Salk Vaccine Tested: 1.8 Million Children Unite
Over 1.8 million school children swallowed the Salk polio vaccine in a massive field trial that mobilized more Americans than any presidential election. This unprecedented public participation funded development through the March of Dimes and proved the vaccine's safety, effectively ending the terror of paralytic polio across the nation.
February 23, 1954
72 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on February 23
Diocletian's soldiers arrived at the church in Nicomedia on February 23, 303, stripped the building, and burned every manuscript they could find. No bloodshed t…
Justinian ordered the Hagia Sophia built after rioters burned down the previous church during the Nika riots — the same riots where he nearly fled the city unti…
Khosrow II lost an empire because he refused to believe his generals. The Sasanian shah had ruled for 38 years, conquered Egypt and Syria, laid siege to Constan…
Wu Zetian ruled China for fifteen years as its only female emperor. She'd clawed her way from concubine to empress to sovereign, killing rivals, promoting schol…
Johannes Gutenberg's workshop in Mainz unleashed the first Western book printed with movable type, shattering the monopoly on knowledge held by scribes and mona…
Lautaro had been a Spanish stable boy. He'd fed their horses, watched their drills, learned how they fought. At Marihueñu, he used that knowledge. He let the Sp…
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