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In 500 BCE, Greek thinker Alcmaeon of Croton observed the arteries and veins by dissecting animals in his spare time and discovered that the arteries and veins are unalike.
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From 130-200 CE, Galen dissected and experimented on animals, and proved that arteries contain blood, but also proposed that the system of arteries and veins are distinct.
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The Egyptians use bleeding to treat patients. Bloodletting, another word for bleeding, is the withdrawal of small quantities of blood from a patient to cure or prevent illness and disease.
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Around 450-400 BCE, Greek Philosopher Empedocles believed that the heart is the organ of sense and theorized that all matter is formed out of earth, fire, air, and water.
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In 350 BCE, Aristotle believes that the heart is the central organ of the body. He dissected many different animals and described their anatomical structures from his observations. From findings, he believes that the heart is a three-chambered organ in humans and animals.
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In 300 BCE, Herophilus of Chalcedon, one of the first people to dissect a human body, discovered that arteries are thicker than veins and they carry blood.
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In the mid 1200s, Eminent Cairo discovers pulmonary circulation, which is the flow of blood to and from the lungs.
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Theologian Michael Servetus suggests that blood flows from one side of the heart to the other by traveling through the lungs instead of the wall between the ventricles.
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In 1658, Dutch microscopist Jan Swammerdam is the first person to observe and describe red blood cells.
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Anatomist Marcello Malpighi observes the capillary system, a system full of vessels that connect the arteries and veins.
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Drs. Richard Lower and Edmund King gave Arthur Coga, a priest, a transfusion of a few ounces of sheep's blood, and the patient recovered.
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Anton van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch microscopist, provided a more precise description of red blood cells, revealing their size 25,000 times smaller than a fine grain of sand.
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A note in a medical journal credits physician Philip Syng Physick for performing the first human-to-human blood transfusion, even though his work was not recorded or published.
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Physiologist James Blundell performs the first recorded human-to-human blood transfusion. He uses a syringe and injects a patient suffering from internal bleeding with ounces of blood from donors.
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Sir William Osler observed that small cell fragments from the bone marrow make up the clots formed in blood vessels, which are called platelets.
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Karl Landsteiner discovers the three main human blood groups A, B, and C, which he later changes to O. He discovers that when groups A and B are mixed, they clump together, but when type O is added to either A or B, it doesn't clump.
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Alfred von Decastello and Adriano Sturli identify the 4th blood group AB, which causes agglutination in the red cells of A and B.
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Dr. Ludvig Hektoen recommended checking the blood of donors and recipients for signs of cross matching for future transfusions.
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Researchers Albert Hustin and Luis Agote discover that adding sodium citrate to blood will prevent it from clotting.
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Dr. Richard Lewisohn formulated the concentration of sodium citrate that can be mixed with donor blood to prevent coagulation, but does no danger.
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Francis Peyton Rous and J.R. Turner invent a citrate-glucose solution that allows blood to be stored for a few weeks after collection and is still possible for transfusion.
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While serving in the U.S. Army, Dr. Oswald Robertson collects and stores type O blood with citrate-glucose solution for casualties during the Battle of Cambrai in World War I.
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Percy Lane Oliver begins operating a blood donor service. He gathers volunteers that agree to be on 24-hour call and wants to travel to local hospitals to give blood as people need it.
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The Soviets are the first to establish facilities to collect and store blood for use in transfusions at hospitals.
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At the Sklifosovsky Institute in Moscow, Dr. Serge Yudin is the first to transfuse humans with cadaver blood. He successfully revived a young man attempted suicide by injecting him with blood from a cadaver.
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A group of anesthesiologists are the first to begin storing citrated blood and utilizing it for transfusions in a hospital.
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Federico Duran-Jorda establishes the Barcelona Blood-Transfusion Service. They collect blood, test it, organize it by blood group, preserve and store it in bottles under refrigeration, and transport it to the hospitals during the Spanish Civil War.
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Dr. Bernard Fantus starts a blood donation, collection, and preservation facility at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He also coins the term "blood bank".
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Drs. Karl Landsteiner and Alexander Wiener discover the Rh blood group from experiments with the red blood cells of monkeys.
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Surgeon Dr. Isidor Ravdin treats victims of the Pearl Harbor attack with albumin to increase blood volume.
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In January, the American Red Cross agreed to organize a blood donor service to collect blood plasma for the war. Red Cross collected over 13 million units of blood over the course of the war.
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Community blood banks join together to form a national network of blood banks called the American Association of Blood Banks.
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Dr. Carl W. Walter created a plastic bag for the collection of blood. Glass bottles were used to store blood, but their fragility and susceptibility to contamination influences him to create a stronger and better container from plastic.
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From the use of x-ray crystallography, Dr. Max Perutz unravels the structure of hemoglobin, the protein within red blood cells that carries oxygen.
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Dr. Robert Gallo reveals that he's identified the virus that causes AIDS, and it's called HTLV III (human T-cell lymphotropic virus).
