Health Timeline

By kalirasmussen

  • Edward Jenner developed smallpox vaccine

  • William Roentgen discovered x-rays/

    William Roentgen discovered x-rays/

  • Clara Borton founded the American Red Cross

    Clara Borton founded the American Red Cross

  • Karl Landsteiner discovers the existence of different human blood types

  • Alois Alzheimer identifies the first case of what becomes known as Alzheimer’s disease

  • Willem Einthoven discovers electrocardiography (ECG/EKG)

    Willem Einthoven discovers electrocardiography (ECG/EKG)

  • Willem Einthoven discovers electrocardiography (ECG/EKG)

  • Paul Ehrlich develops a chemotherapeutic cure for sleeping sickness.

  • Paul Ehrlich develops the first antimicrobial agent, salvarsan. An arsenic-based drug, it proves to be an effective treatment for syphilis

  • Archibald Garrod discovers that some diseases are caused by genes and therefore inherited.

  • Marie Curie isolated radium

  • William Bateson and Reginald Punnet first map a gene to a chromosome

  • Paul Dudley White, MD, one of America's first cardiologists, pioneers the electrocardiograph as a diagnostic tool.

  • German physician Emil von Behring develops the first successful vaccine for diphtheria

  • Edward Mellanby discovers vitamin D and shows that its absence causes rickets

  • Frederick Banting and Charles Best discover insulin

  • Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin.

    Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin.

  • Willem J. Kolff builds the first dialysis machine.

    Willem J. Kolff builds the first dialysis machine.

  • Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine.

    Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine.

  • American physician and researcher Thomas Starzl performs the first human liver transplant.

    American physician and researcher Thomas Starzl performs the first human liver transplant.

  • American surgeon James Hardy performs the first human lung transplant.

  • Frank Pantridge installs the first portable defibrillator.

  • A rubella vaccine developed by researcher Maurice Hilleman is licensed.

  • Surgeon Bruce Reitz performs the first successful heart-lung transplant; it also is the first time a lung is transplanted.

  • The first brain surgery is performed using a computerized robotic arm, invented by medical researcher Yik San Kwoh.

    The first brain surgery is performed using a computerized robotic arm, invented by medical researcher Yik San Kwoh.