown for the country's 1.3 billion people to address COVID-19
- Olympics PostponedJapan's Prime Minister Shinzō Abe announces the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games to the summer of 2021 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic
Born on this day
- John RockAmerican obstetrician and gynecologist who co-developed the 1st birth control pill, born in Marlborough, Massachusetts (d. 1984)
- Wilhelm ReichAustrian-American psychoanalyst (coined term "sexual revolution", worked with Freud), born in Dobzau, Austria-Hungary (d. 1957)
- Adolph ButenandtGerman bio-chemist (Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1939 for work on sex hormones), born in Bremerhaven-Wesermünde, Germany (d. 1995)
- John KendrewBritish molecular biologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1962, born in Oxford, England (d. 1997)
- John Woodland HastingsAmerican biochemist and academic (died 2014)
- Bridget OgilvieAustralian parasitologist and director of the Wellcome Trust (1991-98), born in Glen Innes, Australia (d. 2026)
Died on this day
- Henry FauldsBritish surgeon, fingerprinting pioneer, and founder of the Tokyo Institute for the Blind, dies at 86
- Joseph NeedhamEnglish historian and academic (born 1900)
- César MilsteinArgentine biochemist (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1984), dies at 74
- Mary Joan NielubowiczUS Navy Rear Admiral and nurse (Director of the Navy Nurse Corps, 1983-87), dies at 79
- Mortimer SacklerAmerican philanthropist, psychiatrist and co-owner of Purdue Pharma the company that created OxyContin, dies at 93
- Mohamed Yousri SalamaEgyptian dentist and politician (born 1974)
- Edna Foa [née Jacob]Israeli-American psychologist known for developing prolonged exposure therapy as a PTSD treatment, dies of complications of pneumonia at 88
- Mel SchillingAustralian psychologist, relationship expert and television personality (Married at First Sight), dies of cancer at 54