Medical milestones, landmark publications, and notable births and deaths associated with January 26.

Events

1961 – President John F. Kennedy appoints Dr Janet G. Travell (1901-1997) as his personal physician, making her the first woman in history to hold the post.

---

Births

1886 – Fidel Pagés Miravé (1886-1923), Spanish military surgeon. Enduring place in anaesthesia history with his 1921 paper describing “anestesia metamérica”, a lumbar perimeningeal/epidural technique aimed at segmental blockade

---

Deaths

1878 – Ernst Heinrich Weber (1795-1878), German anatomist, physiologist, and pioneering experimental psychologist. Described the Weber test (1834), Weber law, and Weber’s Two-Point Threshold

1918 – Ludwig Edinger (1855-1918), German neurologist; described Edinger–Westphal nucleus (1885)

1925 – Sir James Mackenzie (1853-1925), Scottish general practitioner and cardiologist responsible for Mackenzie’s puzzle, the Ink Polygraph and the Birth of Modern Cardiology

1999 – William Edward Hunt (1921-1999), American neurologist and neurosurgeon. Described Tolosa-Hunt syndrome (1961) and the Hunt-Hess Scale (1968)

---

Further reading

• President Kennedy appoints first female presidential physician
• Wilson VP. Janet G. Travell, MD: a daughter’s recollection. Tex Heart Inst J. 2003;30(1):8-12.
• Travell J. Office Hours: Day and Night. The Autobiography of Janet Travell, M.D. 1968