Timeline of Important Dates in History For Health Care and Medicine (1847-1997)
Timeline of Important Dates in Health Care and Medicine
1847: American Medical Association is founded.
1859: Louis Pasteur suggests in a paper that microorganisms may cause many human and animal diseases.
1865: Claude Bernard publishes Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine, calling for more use of the experimental method in medicine.
1867: Joseph Lister publishes On the Antiseptic Principle in the Practice of Surgery, showing that disinfection reduces post-operative infections.
1872: U.S. Postmaster General is given authority to forbid use of mail to “persons operating fraudulent schemes,” which constitutes first federal power to regulate misleading advertising.
1879: Louis Pasteur demonstrates value of vaccine to protect sheep against anthrax.
1882: Robert Koch isolates microorganism responsible for tuberculosis (TB), then leading cause of death.
1883: Robert Koch isolates microorganism responsible for cholera, major epidemic disease in nineteenth century.
1883: Edwin Klebs discovers microorganism responsible for diphtheria, often fatal disease of children.
1885: Louis Pasteur develops first rabies vaccine.
1890: Emil von Behring and Shibasaburo Kitasato develop effective diphtheria antitoxin.
1893: The Johns Hopkins University Medical School, first modern American medical school, opens in Baltimore.
1895: Parke-Davis Company founds first pharmaceutical research laboratory.
1897: George Nuttall demonstrates that flies can spread plague bacilli. Aspirin, a highly effective pain reliever and fever reducer, is invented in Germany.
1901: Major reorganization of American Medical Association greatly strengthens its professional and political influence. Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research opens in New York City.
1904: National Tuberculosis Association is founded to encourage prevention and cure of tuberculosis.
1904: National Federation of Advertising Clubs of America is founded.
1905: The American Medical Association (AMA) sets up the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry to decide which propriety products may be allowed to advertise in its publications, including JAMA.
1906: The AMA establishes its own Chemical Laboratory to test safety and efficacy of drug products.
1906: German researcher August von Wasserman introduces diagnostic test for syphilis.
1907: Clemens Von Pirquet introduces skin test for TB.
1909: National Committee for Mental Hygiene founded to promote prevention and cure of mental diseases.
1909: Samuel Hopkins Adams begins series of articles about health quackery and patent medicine fraud in Colliers’ Weekly, later published in book form as The Great American Fraud.
1910: Publication of Carnegie Foundation-financed Flexner Report, which advocated major reform of American medical schools.
1911: German researcher Paul Erhlich tests salversan, first treatment effective against syphilis; regarded as birth of modern chemotherapy. Casimir Funk proposes term “vitamine” for substances that prevent deficiency diseases such as scurvy.
1911: U. S. Supreme Court rules in the case of United States vs. O. A. Johnson that the Food and Drugs Administration may regulate only statements about the contents of food and drugs, not claims about the product’s therapeutic value.
1912: The Sherley Amendment to the 1906 Food and Drugs Act outlaws false claims on packages and labels but not in other advertising media.
1912: Elmer V. McCollum and associates isolate Vitamin A.
1913: American Society for the Control of Cancer, later renamed the American Cancer Society, is founded.
1913, 1914: The Associated Advertising Clubs of America adopts voluntary “truth in advertising” codes.
1915: Association for the Prevention and Relief of Heart Disease, later renamed the American Heart Association, is founded.
1916: Polio epidemics break out in New York and Boston; polio outbreaks continue sporadically in summers for decades to come.
1918-1919: An influenza pandemic kills 15 million people worldwide, 600,000 of them in the United States, far more than the number of American soldiers killed in World War I.
1914: Federal Trade Commission is established and given regulatory oversight of fair trade practices, including advertising.
1921: Heart disease becomes leading cause of death in the United States, according to mortality data collected by the Census Bureau.
1921: Frederick G. Banting and C. H. Best isolate insulin, which is first used to treat a person with diabetes a year later.
1922: Elmer V. McCollum and associates identify Vitamin D. George Whipple shows that liver extract counters experimental anemia induced in a dog.
1926: Researchers describe vitamins B1 and B2.
1926: Concern over health hazards of lead arsenate leads to first pesticide regulation.
1927: Cancer becomes one of the top three causes of death, according to U.S. Census Bureau.
1928: Sir Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin, although it does not become available in a therapeutically usable form until 1940.
1929: The volume of complaints about deceptive advertising becomes so heavy that the Federal Trade Commission sets up a separate Board of Investigation to oversee their disposition.
1931: The U.S. Supreme Court rules in FTC vs. Raladam Co., a case involving the weight-reducing remedy Marmola, that the Federal Trade Commission has jurisdiction over advertising only when it directly harms business competitors, not simply because it injures consumers.
1932: Researchers discover riboflavin, or vitamin B3.
1933: Basil O’Connor, friend and advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, begins to hold annual “President’s Birthday Balls” to raise money for research and treatment of polio.
1933: Arthur Kallet and Frederick Schlink publish 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs: Dangers in Everyday Foods, Drugs, and Cosmetics, warning consumers against unsafe products in the marketplace.
1935: Gerhard Domagk discovers Protonsil, the first sulfa drug, and uses it to treat infections caused by streptococcus.
1935: Group of consumer advocates split off from Consumers’ Research Inc. to found a rival organization, Consumers’ Union, which begins to publish its own magazine, Consumers’Union Reports.
1936: Ruth de Forrest Lamb publishes American Chamber of Horrors: The Truth About Food and Drugs, documenting dangers consumers face because food, drug, and cosmetic industries are under-regulated.
1936: Food and Drug Administration’s Division of Pharmacology begins first animal testing to determine risks from lead arsenate.
1937: Elixir of sulfanilamide erroneously mixed with a poisonous solvent kills 107 people, many of them children, leading to increased demand for stronger drug safety laws.
1937: National Cancer Institute is founded.
1938: National Institute for Infantile Paralysis is founded and begins ‘March of Dimes’ campaigns to raise money for research and treatment of polio.
1938: Congress passes two major pieces of legislation: the Wheeler-Lea Act, which allows the Federal Trade Commission to prosecute against companies whose advertising deceives and harms consumers; and the Copeland Bill, which expands the Food and Drug Administration’s power to regulate drug and food safety, and extends its oversight to include cosmetics.
1940: Howard Florey and Ernst Chain develop method to produce usable form of penicillin; a year later, first clinical trials of drug show it has remarkable ability to cure life threatening infections.
1944: Selman Waksman discovers streptomycin, antibiotic effective against TB.
1947: Parke-Davis announces discovery of antibiotic Chloromycetin.
1950: Pfizer announces discovery of antibiotic Terramycin. American and British researchers publish papers presenting evidence that smoking causes lung cancer.
1951: Major study documents flouride’s role in preventing dental cavities.
1952: Major polio epidemic sweeps United States. New drug Isoniazid developed, which proves useful in treating TB.
1952: Richard Doll and Bradford Hill publish epidemiological study linking smoking and lung cancer.
1952: Boston cardiologist Paul M. Zoll develops external cardiac pacemaker.
1953: Surgeons perform first successful open heart surgery using heart-lung machine at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. Dr. Jonas Salk successfully tests a polio vaccine.
1957: Extensive study commissioned by American Cancer Society shows that heavy smoking significantly shortens life span.
1957: Vance Packard publishes The Hidden Persuaders, criticizing advertising industry for psychological manipulation of consumers.
1958: U.S. Congress passes a Food Additives Amendment requiring manufacturers to prove safety of new food additives; bill includes the Delaney Clause that bans approval of any food additive shown to cause cancer in humans or animals.
1961: U.S. Public Health Service begins large scale use of Sabin vaccine.
1962: Sleeping pill thalidomide taken by pregnant women in Western Europe is shown to have caused birth defects in their babies; FDA official kept drug from being marketed in U.S. Consumer activist Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring, documenting dangers of pesticide use to humans and wildlife.
1962: The Kefauver-Harris Act gives the FDA greater control over prescription drugs, new drugs, and experimental drugs, as well as oversight of prescription drug advertising.
1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson appoints Esther Peterson as first Presidential Advisor on Consumer Issues. U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking argues that smoking is a major health risk for cancer, cardiovascular disease, and emphysema.
1965: U.S. Congress passes law requiring label on cigarette packages: “Warning: Cigarette Smoking may be Hazardous to your Health.”
1965: U.S. Congress passes legislation creating Medicare and Medicaid.
1966: U.S. Congress passes Fair Packaging and Label Act, which strengthens requirements for accurate packaging information.
1967: Surgeon Rene Favaloro performs first coronary bypass operation using patient’s vein in Cleveland, Ohio.
1970: Food and Drug Administration requires first patient package insert to be included with oral contraceptives. U.S. Congress bans cigarette advertising on television and radio and requires stronger health warning on cigarettes.
1971: Consumer activist Ralph Nader founds Public Citizen, Inc.
1972: U.S. Congress passes Consumer Product Safety Act, which creates the Consumer Product Safety Commission to coordinate and strengthen federal oversight of consumer safety issues.
1974: Food and Drug Administration begins requiring new food labeling that specifies full listing of all ingredients in each product.
1975: FTC begins antitrust suit against American Medical Association, charging that its ban on physician advertising discourages competition and unfairly disadvantages consumers; after years of legal battling, the FTC wins the suit and as of 1982, AMA ban on physician advertising is lifted.
1980: Food and Drug Administration begins to expand provision of patient package inserts for prescription drugs.
1980: U.S. Congress passes Infant Formula Act, which requires minimum amounts of essential nutrients in commercially prepared baby foods.
1982: American Medical Association lifts ban on physician advertising after losing court battle with Federal Trade Commission.
1990: U.S. Congress passes Nutrition Labeling and Education Act requiring standardized listing of ingredients and serving sizes on food products.
1997: FDA loosens restrictions on direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs.
I am a mom of 2 boys who loves to spend time with them doing fun things outdoors. In my spare time I have my own things I enjoy doing such as gardening, reading old books, and being a closet history buff.
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