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first to observe and describe red blood cells.
Jan Swammerdam, a 21-year-old Dutch microscopist, is thought to be the first person to observe and describe red blood cells. -
the first recorded blood transfusion in animals.
Richard Lower was said to perform the first recorded blood transfusion in animals. With a crude syringe made of goose quill and bladder, he connects the jugular vein of a dog he's bled to the neck artery of second dog, resuscitating the former. -
First human transfusion
In June, French physician Jean-Baptiste Denis transfuses a teenage boy suffering from a severe fever with nine ounces of lamb's blood. He attaches the lamb's carotid artery to a vein in the boy's forearm, without the patient suffering any negative consequences. -
William Hewson
In his book EXPERIMENTAL ENQUIRY INTO THE PROPERTIES OF THE BLOOD, British anatomist William Hewson details his research on blood coagulation, including his success at arresting clotting and isolating a substance from plasma he dubs "coagulable lymph." The substance is now more commonly known as fibrogen, a key protein in the clotting process. -
James Blundell
British obstetrician and physiologist James Blundell performs the first recorded human-to-human blood transfusion. Using a syringe, he injects a patient suffering from internal bleeding with 12 to 14 ounces of blood from several donors. The patient dies after initially showing improvement. -
Sir William Osler
Sir William Osler observes that small cell fragments from the bone marrow make up the bulk of clots formed in blood vessels; these cell fragments will come to be called platelets. -
Karl Landsteiner
Karl Landsteiner publishes a paper detailing his discovery of the three main human blood groups -- A, B, and C, which he later changes to O. -
Dr. Landsteiner's colleagues Alfred von Decastello and Adriano
Dr. Landsteiner's colleagues Alfred von Decastello and Adriano Sturli identify a fourth blood group -- AB -- that causes agglutination in the red cells of both groups "A" and "B." -
Dr. Ludvig Hektoen
Dr. Ludvig Hektoen of Chicago recommends checking the blood of donors and recipients for signs of incompatibility (or cross matching) prior to transfusion. -
Albert Hustin
Albert Hustin of Brussels and Luis Agote of Buenos Aires discover that adding sodium citrate to blood will prevent it from clotting. -
Dr. Richard Weil
Dr. Richard Weil determines that citrated blood can be refrigerated and stored for a few days and then successfully transfused. -
Francis Peyton Rous and J.R. Turner
Francis Peyton Rous and J.R. Turner develop a citrate-glucose solution that allows blood to be stored for a few weeks after collection and still remain viable for transfusion. -
Dr. Oswald Robertson
Dr. Oswald Robertson collects and stores type O blood, with citrate-glucose solution, in advance of the arrival of casualties during the Battle of Cambrai in World War I. Thereby, he establishes the first blood depot. -
Percy Lane Oliver
Percy Lane Oliver begins operating a blood donor service out of his home in London. -
Dr. Serge Yudin
Dr. Serge Yudin is the first to test the efficacy of transfusing humans with cadaver blood. He successfully resuscitates a young man who's slashed both his wrists attempting suicide by injecting him with 420 cc of blood from a cadaver of a 60-year-old man, who has died after being hit by an omnibus. -
The Soviets
The Soviets are the first to establish a network of facilities to collect and store blood for use in transfusions at hospitals. -
Federico Duran-Jorda
Federico Duran-Jorda establishes the Barcelona Blood-Transfusion Service. The service collects blood, tests it, pools it by blood group, preserves and stores it in bottles under refrigeration, and by way of vehicles fitted with refrigerators, transports it to front line hospitals during the Spanish Civil War. -
Drs. Philip Levine and R.E. Stetson
Drs. Philip Levine and R.E. Stetson uncover an unknown antibody in the blood of a woman who's given birth to a stillborn, and postulate that a factor in the blood of the fetus, inherited from the father, triggers the antibody production in the mother. -
Drs. Karl Landsteiner and Alexander Wiener
Drs. Karl Landsteiner and Alexander Wiener discover the Rh blood group, through experiments with the red blood cells of Rhesus monkeys, and identify the antibody found by Levine and Steston to be anti-Rh. -
Dr. Isidor Ravdin
Philadelphia surgeon Dr. Isidor Ravdin successfully treats victims of the Pearl Harbor attack with albumin to increase blood volume. -
Dr. Carl W. Walter
Dr. Carl W. Walter, a trained surgeon, develops a plastic bag for the collection of blood. -
Dr. Judith Pool,
Dr. Judith Pool, an American physiologist at Stanford University, discovers that slowly thawed frozen plasma yields deposits high in Factor VIII (or Antihemophilic Factor). The deposits called cryoprecipitates (or cryo) are found to have much greater clotting power than plasma and given to hemophiliacs to stop bleeding episodes. -
Dr. Baruch
Dr. Baruch Blumberg of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) identifies a substance on the surface of the hepatitis B virus that triggers the production of antibodies. His work leads to the development of a test to detect the presence of hepatitis B antibodies, thereby identifying infected donors; the test is mandated by the FDA. -
AIDS
A legal battle ensues over who deserves credit for the discovery of the AIDS virus, which finally ends in 1987 when the U.S. and French governments agree to share credit and royalties from the sales of test kits for the virus. -
AIDS
The first cases of a syndrome initially called GRID (Gay-related Immunodeficiency Disease), due to its prevalence among gay men, are reported. It is later renamed AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).
