October 12 in Medical History
26 entries: discoveries, epidemics, drugs and the people who shaped medicine.
Events
- America's first asylum opens for 'Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds' in Virginia
- First use of iron lung (Boston's Children Hospital)
- US Supreme Court heard arguments in "reverse discrimination" case of Allan Bakke, white student denied admission to University of California Med School
- Intl Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War receives Nobel Prize
- Pat LaFontaine formally retires from the NHL due to lingering concussion problems
- $400,000 Charity MatchAnna Kournikova and Andy Roddick defeat Martina Navratilova and Jesse Levine in a match for charity, raising over $400,000 for the Elton John AIDS Foundation and Atlanta AIDS Partnership Fund
- Plague outbreak in Madagascar kills 57, with 684 cases so far reported by WHO
- China announces it will test entire city of Qingdao, 9 million people, for COVID-19 within five days after a dozen cases discovered
- Three-tier UK RestrictionsUK PM Boris Johnson announces a new three-tier system for COVID-19 restrictions as cases surge
- Lebanon reports its first death from Cholera since 1993, spreading from neighbouring Syria
Born on this day
- William ShippenAmerican physician and delegate to the Continental Congress, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1801)
- Etienne Louis GeoffroyFrench pharmacist and entomologist, born in Paris (d. 1810)
- Christian GmelinGerman chemist, born in Tübingen, Germany (d. 1860)
- Arthur HardenEnglish biochemist (Nobel Prize 1929), born in Manchester, England (d. 1940)
- Anthony F. DePalmaAmerican orthopedic surgeon and professor (died 2005)
- Denis LazureCanadian physician and politician, born in Napierville, Quebec (d. 2008)
- Robert ColesAmerican child psychiatrist, educator and Pulitzer Prize-winning author (Children of Crisis), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 2026)
- Jeffrey MacDonaldAmerican medical doctor convicted of murdering his wife and two daughters, born in Queens, New York
- Li WenliangChinese doctor who tried to raise the alarm over COVID-19, born in Beizhen, China (d. 2020)
Died on this day
- Ioan Nicolidi of PindusAromanian physician and noble (born 1737)
- Edith CavellBritish nurse , executed by German firing squad in Belgium during World War I at 49 (1865-1915)
- Susan Sutherland IsaacsBritish educational psychologist and psychoanalyst, dies at 63
- Arie de JongIndonesian-Dutch linguist and physician (born 1865)
- Peter Wessel ZapffeNorwegian physician, mountaineer, and author (born 1899)
- Karl ChircopMaltese politician (b. 1965)
- Ruth A. LawrenceAmerican pediatrician and breastfeeding science pioneer (Breastfeeding: A Guide for the Medical Profession), dies at 101