November 17 in Medical History
21 entries: discoveries, epidemics, drugs and the people who shaped medicine.
Events
- 1st US dental hygienists course forms, Bridgeport, Connecticut
- The SniperTeri Garr plays new nurse, Lt Suzanne Marquetten, on "The Sniper" episode of TV series M*A*S*H
- Bernard Pomerance's "Elephant Man" premieres in London
- American singer David Crosby breaks his left leg, ankle and shoulder in a motorcycle accident in Los Angeles, California
- 1st TV condom ad aired (FOX- TV)
- Detroit Lion Mike Utley is paralized in a game vs LA Rams
- Actor Charlie Sheen confirms that he is HIV-positive during a live interview on NBC’s “Today” show
- The possible earliest traceable patient, a 55-year-old man, develops symptoms of coronavirus (Covid-19) in Hubei, China
- Record number of Americans, over 100,000, died of drug overdoses April 2020 - April 2021 according to the CDC
- Zimbabwe declares a state of emergency in its capital Harare over a cholera outbreak, with 7,398 suspected cases, 50 confirmed deaths, and 109 people in hospital
Born on this day
- Johan van BeverwijckDutch writer and town physician of Dordrecht (Treasure of Health, Treasure of Disease), born in Dordrecht, Dutch republic (d. 1647)
- Joseph BabinskiFrench neurologist and academic (died 1932)
- Korbinian BrodmannGerman neurologist and academic (died 1918)
- Stanley CohenAmerican biochemist known for his work on cell growth and Nobel Prize winner (1986), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2020)
- Lesley ReesEnglish endocrinologist and academic
- István RosztóczyHungarian-Japanese microbiologist and physician (died 1993)
- Howard DeanAmerican politician, Governor of Vermont (1991-2003), born in East Hampton, New York
Died on this day
- James McCune SmithAfrican-American doctor and abolitionist, dies at 52
- Ben ReitmanAmerican anarchist, physician (b. 1879)
- Wilhelm 'Willy' BurgdorferSwiss-American medical entomologist known for discovering the cause of Lyme disease, dies of complications of Parkinson's disease at 89
- Walter DowdleAmerican microbiologist and principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1987-94), dies of cancer at 94