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Smoke signals from science finally pierced the haze of American denial. A panel
Featured Event 1964 Event

January 11

Surgeon General Links Smoking to Cancer: Health Revolution

Smoke signals from science finally pierced the haze of American denial. A panel of doctors, led by Luther Terry, dropped a bomb on the tobacco industry: cigarettes were killing people. Not maybe. Not potentially. Definitively. Their landmark report linked smoking to lung cancer, bronchitis, and a host of other deadly conditions. Big Tobacco's carefully constructed myth of harmlessness crumbled in 129 pages of medical evidence. And the nation would never look at a cigarette the same way again.

January 11, 1964

62 years ago

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