Barbara McClintock was born Eleanor McClintock on June 16, 1902, in Hartford, Connecticut. She’s the first, and to date only woman to receive an unshared Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for her discovery of transposition, or genetic “switches” in genes.
Dr. Virginia Apgar was born on June 7, 1909, in Westfield, New Jersey. She was a pioneer in the field of neonatology, the area of medicine that specializes in premature and ill newborns. Her work is credited with drastically reducing infant mortality worldwide.
Doctor and medical researcher Charles R. Drew was born on June 3, 1904, in Washington, DC. During World War II, Drew developed programs and blood mobiles to help the war effort.
Physicist John Bardeen was born on May 23, 1908, in Madison, Wisconsin. Bardeen helped develop the transistor, which made possible the invention of almost every modern electronic device.
On April 2, 1940, the Committee for the Establishment of a National Diabetes Association was formed, paving the way for the creation of the American Diabetes Association (ADA). Today it’s one of the top non-profit charity organizations in the country.
On March 31, 1736, a six-bed almshouse (home for the poor) was founded in New York City with construction starting only a year earlier. That almshouse would eventually become Bellevue Hospital, which is often cited as the oldest public hospital in the US.
Luther A. Burbank was born on March 7, 1849, in Lancaster, Massachusetts. A largely self-trained horticulturalist, Burbank developed more than 800 strains and varieties of flowers, fruits, vegetables, grasses, and more. He’s been called the “high priest of horticulture” and the “plant wizard.”
On January 28, 1887, it was claimed that a snowflake 15 inches across and eight inches thick fell on Fort Keough, Montana. While this claim hasn’t been verified, unusually large snowflakes are possible…
On December 9, 1979 the Global Commission for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication completed their task, confirming the disease would no longer be spread naturally.