August 31 – On This Day in Medical History

What happened on August 31? Explore notable medical events, breakthroughs, births and deaths from across history in LITFL’s On This Day (OTD)

Medical milestones, landmark publications, and notable births and deaths associated with August 31.

Events

No major medical milestones added for this date yet — this page is being expanded


Births

1821Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894), German physician; described Young–Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory of Colour Vision and invented the Ophthalmoscope (1850)

1841Edward Gamaliel Janeway (1841-1911), American physician; described the Janeway lesion (1899)


Deaths

1953Ralph Lee Huber (1889-1953), American Dentist; invented the Huber point needle (1943)

2023John Marius Opitz (1935-2023), German-American medical geneticist; described Opitz-Kaveggia syndrome (1974) [FG syndrome type 3], The N syndrome, Herrmann-Opitz syndrome (1969), Herrmann-Pallister syndrome, and more


Further reading

BA MA (Oxon) MBChB (Edin) FACEM FFSEM. Emergency physician, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. Passion for rugby; medical history; medical education; and asynchronous learning #FOAMed evangelist. Co-founder and CTO of Life in the Fast lane | On Call: Principles and Protocol 4e| Eponyms | Books |