Modern Era · Africa · Science

1967

First heart transplant

December 3, 1967

In a Cape Town hospital, Christiaan Barnard transferred the heart of a young car-accident victim into the chest of a fifty-three-year-old grocer. The patient lived eighteen days before pneumonia killed him. A symbolic barrier had been crossed. Within a decade heart transplants would become, if not routine, at least possible in most major hospitals.

More from 1967 Modern Era

In context

Also in 1967 (5 other events on record)

Six-Day War · Middle East · War
Sgt. Pepper released · Europe · Culture
Biafran War begins · Africa · War
Che Guevara killed in Bolivia · South America · Politics
Detroit rebellion · North America · Politics

Before and after in Africa

Before: 1964: Mandela sent to Robben Island
After: September 1, 1969: Gaddafi seizes Libya

Before and after in Science

Before: January 1964: Cigarettes declared dangerous
After: 1974: Lucy discovered in Ethiopia

Era

Modern Era (1901–2000), one of 590 events from that era on Saeculum.