May 13 in Medical History
24 entries: discoveries, epidemics, drugs and the people who shaped medicine.
Events
- Julian of Norwich has visions of Jesus while suffering from a life-threatening illness, visions which are later described and interpreted in her book Revelations of Divine Love.
- Danvers State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Massachusetts, opens and later serves as inspiration for Arkham Sanitorium in the work of H.P. Lovecraft, which in turn inspires Arkham Asylum of the D.C. Batman universe
- Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane seriously injured in a car accident
- Mehmet Ali Ağca attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square in Rome. The Pope is rushed to the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic to undergo emergency surgery and survives.
- American physician Kermit Gosnell is convicted of three counts of first-degree murder for killing babies and one count of involuntary manslaughter
- Fátima's Youngest SaintsPortuguese children Francisco and Jacinta Marto who died aged 10 and 9 during the Spanish flu pandemic, are canonized by Pope Francis at Fátima - the youngest Catholic saints not to die as martyrs
- Every African country records cases of COVID-19 as The Kingdom of Lesotho becomes the last country on the continent to record a case
- American CDC says people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can stop wearing masks
- Archaeologists discover an almost 60,000-year-old Neanderthal tooth with a deep hole, suggesting that Neanderthals used stone drills to treat cavities
Born on this day
- Ole WormDanish physician, born in Aarhus, Denmark–Norway (d. 1654)
- Ronald RossBritish pathologist (Nobel Prize 1902), born in Almora, North-Western Provinces, British India (d. 1932)
- Georgios PapanicolaouGreek-American doctor, cytopathologist, and inventor of the Pap smear, born in Kymi, Greece (1883-1962)
- Lorna HodgkinsonEd.D., Australian educator, psychologist, and first woman to receive a doctorate from Harvard University, born in Melbourne, Australia (d. 1951)
- Nandor FodorHungarian-American psychologist, parapsychologist, and author (died 1964)
- Anne MerrimanBritish doctor who revolutionized palliative care in Uganda, born in Liverpool, England (d. 2025)
- Aggrey BurkeJamaican-British academic, activist and the first Black NHS consultant psychiatrist, born in St Elizabeth parish, Jamaica (d. 2025)
Died on this day
- Anton de HaenAustrian medical expert (Ratio Medendi), dies at 71
- Jules Nicolas CrevauxFrench naval doctor and explorer (French Guiana and the Amazon), murdered on the Pilcomayo River at 35
- Friedrich Gustav Jakob HenleGerman pathologist, dies at 75
- H. Trendley DeanAmerican dental surgeon who introduced fluoridation into water, dies from complications of asthma and emphysema at 68
- Joyce BrothersAmerican psychologist, writer, and television personality (winner of "$64,000 Question"), dies from respiratory failure at 85
- David SackettAmerican-Canadian physician and academic (born 1934)
- Julie Beckett [née O’Connell]American disability rights activist (Katie Beckett Waivers) and co-founder of Family Voices, dies of a heart attack at 72
- Cyril WechtAmerican forensic pathologist (born 1931)