Fitness Timeline
Before Common Era (BCE)
circa 1,800,000 - Nomadic tribes required the continual task of hunting and gathering food for survival. Regular physical activity for celebrations, dancing and cultural games was also a principal part of life.
c. 10,000 - The Agricultural Revolution defined by agricultural developments including animal and plant domestication, and the invention of the plough.
c. 2600 - The Egyptian Imhotep describes the diagnosis and treatment of 200 diseases.
c. 1600 -Edwin Smith Papyrus, the oldest known surgical treatise on trauma from Ancient Egypt.
c. 1500 - Ebers Papyrus, the most voluminous medical papyri of Ancient Egypt consisting of 700 magical formulas and remedies.
776 - The first Olympic games is held in ancient Greece.
c. 500 - Alcmaeon of Croton identifies the optic nerves and the tubes later termed the Eustachius. He would construct a background for medical science with the dissection of animals.
c. 490 - Empedocles states that the heart distributed heat to the body and that “pneuma” flowed through the blood vessels.
c. 460 - Birth of Hippocrates, an ancient Greek physician known as the "Father of Medicine". He believed that disease came from natural causes, not from a higher power, and that the environment can affect one’s health.
384 - Birth of Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher who was the first to study biology systematically. His dissections of plants and animals led to the creation of the classification system.
335 - Birth of Herophilus, the “Father of Anatomy”, an ancient Greek scientist who performed the first human dissection, alongside Erasistratus.
300 - Diocles writes the first known anatomy book.
280 - Herophilus studies the nervous system.
110 - Birth of Hua Tuo, an ancient Chinese Physician, the first to use general anaesthesia.
Common Era (CE)
c. 60 - Pedanius Dioscorides writes De Materia Medica.
130 - Birth of Galen, a physician, surgeon and philosopher of the Roman Empire, who stressed the importance of clinical observation thorough examination and the noting the patient’s symptoms.
1010 - Avicenna writes The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine.
1249 - Roger Bacon invents spectacles.
1275 - Birth of Mondino de Luzzi, the “restorer of anatomy”, the first to reintroduce the systematic teaching of anatomy into the medical curriculum.
1489 - Leonardo da Vinci begins anatomical drawings depicting the human form.
1543 - Andreas Vesalius publishes, De Humani Corporis Fabrica, a ground-breaking work of human anatomy with vivid drawings of the anatomical parts of human bodies.
1590 - Zacharius Jannssen invents the microscope.
1628 - William Harvey publishes, On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, describing how blood is pumped by the contractions of the heart, circulates throughout the body, and then returns to the heart.
1656 - Sir Christopher Wren experiments with canine blood transfusions.
1670 - Anton van Leeuwenhoek discovers blood cells.
1682 - Antonie Van Leewenhoek makes use of microscopes and observes bacteria.
1747 - James Lind publishes his Treatise of the Scurvy stating that citrus fruits prevent scurvy.
1763 - Claudius Aymand performs the first successful appendectomy.
1796 - Edward Jenner develops the process of vaccination for smallpox, the first vaccines for any disease.
1800 - Sir Humphry Davy discovers the anaesthetic properties of nitrous oxide.
1816 - Rene Laennec invents the stethoscope.
1818 - James Blundell performs the first successful transfusion of human blood.
1832 - The British Parliament passes the Anatomy Act which allows dissection of only the dead or the destitute.
1849 - Elizabeth Blackwell is the first woman to gain a medical degree from Geneva Medical College in New York.
1853 - Charles Gabriel Pravaz and Alexander Wood develop the syringe.
1857 - Louis Pasteur identifies germs as clause of disease.
1858 - Henry Gray publishes Anatomy: Descriptive and Surgical, an extremely influential work that continues to be revised and republished today.
1859 - Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species, introducing the theory that populations evolve over generations through a process of natural selection.
1866 - Gregor Mendel publishes Experiments on Plant Hybridization. He would later be considered the "father of modern genetics".
1870 - Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur establish the germ theory of disease.
1887 - F.A. Muller develops the first contact lenses.
1895 - Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovers X-rays.
1896 - The first international Olympic Games in modern history are held in Athens, Greece. The Summer Olympics was organized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) created by Pierre de Coubertin.
1899 - Felix Hoffman develops aspirin.
1901 - Karl Landsteiner introduces the system to classify blood into A, B, AB, and O groups.
1901 - Eugen Sandow organizes the world’s first major bodybuilding competition in London's Royal Albert Hall.
1912 - Casimir Funk isolates a complex of micronutrients, naming it "vitamine".
1920 - Earle Dickson invented the Band-Aid.
1921 - Edward Mellanby discovers that lack of vitamin D in the diet causes rickets.
1922 - Insulin first used to treat diabetes.
1928 - Sir Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.
1942 - Doctor Karl Theodore Dussik publishes the first paper on medical ultrasonic - ultrasound.
1945 - First vaccine developed for influenza.
1948 - The World Health Organization (WHO) is established and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
1950 - John Hopps invented the first cardiac pacemaker.
1952 - Jonas Salk develops the first polio vaccine.
1953 James Watson and Francis Crick work on the structure of the DNA molecule.
1964 - Muhammad Ali beats Sonny Liston to become WBA/WBC Heavyweight Champion.
1967 - Dr. Christian Bernard performs the first human heart transplant.
1968 - Kenneth H. Cooper publishes Aerobics, emphasizing a point system for improving cardiovascular health.
1970 - Arnold Schwarzenegger wins Mr. Olympia competition, making him the youngest ever at the age of 23.
1972 - Raymond Damadian creates the magnetic resonance machine (MRI), a technology allowing study of the human body without dissection.
1974 - Muhammad Ali beats George Foreman to become Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion in arguably the greatest sporting event of the 20th century.
1975 - Robert S. Ledley invents CAT-Scans.
1977 - The first World's Strongest Man contest is held in Universal Studios, California.
1978 - First test-tube baby is born.
1980 - Smallpox is eradicated.
1983 - HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is identified.
1986 - Mike Tyson becomes the youngest heavyweight champion in the history of boxing.
1996 - Dolly the sheep becomes the first clone.
2005 - Ronald Coleman wins Mr. Olympia competition for the eighth-time, a consecutive win since 1998.
2006 - First vaccine to target a cause of cancer.
2007 - Advances in technology allow for the use technological devices, such as the pedometer, GPS, heart rate monitor and smartphone apps, to quantify or monitor exercise.
2009 - Usain Bolt runs 100 metres in 9.58 seconds, setting a world record.
2019 - The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID‑19, is detected.
2020 - Pfizer and Moderna publish initial Phase I/II clinical trial data on the mRNA vaccine approach against SARS-CoV-2.
