2600 BC The Egyptian Imhotep describes the diagnosis and treatment of 200 diseases
500 BC Alcmaeon of Croton distinguished veins from arteries
460 BC Birth of Hippocrates, the Greek father of medicine begins the scientific study of medicine and prescribes a form of aspirin
300 BC Diocles wrote the first known anatomy book
280 BC Herophilus studies the nervous system
130 AD Birth of Galen. Greek physician to gladiators and Roman emperors
c60AD Pedanius Dioscorides writes De Materia Medica
910 Persian physician Rhazes identifies smallpox
1010 Avicenna writes The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine
1249 Roger Bacon invents spectacles
1489 Leonardo da Vinci dissects corpses
1543 Vesalius publishes findings on human anatomy in De Fabrica Corporis Humani
1590 Zacharius Jannssen invents the microscope
1628 William Harvey publishes An Anatomical Study of the Motion of the Heart and of the Blood in Animals which forms the basis for future research on blood vessels, arteries and the heart
1656 Sir Christopher Wren experiments with canine blood transfusions
1670 Anton van Leeuwenhoek discovers blood cells
1683 Anton van Leeuwenhoek observes bacteria
1701 Giacomo Pylarini gives the first smallpox inoculations
1747 James Lind publishes his Treatise of the Scurvy stating that citrus fruits prevent scurvy
1763 Claudius Aymand performs the first successful appendectomy
1796 Edward Jenner develops the process of vaccination for smallpox, the first vaccines for any disease
1800 Sir Humphry Davy discovers the anesthetics properties of nitrous oxide
1816 Rene Laennec invents the stethoscope
1818 James Blundell performs the first successful transfusion of human blood
1842 Crawford W. Long uses either as a general anesthetic
1844 Dr. Horace Wells uses nitrous oxide as an anesthetic
1846 William Morton, a dentist, is the first to publish the process of using anesthetic properties of nitrous oxide
1849 Elizabeth Blackwell is the first woman to gain a medical degree from Geneva Medical College in New York
1847 Ignaz Semmelweis discovers how to prevent the transmission of puerperal fever
1853 Charles Gabriel Pravaz and Alexander Wood develop the syringe
1857 Louis Pasteur identifies germs as clause of disease
1867 Joseph Lister develops the use of antiseptic surgical methods and publishes Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery
1870 Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur establish the germ theory of disease
1879 First vaccine developed for cholera
1881 First vaccine developed for anthrax by Louis Pasteur
1882 First vaccine for developed for rabies by Louis Pasteur
Koch discovers the TB bacillus
1887 First contact lenses developed
1890 Emil von Behring discovers antitoxins and develops tetanus and diphtheria vaccines
1895 Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovers X-rays
1896 First vaccine developed for typhoid fever
1897 First vaccine developed for Bubonic plague
1899 Felix Hoffman develops aspirin
1901 Karl Landsteiner introduces the system to classify blood into A, B, AB, and O groups
1913 Dr. Paul Dudley White pioneers the use of the electrocardiograph - ECG
1921 Edward Mellanby discovers that lack of vitamin D in the diet causes rickets
Earle Dickson invented the Band-Aid
1922 Insulin first used to treat diabetes
1923 First vaccine developed for diphtheria
1926 First vaccine developed for whooping cough
1927 First vaccine developed for tuberculosis
First vaccine developed for tetanus
1928 Sir Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1935 First vaccine developed for yellow fever
Percy Lavon Julian synthesized the medicines physostigmine for glaucoma and cortisone for rheumatoid arthritis
1937 First vaccine developed for typhus
Bernard Fantus pioneers the use of the first blood bank in Chicago
1942 Doctor Karl Theodore Dussik publishes the first paper on medical ultrasonic - ultrasound
1943 Selman A. Waksman discovers the antibiotic streptomycin
1945 First vaccine developed for influenza
1950 John Hopps invented the first cardiac pacemaker
1952 Paul Zoll develops the first cardiac pacemaker
Jonas Salk develops the first polio vaccine
Rosalind Franklin uses X-ray diffraction to study the structure of DNA
1953 James Watson and Francis Crick work on the structure of the DNA molecule
1954 Gertrude Elion patented a leukemia-fighting drug
Dr. Joseph E. Murray performs the first kidney transplant
1955 Jonas Salk develops the first polio vaccine
1963 Thomas Fogarty invented the balloon embolectomy catheter
1964 First vaccine developed for measles
1967 First vaccine developed for mumps
Dr. Christian Bernard performs the first human heart transplant
1970 First vaccine developed for rubella
1974 First vaccine developed for chicken pox
1975 Robert S. Ledley invents CAT-Scans
1977 First vaccine developed for pneumonia
1978 First test-tube baby is born
First vaccine developed for meningitis
1980 Smallpox is eradicated
1981 First vaccine developed for hepatitis B
1983 HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is identified
1984 Alec Jeffreys devises a genetic fingerprinting method
1985 Willem J. Kolff invented the artificial kidney dialysis machine
1992 First vaccine developed for hepatitis A
1996 Dolly the sheep becomes the first clone
2006 First vaccine to target a cause of cancer
Source: http://www.datesandevents.org/events-timelines/10-history-of-medicine-timeline.htm