On February 23, 1954, a group of children from Arsenal
Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, received
the first injections of the new polio vaccine developed by
Dr. Jonas Salk.

Thanks to the vaccine, by the 21st century polio cases
were reduced by 99 percent worldwide.

Though not as devastating as the plague or influenza,
poliomyelitis was a highly contagious disease that
emerged in terrifying outbreaks and seemed impossible
to stop.

The most famous victim of a 1921 outbreak in America
was future President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then a
young politician. The disease spread quickly, leaving
his legs permanently paralyzed.

Jonas Edward Salk (October 28, 1914 – June 23, 1995)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945)