Table of Contents

History of Microbiology

Before 1600 1600-1699 1700-1749 1750-1799 1800-1849

1850-1859 1860-1869 1870-1879 1880-1889 1890-1899

1900-1909 1910-1919 1920-1929 1930-1939 1940-1949

1950-1959 1960-1969 1970-1979 1980-1989 1990-1999

2000-2009

Pre-1600

Before 1600

1215 King John of England signs

the Magna Carta (the first set of
1096 Holy Roman Empire written, democratic laws)
begins the Crusades 1596 First
flush toilet
1120 First 1429 Joan of Arc leads the
restaurant (China) French army against British
Ancient invaders
Egyptians Ancient Roman Empire

" A.D. 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600

B.C. !
Ancient Egyptians
develop methods of 600 A.D. Mayans make
embalming fermented beverage from 1348 Black Death
cacao (chocolate) Kills 1/3 of
European
Ancient Romans develop population
ideas about contagious
1590 Janssen
particles. They also perform
Develops
first recorded acts of
compound
biological warfare--they
microscope
dumped rotting corpses into
the water supplies of their
4300 B.C. Babylonian enemies.
clay tablets have beer
recipes
 1600

1600-1699

1603 Shakespeare 1620 The Mayflower

publishes Hamlet lands at Plymouth Rock
1692 Salem Witch
Trials
1610 Galileo says 1666 Newton
the Earth revolves describes The
around the Sun Law of Gravity

1600 1610 1620 1630 1640 1650 1660 1670 1680 1690 1700

1665 Robert Hooke views

cork through a microscope-
-coins the term “cell.”

1668 Francesco Redi performs the first documented

controlled scientific experiment. Covers meat with
cheese cloth, and leaves other pieces of meet
uncovered. Uncovered meat, exposed to flies, 1674 Anton von Leeuwenhoek
develops maggots. Covered meat does not develop becomes first person to view living
maggots. Redi concludes that adult flies are microorganisms. This marks the
necessary for the production of maggots. This is the beginning of Microbiology.
first major blow to the theory of spontaneous
generation.

1700

1705 Edmund Halley uses 1700-1749

Newtonian laws of motion to
predict the return of the comet 1718 Blackbeard the
that bears his name. Pirate is killed.
1726 Bartolomeo Cristofori
1712 An early steam engine is develops the piano.
installed at an English coal 1726 Jonathon Swift
mine. This marks the publishes Gulliver’s Travels
beginning of the First Industrial 1732 Benjamin Franklin
Revolution. begins publication of Poor
Richards Almanac

1700 1710 1720 1730 1740 1750

1735 Linnaeus develops a taxonomy

and a naming system (binomial
nomenclature) for organisms.

1745 John Needham shows that boiled

broth that cools down overnight
becomes richly contaminated with
microorganisms. He forcefully argues
the microbes must be borne from the
broth. He publishes a formal
presentation of the Theory of
Spontaneous Generation
 1750

1750-1799

1789 Mutiny on
the HMS Bounty
1756 Wolfgang Amadeus 1776 Declaration of
Mozart is born Independence is signed
1789 French Revolution
1752 Benjamin Franklin 1787 U.S. Constitution
flies a kite in a storm to 1770 Ludwig von is signed into law
investigate the electrical Beethoven is born
nature of lightning.

1750 1760 1770 1780 1790 1800

1767 Lazzaro Spallanzani performs
experiments with boiled and unboiled
gravy. He shows that boiled gravy will
only spoil if exposed to air. He concludes
that spontaneous generation cannot be
correct.
1798 Edward Jenner performs the first
vaccinations against smallpox. He collects
the pus from cowpox blisters on the hands
of milkmaids. He contaminates a lance
with this pus and then cuts the skin of
children.

1800

1800 Johnny Appleseed arrives in 1800-1849

the Ohio River Valley 1848 Marx and Engels
publish the Communist
1800 Washington D.C. is established
Manifesto
as the capital of the U.S.A.
1818 Mary Shelley 1844 Samuel Morse develops
publishes Frankenstein the first telegraph line.

1812 Development of 1848 Women’s

the first canned foods suffrage movement
1826 Photography is invented
begins in England

1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850

1829 England installs

first municipal water
filtration system

1835 Agostino Bassi proves that a 1840 Ignaz Semmelweis puts

fungus is the cause of silkworm forth the revolutionary idea that
disease. physicians should wash their
hands when assisting in
childbirth.
 1850

1850-1859

1857 U.S. Suprreme Court announces the

Dred Scott decision: free (non-slave)
1851 The first YMCA states do not have the authority to deprive
citizens of their property (slaves) 1859 Charles Darwin
opens in Boston publishes the Origin of Species
1852 Otis
invents the
1857 City of Vancouver,
elevator
Washington is established

1850 1852 1854 1856 1858 1860

1854 John Snow identifies

contaminated water as the
cause of a cholera epidemic in
England
1857 Louis Pasteur determines that
yeast cause fermentation of wine and 1858 Rudolf Virchow develops
develops the process of the formal theory that life arises
pasteurization that saves the French only from pre-existing life (later
wine industry. This marks the to be called “biogenesis”.)
beginning of the Golden Age of
Microbiology--a period of explosive
growth of knowledge of microbes
(1857-1914).

1860

1860-1869

1869 Mendeleey develops

the Periodic Table of
1866 Gregor Mendel publishes
Elements
a study on the inheritance of
1865 President Abraham
characteristics in pea plants
Lincoln is assassinated

1861 Civil War begins

1865 End of the 1869 The
Civil War Transcontinental
Railroad connects East and
West U.S.A

1860 1862 1864 1866 1868 1870

1861 Louis Pasteur, studying

fermentation by yeast, coins the
terms aerobic and anaerobic. 1867 Joseph Lister uses phenol
(carbolic acid) to treat surgical
1861 Louis Pasteur provides the final 1866 Given the discovery of microscopic wounds. This reduced infection
disproof of the theory of spontaneous organisms, Ernst Haeckel proposes a third from surgery dramatically and
generation. He maintains boiled broth Kingdom of Life: The Protista. served as proof that surgical
in a swan-necked flask, open to the air, infections are caused by
for many days without contamination. microorganisms.
 1870

1870-1879
1879 Woolworth
stores open
1871 Mrs.O’Leary’s cow
knocks over a lantern and 1876 Thomas Edison invents
starts the Great Chicago Fire. the incandescent light bulb

1872 Yellowstone becomes the 1876 Alexander Graham

world’s first National Park. Bell invents the telephone
1872 Jules Verne publishes
Around the World in Eighty
Days

1870 1872 1874 1876 1878 1880

1872 Ferdinand Cohn 1879 Neisser identifies the causative agent

describes the roles of bacteria in of gonorrhea (Neisseria gonorrhoeae).
the cycling of elements in This may be the first case where a microbe
nature. is implicated as the cause of a chronic
disease.

1870 Thomas Huxley, one of the most
prominent biologists of the time, coins the terms
“biogenesis” (life from pre-existing life) and
“abiogenesis” (life from nonliving materials).
He provides powerful support for Pasteur’s
claim that spontaneous generation (abiogenesis)
had been disproved.
1876 Robert Koch, studying the disease, anthrax,
validates the Germ Theory of Disease--the idea that
diseases are caused by infectious agents (not by other
forces such as evil spirits). This is also the first use of
the rigorous steps in pathogen identification known as
Koch’s Postulates.

1880

1880-1889

1887 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

1882 Bank robber Jesse publishes A study in Scarlet (the
James is shot and killed first Sherlock Holmes book)

1881 Clara Barton founds 1885 Sir Francis Galton proves 1889 Washington becomes the
the American Red Cross the individuality of fingerprints 42nd state in the Union

1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1890

1885 Pasteur develops a 1887 Petri develops the

1880 Pasteur
develops a vaccine for
chicken cholera. This
is the first attenuated
vaccine.
1881 Koch develops the
concept of achieving pure
cultures using solid media.
1882 The Hess’ working
in Koch’s lab, develops
agar as a solid medium.
vaccine for rabies. petri plate for use with
soild culture media
1884 Elie Metchnikoff describes
phagocytosis (ingestion of solid
1883 Koch identifies Vibrio
materials by cells)
cholerae as the causative agent of
1884 Escherich identifies
cholera.
Escherichia coli
1882 Koch identifies
Mycobacterium tuberculosis as 1884 Hans Christian Gram
the causative agent of develops the Gram Stain.
tuberculosis.
1884 Koch formalizes Koch’s Postulates-
-the set of steps required to identify the
causative agent of a disease.
 1890

1890-1899

1895 Roentgen discovers

X-rays
1896 Chop suey is invented in
New York City

1897 Bram Stoker

publishes Dracula

1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900

1897 Buchner discovers that

1892 Welch and Nuttall identify fermentation can be accomplished
Clostridium perfringens as the with a cell-free yeast extract. This
causative agent of gangrene. launches the field of enzymology.
1891 Paul Ehrlich proposes 1892 Ivanowski launches the field of virology when
that antibodies are he discovers the existence of the filterability of an
responsible for immunity. “invisible” (not seen through a microscope) 1899 Ross describes the
1890 Sergei Winogradsky performs the pathogenic agent. life cycle of the malaria
definitive work on the microorganisms parasite.
responsible for nitrification in nature. 1899 The Society of American Bacteriologists
1890 von Behring and Kitasato (later renamed the American Society of
develop a process for producing Microbiologists) is organized. This is the
diphtheria antitoxin. This is the first oldest scientific society in America.
directed approach to therapy of
infectious disease.

1900

1900-1909

1900 Sigmund Freud publishes

The Interpretation of Dreams
1906 Kellogg’s Corn Flakes is introduced

1903 Orville and Wilbur 1907 Leo Baekeland

Wright fly the first airplane develops plastic

1905 Albert Einstein publishes the 1908 Henry Ford develops the
1901 Marconi develops automobile assembly line.
the wireless radio Theory of Relativity (E = mc2)

1900 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910

1906 Sohngen shows 1907 Smith and

1904 Koning suggests that fungi that bacteria can use Townsend discover that
play important roles in the methane as an energy the bacterium,
decomposition of organic matter and and carbon source. Agrobacterium, is
the formation of humus (topsoil). responsible for the plant
1905 Schaudinn and tumor disease called
1901 Wildiers discovers that a water-soluble Hoffman identify
extract of yeast is needed for the growth of yeast. crown gall.
Treponema pallidum as
This is the first evidence of an essential growth the causative agent of 1909 Ricketts shows that Rocky
factor (later found to be a B vitamin). This syphilis. Mountain spotted fever is caused
discovery launches the filed of vitamin research. by Rickettsia, an organisms
1905 Ishiwata discovers that
1900 Walter Reed and colleagues silkworm disease is caused by intermediate in size between
show that a virus, transmitted by the bacterium Bacillus viruses and bacteria. Ricketts later
mosquitoes, causes Yellow Fever. thuringiensis (now an dies of typhus, another rickettsial
This is the first human disease for important insecticide). disease.
which a virus is implicated.
 1910

1910-1919
1918 World War I
1912 The Titanic sinks on its ends
maiden voyage 1914 World War I 1919 The 18th
begins Amendment to the
1914 The Panama Canal is
Constitution begins the
completed. It connects the
Prohibition of alcoholic
Pacific and Atlantic Oceans 1917 The Russian Revolution beverages.
ends the reign of Czars and
begins the Communist regime.

1910 1912 1914 1916 1918 1920

1912 Paul Ehrlich announces the 1919 Blood agar is

discovery of an effective cure used for the first time.
(Salvarsan) for syphilis. This is the Hemolytic ability is
first specific chemotherapeutic 1915 McCrady develops the used to separate three
agent. fecal coliform test as a types of Streptococcus
method for bacteriological species.
1911 Rous discovers that a virus causes cancer analysis of water quality.
in chickens. This is the first evidence that an
infectious agent can cause animal cancer.
1918 Worldwide influenza epidemic kills
1910 Nicolle shows that typhus fever is transmitted more than 20 million people.
from person to person by body lice. This
information is used to reduce incideence of typhus
in both world wars.

1920

1920-1929
1920 The 19th Amendment to the Constitution
guarantees women the right to vote. 1927 Charles Lindbergh becomes the first 1928 Mickey Mouse is born
person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

1925 The Scopes Monkey Trial focuses 1928 The first

public attention on the teaching of evolution television broadcast
in public schools. 1929 The stock market
crashes initiating the
Great Depression

1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930

1928 Frederick Griffith discovers Transformation in

bacteria. This is the founding event in the field of
Molecular Genetics. His discovery leads to the eventual
understanding that DNA is the genetic material.
1929 Alexander Fleming discovers the first antibiotic, penicillin.
Fleming makes this discovery by accident. He is searching for
antimicrobial chemicals and uses Staphylococcus cultures to test these
chemicals. He leaves some of these bacterial cultures on the lab bench
1923 D.H. Bergey publishes the first when he goes on vacation. Upon returning, he sees that some of his
definitive manual on the cultures are contaminated with a fungus called Penicillium. He
characterization and classification of notices that there are no bacteria growing near Penicillium.
bacteria.
 1930

1930-1939

1931 The Empire State

Building opens
1939 The movies, Gone with the Wind
1933 The 21st Amendment to the and The Wizard of Oz are released
Constitution ends Prohibition

1933 Adolf Hitler ascends to 1937 The Hindenburg

power in the Nazi Party in explodes over New Jersey
1935 Social Security
Germany
is established

1930 1932 1934 1936 1938 1940

1934 The electron 1938 Theiler produces a

microscope is invented. successful vaccine against yellow
fever.
1935 Domagk discovers the
antimetabolic antibiotic, Prontosil,
1931 van Niel shows that some photosynthetic as a treatment against
bacteria use reduced compounds, for example Streptococcus.
H2S, as a source of electrons. He posits that
plants use H2O as an electron source. He also
begins the first General Microbiology course.

1940

1940-1949

1941 Pearl Harbor is bombed drawing 1945 U.S.A. drops atomic

the Unitedd States into World War II bombs on Hiroshima and
1945 President Franklin
D. Roosevelt dies Nagasaki ending World War II
1942 Japanese-Americans are
relocated to internment camps.

1944 D-Day: the invasion of 1947 Jackie Robinson becomes the first
Normandy by Allied forces. black player in Major League Baseball.

1940 1942 1944 1946 1948 1950

1942 The term “antibiotic” 1947 Selman Waksman publishes a

comes into existence.
1941 Beadle and Tatum publish studies on
the relationship between genes and enzymes.
This leads to the understanding that genes
encode enzymes (more generally, proteins).
1940 Chain and Abraham describe a
substance, produced by E. coli, that inactivates
penicillin. This is the first evidence that 1944 Avery, MacLeod, and
antibiotic-resistant bacteria can develop.
1940 Florey and Chain
produce an extract of penicillin.
Along with Fleming, they win
the 1945 Nobel Prize in
Medicine and Physiology.
comprehensive definition of the word
antibiotic: “a chemical substance produced
by microbes that inhibits the growth of and
even destroys other microbes.”
1946 Lederberg and Tatum show
that bacteria can reproduce
sexually (conjugation). Thus,
McCarty show that Griffith’s
bacteria can exchange genes.
(1928) transforming factor is
DNA. This discovery causes
most biologists to accept that
DNA is the genetic material.
 1950

1950-1959
1950 Senator Joseph McCarthy begins
an anti-communist campaign that ruins
1955 The first 1959 Alaska and Hawaii become the
the lives and careers of dozens of
McDonalds opens 49th and 50th States.
American citizens.
1955 Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus
1950 Korean War begins seat to a white man. This is a defining
1954 Racial segregation in schools is moment in the Civil Rights Movement.
declared unconstitutional.
1959 Fidel Castro rises to
power in Cuba.

1950 1952 1954 1956 1958 1960

1952 Lederberg and Lederberg

develop the method of replica 1953 Jonas Salk begins preliminary
plating. testing of a polio vaccine.
1959 Finland, Jones, and
Barnes comment on the
1953 James Watson and Francis Crick develop the
potential for antibiotic
three-dimensional model of DNA structure. This
resistance.
molecular structure immediately causes biologists to
understand that DNA is the genetic material. The 1958 Matthew Meselson and
publication of these results ignites an explosion in Frank Stahl show the semi-
growth of knowledge and application of genetic conservative nature of DNA
principles. replication.

1960

1960-1969

1961 Russian cosmonaut, Yuri

Gagarin, becomes the first
1965 The Beatles hold the Top Five 1969 Neil Armstrong becomes
human in space.
spots on the rock and roll top forty. the first human to walk on the
1962 Rachel Carson moon.
publishes Silent Spring
1968 Dr. Martin Luther King,
1963 President John F. Jr. is assassinated
Kennedy is assassinated

1960 1962 1964 1966 1968 1970

1961 Nirenberg and Matthaei 1965 Linus Pauling suggests that

synthesizea poly-U RNA. They
find this RNA directs the
synthesis of a protein containing
only phenylalanine. They
conclude that UUU encodes
phenylalanine. This is the start
of the efforts to decipher the
genetic code.
1961 Francois Jacob and Jacques
Monod develop the lac operon model.
This is the first determination of a
mechanism by which an environmental
cue turns on/off a gene.
DNA can be used to understand
evolutionary relationships and to
identify microorganisms.
1964 Epstein, Achong, and 1969 Robert Whittaker
Barr show that a virus (EBV) proposes the five-kingdom
can cause cancer in humans. system with the addition of
the Kingdom Fungi.
1968 Prokaryotae, proposed
by Murray, is accepted as
fourth Kingdom.
 1970

1970-1979

1970 Four students are killed during an anti- 1976 The United States 1979 Professor
war protest at Kent State University. celebrates its bicentennial. Kibota obtains his
1976 The Pet Rock drivers license.
1973 U.S. troop evacuation of
Vietnam ends in the fall of Saigon 1978 Jessica Louise Brown,
the world’s first test tube
1971 The 21st Amendment to the 1974 Richard Nixon resigns baby is born.
Constitution lowers the voting age to the Presidency in the wake of
18 years old. the Watergate Scandal. 1977 Star
Wars is
released.

1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980

1975 The Asilomar Conference 1979 Smalllpox is

gathers the top geneticists to
discuss the ethics of the
developing technologies of
genetic engineering.
1973 Berg, Boyer, and Cohen
1977 Bishop and Varmus
produce the first genetically-
discover retroviral oncogenes
engineered organisms.
(cancer-causing genes)
1971 Nathans, Smith, and Arber
discover restriction enzymes. This 1977 Sanger develops a method
discovery sets off the age of genetic for determining the nucleotide
engineering. sequence of DNA
declared officially
eliminated.
1978 Using genetic analysis of
ribosomal RNAs, Woese discovers
unusual procaryotes called Archaea (or
Archaeobacteria). He finds these
organisms to be so genetically distinct
(compared to other procaryotes and to
the eucaryotes) that he suggests a new
taxonomic grouping above Kingdom,
The Domain.

1980

1980-1989

1980 Mount Saint Helens erupts. 1984 Geraldine Ferraro

becomes the first female 1986 The space shuttle, Challenger,
1980 John Lennon is Vice Presidential explodes after lift-off.
shot and killed. candidate.
1980 The Cabbage Patch 1989 The Berlin
craze. Wall is torn down.
1983 The internet is established.

1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990

1988 Kary Mullis develops the

1982 Prusiner discovers a new type of
infectious agent--an infectious protein
called a prion--that is responsible for the
sheep disease, scrapie.
1981 Margulis formalizes the
Endosymbiotic Theory of
Organelle Evolution.
method of DNA amplification called
Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).
1984 Marshall demonstrates 1986 Beachy and Fraley show
that a bacterium, Helicobacter that when plants are transformed
pylori, causes peptic ulcers. with the gene of a coat protein of
tobacco mosaic virus, the plants
1983 Montaigner and Gallo identifies the
become resistant to the virus. This
Human Immunodeficiency Virus as the
opens the new field of plant
cause of AIDS.
immuno-genetics.
 1990

1990-1999
1990 The invasion of Kuwait
by Iraq leads the U.S.A. into
the Persian Gulf War. 1994 O.J. Simpson is 1995 The Federal Building in 1999 The U.S. Senate holds
arrested for the murders of Oklahoma City is bombed. impeachment hearings against
Nicole Brown Simpson President Bill Clinton.
1992 Riots break out in Los and Ronald Goldman.
Angeles after a not guilty
verdict in the trial of police 1996 Scottish scientists produce
officers charged in the a cloned sheep they name Dolly.
beating of Rodney King.

1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000

1999 Schulz identifies largest
bacterium Thiomargarita.
1998 Giovanoni finds a gene from an
unknown organism in sea water. Upon
1993 Schopf 1995 Venter and
further searching, this unknown organism is
demonstrates that colleagues elucidate the
ubiquitous and may be the most abundant
cyanobacteria-like first complete genome
organism on Earth.
organisms had evolved 1994 Cano cultures sequence--Haemophilus
3.46 billion years ago. bacteria from endospores in influenza.
40 million year old 1996 NASA scientists
material. 1996 Kibota and Lynch estimate the E. coli find bacteria-like
genomic rate of deleterious mutations at fossils in rocks from
1993 W. French Anderson leads
about 1 in 10,000 cell divisions. This leads Mars.
first successful gene therapy.
the world’s biologists to re-think the
meaning of life.

2000

2000-2010
2000 Al Gore wins the popular
vote but George W. Bush wins in 2002 The U.S. goes to war
the electoral college to become in Afghanistan and
President of the United States. subsequently in Iraq.

2003 Krispy Kreme comes to

September 11, 2001 Terrorists Portland-Vancouver
hijack airplanes and crash into the
World Trade Center buildings, the
Pentagon, and a field in
Pennsylvania.

2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010

2000 Artnzen and 2003 After 10 years of

colleagues develop the
first edible vaccine--a
genetically-modified
potato containing part of
the Norwalk virus.
work, the first phase of
The Human Genome
Project--the sequencing
of the entire human
genome--is completed.

2003 A new, mysterious

respiratory disease
(SARS) that kills
healthy young adults
becomes epidemic.