December 21 – On This Day in Medical History

What happened on December 21? 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 December 21.

Events


Births

1857John Benjamin Murphy (1857-1916), American surgeon; described Murphy’s Sign (1903), Murphy’s Percussion Test, Murphy’s Punch Test, the Murphy Button, Murphy’s sequence, and Murphy’s Drip

1877Louis Virgil Hamman (1877-1946), American physician; described Hamman’s sign / Hamman’s cruch (1934), Hamman-Rich syndrome (1935), and Hamman syndrome (1939)


Deaths

1824James Parkinson (1755-1824), English surgeon; described Parkinson disease (1817)

1979Gilbert Dalldorf (1900-1979) was an American virologist; isolated and characterized the Coxsackie viruses for the first time


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 |