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Its founder, Johns Hopkins, intended that the hospital serve poor and African American patients.
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Sparrow's Point, the steel works where Day Lacks was employed starting in 1941, opens near Baltimore.
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Alexis Carrel purports to have grown an immortal chicken heart.
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David Lacks, called "Day," was born in his grandfather's house in Clover, VA, 9 months after a travelling man, Johnny Coleman, passed through Clover. Day's grandfather, Tommy Lacks, raised Day after Day's mother left.
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Born Loretta Pleasant in Roanoke, VA
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Gey was focussed on developing a line of immortal human cells.
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Following her mother's death during childhood, Henrietta's father, Johnny Pleasant, moves all 10 of his children to his childhood home town, Clover VA. The siblings are divided among relatives; Henrietta goes to live with her grandfather, Tommy Lacks.
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Over a 40 year period, nearly 400 African American men were observed without their knowledge by public health officials to determine the long-term effects of syphilis on the human body.
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Eugenics reaced its most horrific expression in the Nazi's Concentration Camps.
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Henrietta's and Day's first son, Lawrence, was born in Clover days after Henrietta's 14th birthday.
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Henrietta's and Day's first daughter, called Elsie, was born in Clover. Elsie had severe developmental and physical disabilities.
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Dr. George Papanicolaou, a Greek researcher, publishes a paper on a procedure for the early detection of cervical cancer.
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Henrietta and Day marry in Clover.
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Day preceded Henrietta and the children in moving to Baltimore, where he began working at the Sparrows Point steel factory.
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Skloot travels to Clover, VA, where she meets Henrietta Lacks' first cousin Hecor Henry "Cootie" Lacks.
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Henrietta Lacks visits Dr. Howard Jones because she has detected a lump on her cervix. The doctor performs a biopsy (takes a sample of the cells to determine whether they are cancerous.
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Dr. Jones informs Henrietta Lacks that her biopsy indicated that she had cervical cancer.
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Mary Kubicek, George Gey's lab assistant, places samples of cells from Henrietta's cervix in culture medium and then into the roller drum.
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This was the beginning of the HeLa cell line.
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Henrietta Lacks was treated with radium for cervical cancer. Before beginning treatment, her surgeon, Dr. Lawrence Wharton Jr., took two samples of cells from Henrietta's cervix. One sample was of healthy cells; the other was from the tumor.
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Gey announces that the cell line may lead to a cure for cancer. Gey begins sending samples of cells to interested scientists and labs.
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Her doctors ignore her reports of the cancer's resurgence.
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Despite treatment and donation of blood by family and friends, Henrietta's cancer worsens.
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While taking a community college biology class as a high school student, Rebecca Skloot first hears of HeLa and Henrietta Lacks.
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After a few weeks, Patillo puts Skloot in touch with Henrietta Lacks' children and husband.
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In an effort to meet Henrietta Lacks' surviving family, Rebecca Skloot travels to Turner Station, Baltimore. She is not successful in meeting the family, but does meet friends and acquaintences. Family suggest that Skloot travel to Clover, VA.