Today in History, July 25th
On July 25, 1978, Louise Brown, the world's first IVF baby, was born in England. Plus Mussolini's fall from power and Bob Dylan going electric at Newport.
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July 25 is best known for 1978, when Louise Brown, the world’s first baby conceived through in vitro fertilization, was born in England. The date also saw Italy’s Grand Council vote Benito Mussolini out of power in 1943 and Bob Dylan go electric at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.
The big story: The first “test tube” baby is born (1978)
Lesley Brown had spent years unable to conceive because her fallopian tubes were blocked. In November 1977, gynecologist Patrick Steptoe and scientist Robert Edwards, who had been working together for about a decade, tried something new. They took an egg from one of her ovaries, fertilized it with her husband Peter’s sperm in a lab dish and placed the embryo in her uterus a few days later. Shortly before midnight on July 25, 1978, at Oldham and District General Hospital near Manchester, England, doctors delivered Louise Joy Brown by cesarean section. She weighed 5 pounds, 12 ounces. Despite the “test tube” nickname, no test tube was the star of the show. The birth set off a media frenzy and hard legal and ethical questions about making life in a laboratory. The Browns later had a second daughter the same way, and both girls grew up to have children of their own, conceived naturally. In vitro fertilization became a mainstream fertility treatment, and hundreds of thousands of children around the world have been born through it.
More events on July 25
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1832 | A cable snapped on the Granite Railway near Quincy, Massachusetts, in what is believed to be the first U.S. railroad accident. |
| 1898 | U.S. forces under General Nelson A. Miles invaded Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War. |
| 1917 | A French court sentenced the dancer Mata Hari to death for allegedly spying for Germany. |
| 1943 | Italy’s Grand Council voted Benito Mussolini out of power, and he was arrested after meeting King Victor Emmanuel III. |
| 1953 | New York City’s subway fare rose from 10 to 15 cents, and the city introduced its first subway tokens. |
| 1956 | The Italian liner Andrea Doria and the Swedish liner Stockholm collided in fog off Nantucket, killing 51 people. |
| 1961 | In a televised address, President John F. Kennedy urged Americans to prepare for a possible nuclear attack, including by building fallout shelters. |
| 1965 | Bob Dylan played with an electric rock band at the Newport Folk Festival and was booed by part of the crowd. |
| 1969 | President Richard Nixon announced the Nixon Doctrine, which expected U.S. allies in Asia to take on their own defense. |
| 1985 | Actor Rock Hudson announced he had AIDS, the first major celebrity to do so. |
| 1992 | The Summer Olympics opened in Barcelona, the first Games open to professional athletes. |
| 2000 | An Air France Concorde crashed on takeoff outside Paris, killing all 109 people aboard and four on the ground. |
Born on July 25
- 1844: Thomas Eakins, American realist painter, born in Philadelphia.
- 1920: Rosalind Franklin, British scientist whose X-ray work helped reveal the structure of DNA, born in London.
- 1954: Walter Payton, Hall of Fame Chicago Bears running back nicknamed “Sweetness,” born in Columbia, Mississippi.
Sources
- World’s first “test tube” baby born, History.com
- This Day in History: July 25, History.com
- On This Day: July 25, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Thomas Eakins, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Rosalind Franklin, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Walter Payton, Encyclopaedia Britannica
