Elizabeth Blackwell (February 3, 1821 – May 31, 1910)

At a graduation ceremony in a church in Geneva, New York on
January 23, 1849, Geneva Medical College bestowed a medical
degree upon Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman in the United
States to receive one.

Despite the near-uniform opposition of her fellow students and
medical professionals, Blackwell pursued her calling with an
iron will and dedicated her life to treating the sick and furthering
the cause of women in medicine.

Illustration of medical students attending a lecture at
the Woman’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary,
founded by Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell.

Jesse Bennett (July 10, 1769 – July 13, 1842).

A physician named Dr. Jesse Bennett is recorded as the first
doctor to successfully perform a C-section in the US after it
was requested during a difficult labor. The patient? His wife.

On January 11, 1964, United States Surgeon General Luther
Terry (above) released a groundbreaking government report
announcing a definitive link between smoking and cancer.

Knowing his report was a bombshell, Terry intentionally
chose to release it on that date, which fell on a Saturday,
in order to limit its immediate effects on the stock market.

The link had long been suspected. Anecdotal evidence
had always pointed to negative health effects from
smoking, and by the 1930s physicians were noticing
an increase in lung cancer cases.

Canadian scientists Frederick Banting (right) and Charles
Best.

On January 11, 1922, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson becomes
the first person to receive an injection of the hormone insulin
for Type-1 diabetes—a disease that for millennia had been
considered a death sentence for anyone who developed it. 
Thompson’s blood sugar levels stabilized and he suffered
no ill side effects. He became the face of a new wonder drug.

Laboratory on the University of Toronto campus where
Banting and Best carried out some of their research on
insulin.

Sir Alexander Fleming was a young bacteriologist when an
accidental discovery led to one of the great developments
of modern medicine on September 3, 1928.

He identified the mold as penicillium notatum, similar to
the kind found on bread.

In 1929, Fleming introduced his mold by-product called
penicillin to cure bacterial infections.