GCSE History- Key Dates in Medicine through Time

1348

The Black Death struck England

1543

Vesalius pubishes "On the Fabric of the Human Body"

1628

Harvey publishes "An Anatomical Study of the Motion of the Heart and of the Blood in Animals"

1665

The Great Plague strikes London

1796

Edward Jenner develops the Smallpox vaccination

1842

Edwin Chadwick publishes "On the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population"

1847

James Simpson discovers Chloroform

1848

The First Public Health Act

1849

John Snow publishes his work on the disease Cholera

1849

Elizabeth Blackwell is the first woman to gain a medical degree (America)

1853

Vaccinations made compulsory in Britain

1858

The Big Stink in London

(the hot weather exacerbated the smell of untreated human waste and industrial effluent that was present on the banks of the River Thames)

1861

Pasteur publishes his Germ Theory

1867

Joseph Lister develops Carbolic Acid as an antiseptic

1875

Second Public Health Act

1876

Robert Koch uses the dyeing method to identify the Anthrax Bacteria

1881

Louis Pasteur develops first Anthrax vaccine

1883

Koch discovers the Cholera bacteria

1895

Roentgen discovers X-Rays

1901

Karl Landsteiner identifies blood groups (allows for blood transfusions)

1909

Paul Ehrlich discovers the Magic Bullet

(Salvarsan 606 —> dangerous because it had arsenic in it)

1911

National Insurance Act

1928

Penicillin discovered by Alexander Fleming

1930s

2nd Magical Bullet (Prontosil) discovered by Domagk

1948

NHS created under Health Minsiter Bevan (national health service)

1948

WHO estasblished (world health organisation)

1953

Crick and Watson work on the structure of the DNA molecule

1980

WHO announce that Smallpox has been eradicated (long term impact of edward jenner)

1983

HIV, the virus causing AIDS, is identified

1996

Dolly (a sheep) , becomes the 1st clone

2006

1st vaccine to target a casuse of cancer (cervical)