Table 1.

Year	Discovery or Major Basic Research Accomplishment
1563	Bartolomeo Eustacchio description of the adrenal gland (glandulae Renibus incumentes). 108
1855	Addison’s first identification of the lethal association of pathological changes in the suprarenal capsules (adrenal glands) with anemia. 109
1935	Development of biologically active extracts free of contaminating compounds from the adrenal medulla.
1939	Kuizinga and Cartland 110 show potent mineralocorticoid activity in the amorphus fraction of adrenocortical preparations.
1952–1955	Simpson and Tait 111–115 critical studies of adrenal mineralocorticoid activity culminate with the isolation of electrocortin, later rename as aldosterone. 116
1954	Aldosterone structure identified as 11_-21-dihydroxy-18-oxo-pregn-4-ene-3,20-dione 113, 116
1956	Luetscher et al. 5 obtain aldosterone crystals from human urine.
1955–1956	Aldosterone is synthetized by the Ciba group in Basel117, 118.
1956	Giroud et al. 119, 120 in Montreal, demonstrated that the zona glomerulosa of the rat exclusively produced aldosterone.
	Clinical Translational Research
1955	First description of the primary aldosteronism syndrome 63.
1999	The Randomized ALdactone Evaluation Study (RALES) trial demonstrates the role for aldosterone antagonists in chronic severe (NYHA class III/IV) systolic HF 90.
2003	The Eplerenone Post-myocardial infarction Heart failure Efficacy and Survival Study (EPHESUS) documents the benefit of aldosterone receptor antagonists in patients with an EF <40% after MI 91.
2014	TOPCAT shows moderate effects of spironolactone in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) since only hospitalization for heart failure benefited in this population from MR antagonism 101.