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I prepared the following list for a discussion group I led when I taught medical students at Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine/UP Campus in 1992. I came across it in Feb 2001 while searching some old archives.
The list served as a framework for readings from various textbooks and journal articles
written over the previous century 100 years. Much of the list is drawn from the text:
Timetables of History. This isn't always the most reliable source of historical data, but
it is fun. (I didn't bother putting
WWI&II on there -- no need to belabor the obvious.)
1878-90
Neisser: Gonococcus
Pasteur: strep, staph, pneumococcus
Lavern: malaria
Koch: tubercle bacillus
diabetes produced by pancreatectomy
many more germs/bacilli
1890-94
lumbar puncture
Osler 'Principles and Practice of Medicine' 1st ed. 1892
psychoanalysis (Freud)
discovery of the plague bacillus.
Mendelism rediscovered!
electrocardiography
Rontgen and x-rays
1901-1909
isolation of adrenalin.
anaphylaxis described.
Panama Canal Zone free of Yellow Fever.
Typhoid Mary imprisoned.
Teddy Roosevelt bars Japanese from immigrating to US
Model T produced.
Flexner Report?
Salvarsan (Ehrlich): the magic bullet for syphilis
1912-15
Ehrlich introduces antiseptic Acriflavine
Thyroxin isolated for rx hypothyroidism.
First successful heart surgery on a dog.
Tetanus epidemic in trenches.
1916-20
Sympathectomy for relief of angina pectoris.
Margaret Sanger's first birth control clinic.
US senate rejects Wilson's suffrage bill.
Malaria used to treat syphilis.
22 million die of influenza pandemic.
Black Sox scandle.
Death of Sir William Osler
1849-1919
Morgan, A Physical Basis of Heredity.
Babe Ruth traded to Yankees.
Terrorist bombing kills 35 wounds 130 on Wall St.
1921-25
BCG vaccine for tb developed
chromosome theory of heredity
treatment for sleeping sickness
Ku Klux Klan dominates southern US
Vitamin E
900 million dollar surplus in US govt budget
Insulin given to diabetic patients
white blood cells discovered
television
more limitations on Japanese immigration to the US
state of Tenessee forbids sex education in schools.
1927-30
iron lung developed
Boas: Fascist theory of "Master Race"
Fleming: penicillin discovered (not used for 20 years)
Veronoff: "Conquest of Life" immortality by transplant
various vitamins, enzymes, and hormones discovered.
stock market crashes
1931-35
Japan dominates world markets by cutting prices.
Lindbergh baby kidnapped.
neuron discovered.
sulfonamide discovered
commercial television
Neanderthal no ancestor of ours (or is she?)
more vitamins, hormones, and enzymes
liver therapy for anemia
Prontosil (sulfa) for strep infections (1935)
1936-40
artificial heart
insulin used to control diabetes (11 years later ...)
more vitamins
Amelia Earhart lost at sea (pieces of plane recently found)
Rh factor discovered.
penicillin is practical antibiotic (Florey, 13 years later ...)
1941-45
Manhattan Project
streptomycin
polio epidemic
1946-50
Flying Saucers popular
more antibiotics
cortisone
miltown (meprobamate)
antihistamines
1951-55
heart lung machines
color television
contraceptive pill: phosphorated hesperidin?
lung cancer linked to cigarette smoking
Salk vaccinates children against Polio in Pittsburgh
Michigan State defeats UCLA in Rose Bowl 1954
liver therapy for pernicious anemia (Dorothy Hodgkin)
Fleming and Einstein die
1956-60
Bell Telephone working on visual telephone
oral polio vaccine (Sabin)
more antibiotics, hormones
Sputnik launched
Kerouac: 'On The Road', the Beats
smoking linked to heart disease
1961-65
Thalidomide (not US)
Watson & Crick: DNA
DeBakey uses bypass for valve replacement
1966-70
first heart transplant
crashing B-52 loses a hydrogen bomb in Mediterranean
Apollo 11 on moon July 21, 1969
GM recalls 5 million cars
Charles Manson
nuclear powered pacemakers
1971-82
National Academy of Science warns freon may damage ozone layer
Herpes Encephalitis treated medically -- 1st viral therapy.
AIDS (1982)