From Cave Paintings to the Internet A Chronological and Thematic Database on the History of Information and Media Medicine Outline

One of the Oldest Known Ancient Mesopotamian Medical Texts
(2,112 BCE – 2,004 BCE)

The Oldest Known Medical Papyrus
(Circa 1,800 BCE)

The Code of Hammurabi
(Circa 1,760 BCE)

The Oldest Surgical Treatise
(Circa 1,600 BCE)

The Largest Surviving Medical Treatise from Ancient Mesopotamia
(Circa 1,600 BCE)

The Most Extensive Record of Ancient Egyptian Medicine
(Circa 1,550 BCE)

Diseases of the Anus and Headaches
(1,200 BCE)

Knowledge as Power: The Earliest Systematically Collected Library as Distinct from an Archive
(668 BCE – 627 BCE)

The Mawangui Silk Texts
(Circa 175 BCE)

The First Auto-Bibliography
(Circa 190 CE)

Perhaps the Earliest Surviving Text of the Hippocratic Oath
(Circa 275 CE)

The Most Richly Illustrated Greek Papyrus
(Circa 350 CE)

The Oldest Extant Book Illustrations of Plants
(Circa 400 CE)

Probably the Most Beautiful of the Earliest Surviving Scientific Codices
(Circa 512)

St. Benedict Introduces Monastic Life to Europe
(529)

Most Important Medical Center During 6th and 7th Centuries
(550 – 650)

The Herbal of Pseudo-Apuleius
(Circa 550 – 625)

The Scriptorium and Library at the Vivarium
(Circa 560)

The Naples Dioscorides
(Circa 625)

The Oldest Western Medical Document after the Hippocratic Writings
(Circa 850)

The Earliest Surviving Illustrated Surgical Codex
(Circa 900)

One of the Oldest Medical or Scientific Treatises Written in English
(Circa 900)

The Morgan Dioscorides
(Circa 930 – 970)

Foundation of Experimental Physics, Optics, and the Science of Vision
(1011 – 1021)

A Graphic Portrayal of 12th Century Life in Italy and Sicily
(1196)

Autograph Manuscript by Ibn-al-Nafis on the Art of Medicine
(Circa 1280)

A Venetian Ordinance on the Production of Eyeglasses
(April 2, 1300)

The Black Death
(1347 – 1353)

The Earliest Surviving Spectacles
(Circa 1350)

The Earliest Depiction of Eyeglasses in a Painted Work of Art
(1352)

One of the Oldest Known Manuscripts on Cookery in English, Written in the Form of a Scroll
(Circa 1390)

The First Known Medical or Scientific Work to be Printed, Surviving in Only One Copy
(1456)

The First Atlas of Pediatric Surgery
(1465)

The First Printed Encyclopedia
(1467)

The First Medical or Scientific Treatise to be First Published as a Printed Book Rather than a Manuscript
(April 21, 1472)

The First Technical Dictionary
(1473 – 1474)

The First Printed Herbal
(May 9, 1477)

The First Printed Book on Wine
(October 1478)

The First Printed Herbal with Illustrations and Probably the First Series of Illustrations on a Scientific Subject
(Circa 1481 – 1482)

The Earliest Medical Work Printed in English
(Circa 1483)

Leonardo's Anatomical Drawings
(Circa 1485 – 1516)

The First Separately Printed Treatise on Diet
(March 23, 1487)

Handbook for Witch-Hunters and Inquisitors
(April 1487)

The First Medical Book with Anatomical Illustrations
(July 26, 1491)

The First Medical Bibliography and First Medical History after Celsus
(1506)

The First Work Since the Time of Galen to Show Original Anatomical Information Based upon Personal Investigation and Observation
(1521)

A Condensation of his Commentaria
(1522)

Renaissance Revival of Hippocrates as the Precursor of Galen
(1525)

The Aesthetic Anatomy of Human Proportion
(1528)

First Accurate, Detailed Woodcuts of Plants Taken Directly from Nature
(1530 – 1536)

The First Significant Book on the Anatomy of the Head
(1536 – 1537)

With Self-Portraits of the Artists
(1542)

The First Printed Book to Set Out Rules for a Healthy Diet
(1542)

Unprecedented Blending of Scientific Exposition, Art and Typography
(June 1543)

A Condensation or Road-Map to the Fabrica
(June 1543)

Erotic Images Made Acceptable by their Adaptation for Medical Purposes
(1545)

Renaissance Surgery and Graphic Arts
(1545)

The First Edition of Vesalius Published in England
(October 1545 – 1553)

First Attempt to Formulate Methods of Identification of an Exotic Drug and Methods of Detecting its Adulteration
(October 1546)

One of the Largest Libraries formed by an Individual in the 15th Century
(1552)

Medical Discovery, Heresy, and Martyrdom
(1553)

Who Discovered the Pulmonary Circulation?
(1559)

The Earliest Effort to Systematize Botanical Description; Discovery of Sulfuric Ether
(1561)

The Fallopian Tubes and Numerous Other Anatomical Discoveries
(1561)

The First Bio-Bibliography
(1562)

The Eustachian Tube and Many Other Discoveries
(1563 – 1564)

In an Expose of the Witchcraft Delusion, One of the First Scientific Approaches to the Study of Mental Illness
(1563)

The First Medical Book Printed in the Western Hemisphere with the Earliest Illustrations of Plants Printed in the Western Hemisphere
(1570)

One of the First Physicians to Draw the Illustrations for his Own Publications
(1572 – 1573)

The First Systematic Medical Bibliography
(1590)

The First Medical Subject Bibliography
(1591)

The Beginning of the Collection of Medical Statistics
(1592 – 1593)

The First Book Devoted Exclusively to the Structure of an Animal Other than Man
(1598)

Literary and Medical Classic on One of the Most Common Human Ailments
(1621)

Discovery and Experimental Proof of the Circulation of the Blood
(1628)

Precursor of the Royal Society
(August 23, 1633 – June 10, 1641)

Demography & Vital Statistics
(1662)

Mechanistic View of the Human Body
(1662)

The Oldest Continuous Journal of an Academy of Science
(March 6, 1665)

The Great Plague of London
(April 1665 – September 1666)

The First Medical or Scientific Publication in North America, Known from a Single Surviving Copy
(1667)

De bibliothecae incendio
(1670)

Anatomy in the Style of Dutch Still-Life Painting
(1685)

Baroque Anatomy and Plagiarism
(1698)

The Structural Relationships between the Body of Man and the Anthropoid Ape
(1699)

Reflecting Surrealism Centuries Before Surrealism Became Fashionable
(1701 – 1725)

Possibly the First Color-Printed Mezzotint Published
(1721)

One of the Earliest Applications of Statistics to a Socio-Medical Problem
(1723)

First Use of Color Printing in a Medical or Scientific Book
(1736)

The Cool, Elegant Aesthetic of Anatomy
(1747)

The First Book on Western Medicine and Science Published in Japanese
(1774)

The First Chemistry Journal
(1778)

Anatomy for Artists including Fantastical Elements
(1779)

Proof of the Clinical Value of Digitalis
(1785)

Phasing Out Latin as the International Language
(1800)

Foundation of the Birth Control Movement
(1822)

Animal Ecology
(1824)

Origins of the National Library of Medicine
(1836)

The Doppler Principle
(1842)

Discovery of Surgical Anesthesia
(November 18, 1846)

The First Scientific Instrument to Record Scientific Information in Real Time
(1847)

Splendid Monograph Describing "Addison's Disease"
(1855)

Foundation of the National Museum of Health and Medicine
(1862)

The First Instance of a Printing Calculator Used Extensively to do Original Work
(1864)

The Library and Museum Moved to the Site of Lincoln's Assassination
(1867)

Index Medicus Begins
(1879)

A Landmark in Efforts to Organize Information and Make it Searchable
(1880)

A Librarian Suggests the Idea for Electric Punched Card Tabulating
(1882)

The First Scientific Study of the Effects of Cocaine
(1884)

The Origin of Psychoanalysis
(1895)

Rontgen Discovers X-Rays
(November 8, 1895)

The Last Great Original Work in Science to be Published First as a Monograph Rather than in a Scientific Journal
(November 4, 1899)

A New Standard for Descriptive Bibliography in the History of Science
(1906)

The First Large-Scale Investigation of Species Differences at the Molecular Level
(1909)

Napoleon's Penis, and Other Napoleon Memorabilia
(1916 – 1924)

The Basis for Computed Tomography
(1917)

Portion of 15th Century Medical Library for Sale in 1929
(1929)

DDT
(1939)

The First Application of an Electronic Computer to Molecular or Structural Biology
(July 9 – July 12, 1951)

The Beginning of Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
(1953)

The Double Helix
(April 25, 1953)

Discovery of DNA's Method of Replication
(May 30, 1953)

The Beginning of Medical Ultrasonography
(October 29, 1953)

The Idea of a Genetic Code
(1954)

Probably the First Widely-Accepted Controlled Vocabulary
(1954)

The First Amino Acid Sequence of a Protein
(1955)

Beginning of Doppler Ultrasound
(1957)

On Protein Synthesis
(September 1957)

The First Obstetrical or Gynecological Sonograms
(1958)

Early Expert Systems for Medical Diagnosis
(July 3, 1959)

The First Self-Contained Internally Powered Artificial Pacemake Implanted in a Human
(1960)

Changes in Tissue Density Can be Computed
(1963)

The First Large Scale Computer-Based Retrospective Search Service Available to the General Public
(January 1964)

CT
(1971)

Medline is Operational
(October 1971)

First Patent for MRI
(March 17, 1972)

The First Practical Method for Cloning a Gene
(1973)

The Beginnings of Magnetic Resonance Imaging
(1973)

The First Whole-Body CT Scanner
(1973)

Foundation of the Biotechnology Industry
(1974)

The Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA
(February 1975)

Genetech is Founded
(April 7, 1976)

A Technique for Sequencing DNA
(1977)

The Sanger Method of Rapid DNA Sequencing
(1977)

Making MRI Feasible
(1977)

The First Whole Genome Shotgun Sequence
(1982)

Origins of the Human Genome Project
(December 1984 – April 1987)

The First Semi-Automatic DNA Sequencer
(1986)

The First DNA Sequencing Machine
(1987)

Proposals to Sequence the Human Genome
(1987)

Expressed Sequence Tags
(1991)

Venter Founds TIGR
(1992)

Virtual Medical Worlds
(November 1997)

Venter Founds Celera Genomics
(May 1998)

The Most Extensive Computation Ever Undertaken in Biology
(June 26, 2000)

Publication of the Human Genome Sequence
(February 15 – February 16, 2001)

Privacy of Medical Records and Electronic Data
(April 14, 2003)

The Index-Catalogue Goes Online
(May 1, 2004)

The Genetic Code of Avian Flu Virus H5N1 is Deciphered
(October 5, 2005)

The Royal Society Digital Journal Archive
(October 29, 2006)

Watson's Genome
(May 31, 2007)

The First Healthcare Course Taught in Second Life
(September 2007)

Game-Based Learning for Virtual Patients
(March 2008)

Discovery of a Set of Mutations that Might Have Caused a Cancer
(November 6, 2008)

Analysis of Web Search Queries Track the Spread of Flu Faster than Traditional Surveillance Methods
(November 11, 2008)

The Cost of DeCoding a Human Genome Drops to $50,000
(August 10, 2009)

The First Brain-Computer Interface Product Offered for Sale
(March 2 – March 6, 2010)