1900: There are written descriptions of the first breast augmentation cases using paraffin wax injections, but no documentation on when it is first performed.

1920s: The use of paraffin to enhance and reconstruct breasts is discontinued due to complications that were occurring such as "paraffinomas" and "wax cancer."

1940s: During World War II, Japanese prostitutes inject their breasts with industrial silicone liquid in order to appeal to American GIs. The procedure becomes popular and spreads to the U.S.

1958: Milton Milton T. Edgerton, M.D. and psychiatrist A.R. McClary publish an article about the psychological aspects of breast implant surgery. They studied 53 women who had the Ivalon sponge implants. They say: "Literally thousands of women in this country alone are seriously disturbed by feelings of inadequacy in regard to concepts of the body image."

1961: Houston plastic surgeons Thomas Cronin and Frank Gerow develop the first silicone breast implant in collaboration with the Dow Corning Corporation. This first silicone implant is made of a thick gel contained in a thick elastomeric envelope.

1962: A thirty-six year old mother of six named Timmie Jean Lindsey is the first woman to be implanted with the silicone breast implants at Texas Charity Hospital.

1965: Dr. Arion introduces inflatable saline breast implants. The implants are filled with saline or a hypertonic solution. They produce the first "bouncy breast" result.

1970: Canadian researches work on an inflatable implant for Dow Corning. The project is discontinue when they find that there is an 8% deflation rate during the first year.

1970s: New silicone implants produced which are more "lifelike", but have a tendency to break easier. Once broken, total removal is difficult or impossible.

1970s: Polyurethane foam covering for implants becomes popular to prevent capsular contracture. The foam begins to disintegrate in the body almost immediately, making it difficult to remove and causing other complications.

1976: Breast implants approved for use in the USA on the basis that they had been on the market prior to implementation of FDA regulations begun in this year.

1980s: Soybean oil breast implants are developed by an American scientist. They become popular in Europe, but as of 2005 have not been approved in the United States and Canada.

Jan. 6, 1992: The FDA bans silicone gel implants due to health concerns.

1998: Jenny McCarthy has her breast implants reduced. She says: "I just couldn't stand how big they were. They were driving me crazy!"

June 6, 2000: Britain recommends that women with Trilucent breast implants (soybean oil implants) have them removed, saying tests have shown that leaking implants may cause cancer or lead to birth defects. At the time of the warning, about 5,000 women in Britain have soya breast implants.

2000: During this year, 203,310 women undergo breast augmentation surgery.

2002: During this year, 236,888 women undergo breast augmentation in the United States.

2003: Mariel Hemingway goes public about her experience with breast implants, saying she got them at the age of 19. She says: "I did it for me. I didn't want to be thought of as a tomboy. I didn't want to be thought of as this kind of butch girl." Noticing health problems, she had them removed and discovered they had ruptured and that silicone had leaked into her blood. She now says: "I think implants are bad news. I enjoyed them for about a year, then from ages 20 to 32, I was asking, 'Why do I have these? I hate these. They were not me, it's kind of the antithesis of who I am."

2003: 3,481 teenagers undergo breast augmentation surgery.

May 2004: The results of a study are published in the Annals of Plastic Surgery stating that women who undergo breast augmentation surgery are three times as likely to commit suicide in the first years after their surgery than women who have not undergone breast augmentation surgery.

2004: During this year, nearly 330,000 women undergo breast augmentation in the United States. 11,326 of these are teenagers.

Oct. 2005: Sharon Osbourne admits to having had breast implants earlier in the year. She says: "The last thing I had done were my breasts about three months ago. I am a 34DD now and Ozzy loves them."

---
Read gastric bypass surgery blogs at HealthDiaries.com.

1636: Rene Descartes writes Dioptric, in which he explains his theories on light and vision and proposes the idea of a corneal contact lens.

1685: Philippe de la Hire creates drawings that illustrate how a concave lens placed on an eye could send light into the retina.

1801: Working from Descartes' idea, Thomas Young creates a corneal contact lens to correct his own vision.

1887: Adolf Eugen Fick, a German physiologist, creates the first successful contact lens

1887: F.E. Muller, a German glassblower, creates the first glass contact lens.

1940s: Corneal contact lenses are sold commercially for the first time.

1961: Czech chemist Otto Wichterle invents soft contact lenses.

1971: Bausch & Lomb introduces the first commercial soft contact lens.

1981: After FDA approval, the first contact lenses suitable for extended and overnight wear are sold.

1991: Frequent-replacement soft lenses are sold for the first time.

1992: The first colored disposable soft lenses are created.

1995: One-day disposable lenses are sold for the first time.

1996: Disposable lenses featuring UV filters are introduced in the U.S.

July 1918: Public health officials in Philadelphia issue a warning about what they call the "Spanish influenza".

Aug. 27, 1918: Sailors stationed aboard the Receiving Ship at Commonwealth Pier in Boston begin reporting to the sick bay with cold symptoms.

Aug. 30, 1918: At least 60 sailors aboard the Receiving Ship fall sick.

September 1918: Dr. Victor Vaughn, acting Surgeon General of the Army, receives urgent orders to proceed to Camp Devens near Boston. Once there, what Vaughn sees stuns him: "I saw hundreds of young stalwart men in uniform coming into the wards of the hospital. Every bed was full, yet others crowded in. The faces wore a bluish cast; a cough brought up the blood-stained sputum. In the morning, the dead bodies are stacked about the morgue like cordwood." That day, 63 men die of influenza.

Sept. 5, 1918: The Massachusetts Department of Health informs local newspapers that they are dealing with an epidemic. A doctor with the Massachusetts State Health Department says, "unless precautions are taken the disease in all probability will spread to the civilian population of the city."

Sept. 24, 1918: Edward Wagner, newly transplanted from Chicago, falls ill with the flu. This flies in the face of San Francisco public health officials who had played down the threat of the flu to the public.

Sept. 28, 1918: 200,000 gather for a 4th Liberty Loan Drive in Philadelphia. Days after the parade, 635 new cases of influenza were reported. Within days, the city will be forced to admit that epidemic conditions exist. Churches, schools, and theaters are ordered closed, along with all other places of "public amusement."

Oct. 2, 1918: By the point, the death toll in Boston is 202. The Liberty Bond parades are cancelled as well as all sporting events. The stock market goes on half-days.

Oct. 3, 1918: The epidemic reaches Seattle, Washington, with 700 cases and one death at the University of Washington Naval Training Station.

Oct. 6, 1918: Philadelphia records 289 influenza-related deaths in a single day.

Oct. 7, 1918: New Mexico, which had remained largely untouched by the influenza, reports its first case.

Oct. 11, 1918: Santa Fe, New Mexico reports its first flu-related death.

Mid-Oct.: In a single day, 851 New Yorkers die. The death rate in Philly for the period of a single week is 700 times the average. The Chicago crime rate drops 43 percent.

Oct. 19, 1918: In Philadelphia, Dr. C.Y. White announces he has developed a preventative vaccine. More than 10,000 complete series of inoculations are sent to the Philadelphia Board of Health.

Oct. 29, 1918: Six-ply gauze masks become mandatory in Seattle.

Oct. 30, 1918: Six-ply gauze masks become mandatory in the entire state of Washington.

Oct. 31 1918: Because of the Influenza Pandemic that grips the nation, most Halloween celebrations are cancelled due to quarantines. One Illinois paper reports: "The ghost parties, masquerades and dances which have always been so popular at this time of the year, are as scarce as the corn and eggs, not because of Mr. Hoover, but because of Mr. Influenza. Many parties which have been planned for Friday and Saturday night have been postponed as the quarantine will not be lifted before next Monday. But not all of the Halloween spirit has been killed by the influenza. Crowds of boys and girls have been using ticktacks on the windows, tearing down gates and and beating the porches with planks , for the last three nights, and they are all prepared to be out tonight, so be not surprised if you hear mysterious noise tonight."

End of October: October 1918 ends up being the deadliest month in the history of the United States, with 195,000 Americans succumbing to the influenza.

Nov. 3, 1918: The News of the World prints some suggested flu precautions: "Wash inside nose with soap and water each night and morning; force yourself to sneeze night and morning, then breathe deeply; do not wear a muffler; take sharp walks regularly and walk home from work; eat plenty of porridge."

Nov. 11, 1918: Armistice is announced and World War I comes to an end. Though much of the joy is weighed down by the epidemic, people around the world venture out into the streets for the first time in order to celebrate. Many go out without their masks for the first time, leading to a surge in influenza cases in many cities for weeks after the Armistice.

Nov. 18, 1918: By this date, 5,000 have died in New Mexico.

Celebrating the end of World War I, 30,000 San Franciscans take to the streets to celebrate. There was much dancing and singing. Everybody wore a face mask.

Nov. 21, 1918: Sirens sound in San Francisco announcing that it is safe for everyone to remove their face masks.

Dec. 1918: 5,000 new cases of influenza are reported in San Francisco.

Jan. 1919: Schools reopen in Seattle.

March 1919: This is the first month that no influenza deaths are reported in Seattle.

1927: It is estimated that 21.5 million people died during the 1918 epidemic.

1991: Revising the 1927 estimate that 21.5 million people died during the 1918 epidemic, researches recalculate the numbers at 30 million.

1997: Using lung tissue taken 79 years earlier during the autopsy of a U.S. Army private who died of the 1918 flu, scientists at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology analyze the 1918 virus and conclude that it is a unique virus but is related to the "swine flu." According to one researcher: "The hemagglutinin gene matches closest to swine influenza viruses, showing that this virus came into humans from pigs." (Science, March 21, 1997)

2002: The Bulletin of the History of Medicine reports that the estimate of the numbers dead from the 1918 epidemic has again been revised. The newest estimate is that between 50 million and 100 million died.

Feb. 6, 2004: Researchers working separately at the Scripps Institute in La Jolla, California and at Britain's Medical Research Council discover that the 1918 virus may have jumped directly from birds to humans rather than going from birds to pigs and then infecting humans. They say it explains why the 1918 strain was so deadly, since human immune systems aren't prepared for viruses coming directly from birds.

Oct. 2005: Using a technique called reverse genetics, scientists at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology recreate the 1918 virus. They recovered the genome information from a flu victim who had been buried in Alaskan permafrost since 1918.

Jan. 2004: A new H5N1 outbreak occurs in the poultry industries of Vietnam and Thailand. Within weeks, it spreads to ten countries in Asia.

March 2004: The outbreak is contained.

July 2004: New outbreaks in poultry are confirmed in the Ayutthaya and Pathumthani provinces of Thailand as well as Chaohu city in Anhui, China.

Aug. 2004: H5N1 is confirmed in two chickens in Kampung Pasir, Kelantan, Malaysia. Singapore imposes a ban on the importation of chickens and poultry products. The EU imposes a ban on Malaysian poultry products. The Malaysian government culls all poultry within a 10km radius of the outbreak.

Jan. 2005: H5N1 is found in 33 out of 64 cities and provinces in Vietnam, leading to the elimination of nearly 1.2 million poultry.

July 21, 2005: By this date, 109 cases of human infection have been confirmed and 55 deaths have occurred outside of China. Thirteen countries across Asia and Europe have been affected. More than 120 million birds have died from infection or have been exterminated.

Aug. 2005: A bird flu outbreak occurs in Kazakhstan and six regions in the Asian part of Russia.

Sept. 29, 2005: Dr. David Nabarro of the World Health Organization (WHO) calls on world governments to take immediate steps to address the bird flu threat, saying as many as 150 million people may die in the event of an H5N1 pandemic.

Oct. 6, 2005: President Bush summons vaccine manufacturers to a White House meeting in the hopes of encouraging them to step up their quest to create a bird flu vaccine.

Oct. 7, 2005: Swiss drug maker Roche urges consumers not to buy its flu drug Tamiflu over the Internet, warning of the risk of counterfeit pills.

Oct. 17, 2005: Greece announces its first case of bird flu, making it the first country in the European Union to report infection.

Oct. 18, 2005: Swiss drug company Roche says it will consider granting other companies licenses to make the anti-viral drug Tamiflu.

Oct. 25, 2005: It is confirmed that a parrot infected with bird flu died in quarantine in Britain. It is the first known case in Britain.

Oct. 29, 2005: Bird flu is discovered in Croatian birds.

Nov. 3, 2005: A U.S. envoy urges caution in banning foreign poulty imports, saying it could discourage countries from reporting bird flu.

Nov. 4, 2005: China and Taiwan announce the deaths of thousands more birds from H5N1.

Nov. 5, 2005: A 19-year-old Indonesian woman dies of bird flu. Her 8-year-old brother is also hospitalized with the virus.

---
Learn more: Bird Flu News at HealthDiaries.com

540 A.D.: An outbreak of Plague occurs at Pelusium, Egypt.

542 A.D. Plague reaches Constantinople.

1334: Plague occurs in Constantinople, then spreads throughout Europe.

1345: Plague occurs in the lower Volga River basin.

1347: Plague again reaches Constantinople.

Fall 1347: It reaches Alexandria, Cyprus, and Sicily.

Winter 1347: Reaches Italy.

Jan. 1348: Reaches France and Germany.

May 1349: Reaches Norway.

1350: Reaches Eastern Europe.

Sept. 1348: The Plague reaches London.

1349: The Plague reaches Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.

1351: Reaches Russia.

1353: Giovanni Boccaccio finishes writing The Decameron, a fictional narrative that opens with a description of the 1348 outbreak of Black Death in Florence, Italy.

May 1665: The Great Plague of London begins, with 43 people dying of plague by May.

June 1665: 6,137 people die by June.

July 1665: 17,036 people die by July.

Aug. 1665: 31,159 people die by August.

1666: The Great Fire of London destroys most of the rats and fleas that carry the plague bacillus.

1679: The plague devastates central Europe. There is a small outbreak in England - the last outbreak England will ever see.

1711: Plague breaks out in Austria.

1722: Daniel Defoe publishes A Journal of the Plague Year, a fictional recounting of the great Plague of London in 1665.

1770: The Balkans battle the Plague for two years.

1855: A major pandemic, known as the Third Pandemic, begins in China and spreads throughout the world, with China and India affected the most. Overall, this pandemic brings death to more than 12 million people.

1877: The pandemic flares up again in Russia, China, and India.

1889: The Third Pandemic finally comes to an end.

1894: Working independently, bacteriologists Alexandre Yersin and Shibasaburo Kitasato both isolate the bacterium that causes bubonic Plague. Yersin discovers that rodents are the mode of infection. The bacterium is named Yersinia pestis after Yersin.

1896: The pandemic in China and India is over.

1900: Outbreaks of Plague occur in Portugal and Australia.

1910: In Manchuria, 60,000 people die due to pneumonic Plague over the course of a year.

1920: Again in Manchuria, about 60,000 people die of Plague.

1947: Albert Camus publishes The Plague, a novel about a fictional outbreak of plague in Oran, Algeria.

Summer 1994: 5,000 cases of pneumonic Plague occur in Surat, India, killing approximately 100 people.

Sept. 2005: Three mice infected with Bubonic Plague disappear from a laboratory at the Public Health Research Institute on the campus of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.