Today in History

This day in 1953, Dr. Jonas E. Salk announced a vaccine had been used safely and successfully in preliminary trials on 90 children and adults as a polio vaccine, two years later the vaccine was released and given to every child in the United States.

Poliomyelitis ( Polio ) was one of the most dreaded illnesses which killed or paralyzed thousands during the early 20th century and following World War II the number of cases of Polio increased significantly making the need for a cure or a vaccine to protect against the disease even more important.

Much of the funding for Dr. Jonas E. Salk research came from March Of Dimes Foundation ( National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis ) which had been set up under the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938 to raise money for polio research and to care for those suffering from the disease.