1361 BC – Tutankhamoun (“King Tut”) becomes Pharaoh of Egypt
1193 BC– Troy is destroyed by the Greeks after a prolonged siege
1250 BC – The Exodus – The Israelites under Moses leave Egypt
1000 BC – David becomes King of Israel and makes Jerusalem his capital
600 BC – Susruta’s Samhita describes nose reconstruction with the “Indian (forehead) Method” and torn earlobe reconstruction using a cheek flap. He described stitching materials made of cotton, silk, hemp, linen or horsehair
563 BC – The Buddha (Prince Siddhartha Guatama) is born
460 BC – Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, is born on the island of Kos, Greece
214 BC – Construction of the Great Wall of China
30 AD – an ear replantation is done by Jesus. When Judas gave Jesus his infamous kiss, the Apostles realized the betrayal. Simon Peter drew his sword and brought it on the head of the closest enemy, who happened to be Malchus, a servant to the High Priest, severing his ear. “And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear and healed him“. (St. Luke, 22, 50-51)
30 – Crucifixion of Jesus
30 – Cleopatra commits suicide
70 – Destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple by the Romans
129 – Claudius Galenus (Galen), future physician of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and writer of over 100 medical books, is born in Pergamum, nowadays, Turkey
476 – Fall of the Roman Empire and beginning of the Middle Ages
570 – Muhammad is born in Mecca (present day Saudi arabia)
1066 – William (the Conqueror) Duke of Normandy defeats Harold II at the Battle of Hastings
1096 – First Crusade
1161 – explosives introduced for first time in warfare in China
1338 – introduction of gun powder into warfare in Europe
1492 – Christopher Columbus discovers the West Indies
1492 – Leonardo da Vinci is born
1543 – Publication by Andreas Vesalius of the first scientific Anatomy textbook – De humani corporis fabrica
1560 – the Barber surgeon Hans Schaller, reportedly performed the first mastectomy for cosmetic reasons, or first EXTREME breast reduction . The patient was a maid whose “breasts assumed such great proportions that she could not support them, neither standing up nor being sitted“.
1561 – Pierre Franco, an itinerant French surgeon, describes a harelip (cleft lip) repair
1572 – St. Bartholomew’s day mass massacre of Protestants (Huguenots) in France
1580 – Gasparo Tagliacozzi of Bologna, Italy describes the Italian (inner arm) Method of Nasal reconstruction1582 – The Gregorian calendar is introduced into the Roman Catholic countries
1583 – first reported eyelid lift (Blepharoplasty) for excess skin described by Georg Bartisch
1597 – Publication by Tagliacozzi of De Curatorum chirirugia, the most important book in Plastic Surgery. In which reconstruction of the nose, ears and lips were described (This is further explained on our REAL BOARD CERTIFICATION and its meaning)
1605 – Publication of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
1607 – The colony of Virginia is founded at Jamestown
1610 – Tea is introduced into Europe
1626 – Dutch found New Amsterdam (New York)
1628 – William Harvey, an English physician educated in Padova, Italy, publishes the first true account of the circulation of blood. His bookExercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus(On the Movement of the Heart and Blood in Animals), was published in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Although he became the physician to King James I, he was ridiculed in many circles as “The Circulator”, by physicians who did not believe that blood circulated.
1646 – In his book, Opera quae exstant omnia,W. Fabry von Hilden, a German surgeon, recounts an case of nasal reconstruction in 1590 by Griffon, a surgeon in Lausanne. His patient a beautiful virgin reportedly cut off her nose to prevent herself from being raped by a band of soldiers. Her nose was successfully reconstructed using a flap of skin from her arm. Griffin learned the technique from a travelling Italian surgeon.
1674 – Description of bacteria by A. van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutchman, using one of the earliest microscopes
1739 – John Wesley founds the Methodist Church
1752 – Benjamin Franklin invents the lightning rod
1756 – Wolfgang Mozart is born
1762 – Catherine becomes Tsarina of Russia
1767 – founding of King’s College (future Columbia University) Medical School in New York – The first Medical School in the American Colonies
1770 – the use of the Hevea brasiliensis tree extract as an eraser is introduced by Joseph Priestly who names the compound rubber
1773 – Boston Tea Party
1776 – American Declaration of Independence
1785 – first lip reconstruction (cheiloplasty) is performed by Chopart. Multiple modifications and innovations followed in the next 200 years by Dieffenbach, V. Ammon, Szymanowski, Nelaton, Delpech, Ombredanne, Sedillot, Bernard, Burow, Estlander, Abbe and others
1788 – Mozart writes his most famous symphonies – No. 40 (G minor) and No. 41 (C major, Jupiter)
1789 – beginning of the French Revolution
1789 – George Washington becomes the first American President
1793 – executions of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in Paris
1793 – Louvre Museum in Paris is open to the public
1796 – Introduction of immunization (vaccination) by Edward Jenner
1800 – the first electric battery is invented by Alessandro Volta
1803 – the Louisiana Purchase
1804 – Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor Napoleon I
1807 – Slave trade is abolished throughout the British Empire over 50 years before its abolition in the United States
1809 – first lower eyelid reconstruction performed by Ferdinand von Graefe. Multiple innovations followed
1814 – Joseph Carpue successfully resurrects the Italian Method of Nasal Reconstruction, using it to build a nose of an army officer who lost it by mercury poisoning
1815 – France prohibits slave trade
1815- Napoleon is defeated at the Battle of Waterloo
1816 – Cleft of soft Palate successfully repaired by Ferdinand von Graefe
1816 – Rene Laennec invents the stethoscope
1824 – Ludwig van Beethoven finishes his Ninth Symphony
1837 – Victoria becomes Queen of Britain
1839 – Charles Goodyear discovers the vulcanization process, which makes rubber elastic. It revolutionized the rubber industry (Much later, rubber gloves were introduced for use in surgery)
1840 – first report of intravascular sclerotherapy of varicose veins
1844 – cleft lip repair with cross flap technique is introduced by Mirault. All modern repair methods evolved from this approach.
1845 – Dieffenbach reconstructs a missing middle third of the ear with an advancement flap
1845 – first reported surgical attempt to correct prominent ears made by Dieffenbach
1846 – Introduction of Ether Anesthesia. Dr. John C. Warren painlessly removes a tumor from the neck of Gilbert Abbot, a 20-year-old painter, under ether administered by Dentist/medical student William Morton
1846 – Irish potato famine is at its worst
1847 – one of the earliest cases of nerve repair is described by James Paget
1848 – Gold Rush begins in California
1848 – Publication of The Communist Manifesto by F. Engels and Karl Marx
1854 – the use of the contralateral leg in reconstruction, the cross-leg flap, is described by Hamilton
1859 – Introduction of Plaster of Paris splints by Mathijsen
1859 – cleft palate repair with bipedicle mucoperiosteal flaps described by von Langenbeck
1859 – the International Red Cross is founded by Swiss banker Jean H. Dunant after he witnessed the horror of the Battle of Solferino (fought between Napoleon III and Austria)
1861 – Abraham Lincoln becomes President and the American Civil War begins
1863 – Emancipation Proclamation abolishes slavery in the United States
1865 – Joseph Lister introduces the antiseptic treatment of wounds
1866 – invention of the clinical thermometer by Thomas C. Allbutt
1895 –X-rays are discovered by Wilhelm Conrad von Roentgen and rapidly introduced into clinical practice
1895 – first surgical attempt at breast reconstruction/augmentation. After removing a large benign breast tumor, Czerny filled the resulting breast defect with a fist-sized fatty tumor (lipoma) he removed from the patient’s back. The improvement was temporary
1896 – the first muscle and skin (myocutaneous) flap– the latissimus dorsi, was described by Iginio Tansini of Pavia, Italy to reconstruct mastectomy wounds. The technique was lost.
1896 – Gugliemo Marconi patents the radio receiver
1896 – gold is discovered in Klondike Creek in the Yukon Territory of Alaska
1897 – the first technique of breast lift and breast reduction was suggested by Pousson. Many improvements soon followed by Verchere, Morestin, Lexer, Joseph and others
1897 – face masks are introduced in surgery by Johannes Mikulicz-Radecki
1898– vaginal reconstruction for vaginal nonformation (agenesis) is described by Robert Abbe
1898 – Spanish-American War
1899 – Second Boer War
1901 – The painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec dies
1901 – Marconi makes the first transatlantic radio broadcast – the letter “s”
1902 – description of the surgical joining of blood vessels (anastomosis) by Guthrie and Carrell
1903 – further refinements in the correction of prominent ears was reported by Morestin
1903 – first electrocardiograph
1903 – first motor-powered flight made by Orville Wright at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
1904 – the first jail sentence for the crime of speeding in an automobile is handed down in Newport, Rhode Island
1905 – development of first skin graft harvesting blade by Foderl
1905 – Rasps and rotating wheels are used to dermabrade acne scars by Kromayer
1906 – Erich Lexer performs one of the earliest facelift operations
1906 – the San Francisco earthquake
1907 – Bone traction screws described by Lambotte
1907 – Erich Lexer becomes the first to use a saphenous vein graft in arterial repair
1907 – the first book on Cosmetic surgery, Cosmetic Surgery:the Correction of Featural Imperfections, is published privately by Charles C. Miller
1911 – the transverse elliptic incision in abdominoplasty is described by A. Morestin
1912 – correction of breast sagging is described by Erich Lexer
1912 – a rib graft is used to repair a mandibular defect
1912 – bony fixation with steel pins is described by Steinmann
1912 – sinking of the British ship Titanic
1913 – introduction of mammography by Salomon in Berlin
1913 – US Congress is empowered to levy income taxes with passage of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, creating the IRS
1914 – Beginning of World War I
1915 – discovery of sodium citrate, a blood preservative, by Richard Lewisohn makes blood banks possible
1915 – Albert Einstein publishes his General Theory of Relativity
1916 – the horrific WWI Battles of Verdun, Jutland and Somme produce never before seen injuries
1917 – the skin tubed flap is described separately by Filatov and then by Harold Gillies
1917 – fat grafts from the abdomen, inner thigh and buttock was used by Bartlett to fill subcutaneous mastectomy defects
1917 – Einstein publishes his Quantum Theory of Radiation which postulated that light can be generated through stimulated rather than spontaneous emission of energy – the basis of laser physics
1917 – Russian Revolution – Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks seize power in Russia
1917 – the British government issues the Balfour Declaration
1919 – Bourguet is first to report correction of eyelid bagginess by removal of the fat out-pouchings. He later becomes the first to publish before- and after photographs and to describe the transconjunctival approach
1920 – a continuous yet hidden facelift incision is introduced by Bettman. A modified version of this incision is still currently used
1920 – (Alcohol) Prohibition begins in the United States
1920 – American women receive the right to vote (passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution)
1921 – American Association of Plastic Surgeons is founded
1921 – first radio newscasts are presented (KDKA in Pittsburgh)
1922 – first clinical use of Insulin
1923 – Claude Monet completes his Water Lilies series of paintings in Giverny, France
1924 – the first mechanical device for harvesting skin grafts (dermatome) is introduced by Hagen
1924 – Joseph Stalin assumes total control of the Soviet Union
1925 – School teacher John Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in a Tennessee public school
1926 – Suzanne Noël publishes her La Chirurgie Esthetique: Son Role Sociale, describing facelift, eye lift, forehead lifting, as well as correction of burns and scars
1926 – The first malpractice suit in France involved a complication of body contouring surgery. A young fashion designer went to a well-known surgeon and asked him to make her calves thinner. Before the introduction of liposuction, fat was literally scraped from under the skin. She underwent fat scraping reduction of her calves which was complicated by a severe infection resulting in one of her legs was amputated and she sued her doctor. The judge ruled for the designer.
1927 – Hollywood surgeon Herbert Otto Bames recommends undermining of facial skin in facelift
1927 – “Talking” films debut in America with the showing of The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson
1928 – Alexander Fleming discovers Penicillin
1928 – Ivan Whiteside Magill, Harold Gillies’ anesthetist at Queen’s Hospital, Sidcup, UK, published his experience with single tube endotracheal anesthesia, currently the commonest way of performing general anesthesia. Magill was responsible many development in modern anesthesia
1929 – The Wall Street Crash
1930 – Reduction of very large breasts with the free nipple technique is described by Herbert Otto Bames
1931 – Corrective Nasal Surgery is popularized by Jacques Joseph
1931 – the use of long narrow hair-bearing transposition flaps in the treatment of baldness is described by Passot
1931 – Establishment of The American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons by Jaques Maliniac and others
1932 – introduction of the pressure plate in the treatment of fractures by Danis
1932 – introduction of sulfa drugs (antibiotics)
1933 – Hitler becomes dictator of Germany
1933 – Prohibition ends
1934 – repair of abdominal wall hernias with a leg flap (tensor fascia lata iliotibial tract) is described by Wangensteen
1934 – chin augmentation using the hump removed from a prominent nose is described by Aufricht
1934 – After gangsters, Alvin Karpis and F. Barker, undergo facial altering surgery, famous gangster John Dillinger undergoes a facelift procedure including facial mole removals to change his appearance. Despite the operation, Dillinger is found and shot by the FBI outside a movie theater two months later.
1935 –an annoyed FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, publishes a warning to surgeons in the American Journal of Surgery after “irresponsible physicians have attempted to alter the facial appearance and finger patterns of known criminals“.
1936 – repair of cleft palate with the push-back technique introduced by Veau
1936 – introduction into clinical practice of heparin greatly reduces clotting of repaired blood vessels
1936 – Francisco Franco becomes dictator of Spain in a military coup
1937 – establishment of The American Board of Plastic Surgery
1938 – first report of flap repair of pressure ulcers by Davis
1938 – “Crystal Night” – throughout Germany bands of Nazis destroy Jewish-owned businesses and property and marks the beginning of the Nazi Holocaust
1939 – World War II begins after the German invasion of Poland
1939 – introduction of the drum dermatome by Padgett and Hood
1939 – treatment of baldness with hair punch grafts is described by Okuda
1941- Florey and Chain aid in mass-production of Penicillin
1942 – Chin enlargement by sliding horizontal osteotomy is described by Hofer
1943 – Corning Glass Works and The Dow Chemical company join to incorporate Dow Corning Corporation to develop and produce silicon chemistry polymers needed for the war effort
1943 – surrender of German forces at Stalingrad
1944- D- Day – invasion of Normandy
1945 – Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagaski
1946 – the beneficial use of muscle flaps in the treatment of chronic osteomyelitis is described by Stark
1946 – Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals
1947 – Palestine is partitioned by the UN into Arab and Jewish states
1947 – microwaves are discovered by Percy Spencer
1948 – Lidocaine, the most commonly currently used local anesthetic agent, is introduced
1947 – the beneficial effects of correcting traumatic tattoo injuries with dermabrasion is published
1948 – Declaration of the State of Israel
1948 – formation of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
1949 – Closure of Cleft (Hare) Lip with local flaps by Le Mesurier. Many improvements soon followed
1949 – Mao Tse Tung and the communists assume control of China
1950 – start of the Korean War
1951 – description by Castanares of the specific compartments of eyelid (periorbital) fat
1952 – The Spitz-Holter hydrocephalus (silicon) implantable valve shunt which prevents retardation and skull enlargement in cases of excess brain fluid (CSF) is introduced by Dow-Corning
1952 – one of the first sex change (reassignment) operations is performed by Fogh-Anderson
1952 – Elizabeth II becomes Queen of Britain
1953 – free dermofat grafts obtained from buttock donor sites are used by Bames to augment breasts
1953 – description of the double stranded helix nature of DNA by Watson and Crick
1954 – first successful kidney transplantation was done by Dr. J. Murray, a Boston Plastic surgeon. Modern transplantation begins
1954 – adjacent abdominal wall dermofat flaps are used by Longacre to augment breasts
1954 – defeat of the French by the communists in Vietnam
1955 – introduction of the Ivalon (polyvinyl alcohol) plastic sponge prosthesis in breast augmentation. These implants became extremely hard and had to be removed
1955 – first successful testing of polio vaccine by Salk
1956 – Soviet Union crushes the Hungarian uprising
1956 – US Supreme Court rules as unconstitutional racial segregation on public buses
1956 – Suez Canal dispute
1957 – first pacemaker
1957 – the Treaty of Rome establishes the European Common Market
1957 – Soviet Union launches Sputnik I, the first satellite
1959 – Tanzer builds missing ears (microtia) with a staged approach using an implanted carved rib framework
1959 – Polistan (derivative of polyethylene) sponges used unsuccessfully in breast augmentation
1959 – Fidel Castro becomes the leader of Cuba
1960 – description of microsurgical technique by Jacobson
1960 – first demonstration of a laser
1961 – building of the Berlin Wall
1961 – Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space
1960’s – Etheron (derivative of polymethane) sponges used unsuccessfully in breast augmentation
1962 – first successful above-elbow replantation of an upper extremity amputation performed by Ronald Malt in Boston
1962 – the first silicone sac breast implants are used clinically by Frank Gerow and Thomas Cronin of Houston
1962 – the Cuban Missile Crisis
1963 – use of the omentum as a flap in reconstruction of radiation wounds of the chest is described by Kiricuta
1963 – omtental flaps used in breast augmentation by Zavaleta and Marino
1963 – lasers are introduced in retinal detachment procedures in ophthalmology
1963 – President Kennedy is killed in Dallas
1964 – Dow Corning markets the Cronin breast implant
1964 – First work on improving the “Turkey Gobbler” deformity of the Neck is published
1964 – the CO2 laser is built by Patel at the Bell Labs
1965 – the early inflatable breast implants are described by Arion
1965 – first American Marines arrive in Vietnam
1966 – establishment of muscle flap reconstruction by Ralph Ger
1966 – introduction of Medicare
1968 – first replantation of a severed thumb performed by Komatsu and Tamai
1968 – Soviet Union crushes the Czechoslovakian democracy movement
1969 – introduction of hypertonic saline (Sclerodex) in sclerotherapy of varicose veins
1969 – Neil Armstrong and ‘Buzz’ Aldrin of Apollo 11 walk on the Moon
1972 – introduction of the CT scan
1973 – first successful flap (Groin flap) transplantation using microsurgical vascular technique performed by Taylor
1973 – first report on use of laser in Plastic surgery is published by Kaplan and Ger
1973 – the guillotine is used for the last time as a means of capital punishment in French prisons
1974 – resignation of President Nixon after the Watergate scandal
1975 – first successful replantation with microsurgical technique of an avulsed scalp done by Miller
1976 – first case utilizing tissue expansion is performed by C. Radovan. Tissue expansion techniques are now used daily in breast, scalp, ear and facial reconstruction
1976 – first successful replantation of the penis
1976 – description by Mitz and Peyronie of the SMAS tissue layer of the face and the benefits tightening it may have in prolonging the effects of facelifting
1976 – The latissimus dorsi flap (originally described in 1896) is re-described by Olivari
1976 – breast reconstruction with microsurgically transferred soft tissue from the buttock is introduced by Fujino
1977 – the earliest liposuction technique is published by a father and son team, Arpard and George Fischer of Rome, for correction of the “saddle bags” or “riding breeches” deformity
1977 – Modern liposuction is first being practiced by Yves-Gerard Illouz in Paris
1977 – description of the rectus abdominis flap by Drever
1977 – Breast reduction with the inferior pedicle technique is described
1977 – Signing of the Camp David peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in Washington, D.C.
1979 – the Shah is expelled from Iran and Khomeini assumes power
1979 – Sixty three Americans are taken hostage in the American Embassy in Iran
1980 – Yves-Gerard Illouz publishes his technique of liposuction for body contouring
1980 – popularization of myocutaneous flaps by McCraw, Mathes, Nahai and Orticochea
1982 – Breast reconstruction with the TRAM flap is introduced by Hartrampf and colleagues
1984 – Breast reconstruction with tissue expansion is introduced
1985 – Mikhail Gorbachov becomes Soviet leader
1985 – Fournier introduces syringe liposuction
1986 – repair of cleft palate with double Z-plasty is published by Furlow
1986 – chin augmentation with a sliding genioplasty using miniplate fixation
1989 – End of the Cold War and the Berlin Wall comes down
1989– BOTOX approved for use in Strabismus and Blepharospasm
1990 – Ultrasonic-Assisted Liposuction is introduced by M. Zocchi
1992 – FDA called for a moratorium on the use of silicone gel-filled implants until new safety information could be thoroughly reviewed by the Panel.
1992 – Dow Corning withdrew from the silicone implant market
1992 – FDA lifted the moratorium on breast implants and announced its decision to allow silicone gel-filled implants on the market only under controlled clinical studies for reconstruction after mastectomy, correction of congenital deformities, or replacement for ruptured silicone gel-filled implants for augmentation. FDA denied applications for using silicone breast implants for augmentation
1999 – The American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons simplifies its name to The American Society of Plastic Surgeons
2002 – The FDA approves BOTOX for the treatment of forehead wrinkles
12/12/2003 – FDA approves Restylane, a Swedish produced hyaluronic acid filler, for skin wrinkle filling
7/20/2004 – FDA has approved Botulinum Toxin Type A (Botox) to treat severe underarm sweating known as “primary axillary hyperhidrosis” that cannot be managed by topical agents such as prescription antiperspirants. Botox has already been approved for several other purposes.
2006 – The FDA has decided there is reasonable assurance that Allergan’s (INAMED®) and Mentor’s (MemoryGel™)silicone gel breast implants are safe and effective and has now re-approved their wide use for breast enlargement in the USA for women aged 22 or over. (You may check the exact terms at the FDA’s Breast Implants website)
6/2/2006 – FDA approved Juvederm, a hyaluronic acid filler, for skin wrinkle filling
12/22/2006 – FDA expanded the use of Radiesse, an injectable Calcium Hydroxyapatite tissue filler, for moderate to severe facial folds and wrinkles
5/2/2007 – FDA approved Perlane, a Swedish produced hyaluronic acid filler which is thicker than Restylane, for deep skin wrinkle filling
12/24/2008 – FDA approved Latisse, a drug intended to make eyelashes grow longer and thicker. (Latisse is a new formulation of Lumigan, which was used to lower eyeball pressure in treating glaucoma. A side effect of Lumigan has been the growth of longer and richer eyelashes. The active ingredient in Latisse and Lumigan is Bimatoprost).
