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1873
 March 10: In his letter to the trustees of The Johns Hopkins Hospital setting forth the principles they are to follow, Johns Hopkins states that the hospital must provide for "The indigent sick of this city and its environs, without regard to sex, age, or color, who may require surgical or medical treatment, and who can be received into the Hospital without peril to other inmates."
Hopkins leaves $7 million, mostly in Baltimore & Ohio Railroad stock, to establish his namesake institutions. This sum is the single largest philanthropic donation ever made to educational institutions at that time. The bequest is used to found the Johns Hopkins Colored Children Orphan Asylum first as Hopkins requested, in 1875, the Johns Hopkins University in 1876, the Johns Hopkins Press (the longest continuously operating academic press in America) in 1878, the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in 1889, and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1893.
1876
Johns Hopkins opens as America’s first research university through the generosity of Baltimore merchant and investor Johns Hopkins, whose $7 million bequest in 1873 provided for the establishment of a university and hospital that would bear his name. His gift was the largest single act of private philanthropy in U.S. history to that time.
Mr. Hopkins had been inspired by the example of his good friend, philanthropist George Peabody. The Peabody Conservatory -- founded in 1857 as America's first conservatory of music -- grew from a local academy to an internationally renowned cultural center. It would go on to become part of the Johns Hopkins University in 1977.
1878
Mathematics professor J.J. Sylvester edits the inaugural issue of American
Journal of Mathematics, published by the forerunner to the Johns
Hopkins University Press.
1879
Chemistry professor Ira Remsen -- one of the five original faculty members who would later serve as the university's second president -- co-discovers sweetening agent saccharine. He also edits the first issue of American Chemical Journal, acknowledged as "the first really scientific journal of research chemistry in America."
June: George W. McCreary, A. Chase Palmer, and Edward H. Spieker receive bachelor of arts degrees as the first graduates of The Johns Hopkins University.
1880
Basil L. Gildersleeve -- who incidentally rode with famed Civil War cavalry commander Jeb Stuart and who gave Johns Hopkins' first lecture, on Greek lyric poetry -- founds the American
Journal of Philology, which he would edit for 40 years.
1882
Historian Herbert Baxter Adams leads in creation of American Historical
Association. The AHA, established in 1884, would become the largest association of historicans in the United States. In addition to Herbert Baxter Adams, presidents would include Henry Adams, Charles Homer Haskins, Theodore Roosevelt, Johns Hopkins alumnus Woodrow Wilson, and in 2008, alumnus and faculty member Gabrielle Spiegel.
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1887
 Kelly Mller, the first African-American student to enroll at Johns Hopkins, begins his studies for a graduate degree in mathematics. Miller leaves two years later, when the university's economic crisis prompts a 25% increase in tuition. He later acquires a faculty position at Howard University, where he serves as professor of mathematics and dean of arts and sciences. He is a prolific writer and advocate for African-American rights and education. Kelly Miller, W.E.B. DuBois, and Booker T. Washington are called by some “the Big Three” of Negro leadership during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
1889
America’s first true teaching hospital opens at Johns Hopkins, revolutionizing
medical education and practice in the United States.
1890
 Five Baltimore women, four of them daughters of Hopkins trustees, organize the Women's Fund Committee. Martha Carey Thomas, Mary Elizabeth Garrett, Mary Gwinn, Elizabeth King, and Julia Rogers intend to raise money needed to establish the university's School of Medicine, with the condition that the school aspire to the highest academic standards and admit women on the same terms as men.
William Stewart Halsted, the hospital's first surgeon in chief, pioneers use of rubber gloves during surgery. He is reported to have developed the latex glove to protect the hands of his scrub nurse from harsh antiseptics in widespread use as disinfectants. More than a century later, in an effort to make medical care safer for patients and health care workers, the Johns Hopkins Hospital would become the first major medical center to become "latex safe" by ending all use of latex gloves. It was at Hopkins that immunologists conducted early research related to the problems of natural rubber latex as an allergen.
1894
Two Baltimore women open the first music school for city’s children,
the precursor to the Peabody Preparatory.
1916
Peabody faculty members and graduates form the core of the Baltimore Symphony
Orchestra, which plays its first concert.
1920s
Physics professor Henry Rowland conducts spectroscopic investigations,
contributing to formulation of quantum theory.
Engineering and public health professor Abel Wolman develops a chlorination
system to make drinking water safe, lessening the devastating impact of
such diseases as cholera and typhoid.
Public health pioneer and biochemistry professor E.V. McCollum discovers
vitamin D and A, leading eventually to the end of rickets and blindness
from xerophthalmia in the U.S.
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1944
  
Surgeon Alfred Blalock and laboratory technician Vivien Thomas -- inspired by the work of pediatric cardiologist Helen Taussig -- devise a means to correct a congenital heart defect that suffocates infants, turning them blue. The "blue-baby operation" broke the last barrier to operating directly on the heart, long considered taboo and an impossibility, and ushered in a new era in heart surgery. Thirty years later, Thomas -- a carpenter who taught himself the skills that led him to become Blalock's right-hand man -- would receive an honorary degree from Johns Hopkins and become an instructor emeritus of surgery.
1946
Clifton Wharton is the first African American admitted to Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies. In 1970, he is the first African American to lead a major, predominantly white university as president (Michigan State University). Eight years later, he is the first African American appointed chancellor of an entire system when he heads the State University of New York System (the nation's largest) for nine years. He is also the first African American to lead a major foundation (Rockefeller Foundation in 1982) and the first to be chairman and CEO of a Fortune 500 company, when he performes those duties at TIAA-CREF from 1987 to 1993.
1948
Biblical historian William Foxwell Albright confirms authenticity of Dead
Sea Scrolls.
1949
 Public Health researchers David Bodian, Isabel Morgan, and Howard A. Howe verify three strains of the polio virus, setting the stage for an effective
vaccine.
1955
The School of Advanced International Studies opens a Bologna, Italy, campus
to provide graduate education to future leaders of the U.S. and Europe.
1956
Physician Victor A. McKusick links a single gene defect to symptoms of
Marfan syndrome, work that ushered in the age of genetic medicine. He
would organize the nation’s first medical genetics division and
help lay the foundation for the Human Genome Project.
1958
Applied Physics Laboratory scientists conceive Transit, which would become the first satellite-based
navigational system.
1960
Engineer William B. Kouwenhoven and School of Medicine colleagues develop
cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). He had earlier invented an internal
defibrillation machine.
1960s
Scientists Daniel Nathans and Hamilton Smith discover restriction enzymes,
which would give birth to the field of genetic engineering. They would
share the 1978 Nobel Prize.
Public Health faculty develop oral rehydration therapy, which would significantly
lower death rates in children with diarrheal disease.
1968
The Center for Urban Affairs opens. Precursor to the Institute for Policy
Studies, it focuses on addressing social problems through research and
teaching.
May: The News-Letter announces the formation of the Black Students Union, "an informal coalition of Negro students" who want more black freshmen admitted (and more representation in the admissions office), and more black professors. Spokesmen Bruce Baker and John Guess say the association will "attempt to deal on the student level with the problems of race relations at Hopkins and within the Baltimore community."
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1970
September: The first full-time female undergraduates -- transfer students and freshmen who can commute from home -- arrive on campus.
1972
Scientists at APL invent a rechargeable implantable cardiac pacemaker.
1977
 Donald A. Henderson is appointed dean of the School of Public Health. He came to Hopkins after directing the World Health Organization's global smallpox eradication campaign from 1966-1977. Henderson was instrumental in initiating WHO's global program of immunization, which has vaccinated 80 percent of the world's children against six major diseases and has as a goal the eradication of poliomyelitis.
1979
Psychologist and educator Julian Stanley founds the Office of Talent Identification
and Development, today's Center for Talented Youth.
Public Health research on infant deaths in auto accidents would lead to
laws mandating child safety restraints.
1980
 Cardiac surgeon Levi Watkins performs the world's first human implantation of the automatic implantable defibrillator. He would go on to develop several different techniques for the implantation of this device.
1986
Ophthalmologist Alfred Sommer, who would later become dean of the Bloomberg School of Public Health, discovers
that vitamin A not only prevents blindness but also dramatically reduces
infant mortality.
The Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies opens to provide
training to postgraduate students from China, the U.S., and other nations.
1987
 Pediatric neurosurgeon Benjamin Carson makes history with the first separation of craniopagus (conjoined) twins. Perhaps best known for his work in separating twins joined at the head and his work in craniofacial reconstructive surgery, brain tumors, and seizure surgery, Carson would also become a tireless advocate on the need to promote and fund educational opportunities for young people. In May 2008, Carson is named the inaugural Benjamin S. Carson Sr., MD, and Dr. Evelyn Spiro, RN, Professor in Pediatric Neurosurgery. On June 19, 2008, Carson receives the nation’s highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in a White House ceremony.
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1990
Astrophysicist Sam Durrance flies in NASA’s space shuttle with the
Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT), built by Johns Hopkins faculty and
staff to gather information on distant astronomical objects.
1992
Researchers led by Bert Vogelstein and Ken Kinzler identify genes associated
with inherited colon cancers. They would later develop noninvasive tests
to detect the more common, nonhereditary type of disease at its earliest,
curable stages.
Physician Paul Talalay identifies sulforaphane, a chemical in broccoli
and other cruciferous vegetables that appears to inhibit development of
cancer.
1993
The Peabody Institute opens an inn to house attendees of its established
Elderhostel program that draws 4,000 participants each year.
1994
Astronomer Holland Ford and others present first conclusive physical evidence
for existence of supermassive black holes.
Business faculty develop the nation’s first graduate credit program
for senior managers in law enforcement.
1995
Surgeon Louis Kavoussi pioneers laparoscopic live-donor nephrectomy, a
procedure that revolutionizes kidney transplantation.
Pediatrician George Dover develops the first effective treatment for sickle
cell anemia.
The School of Arts and Sciences is named to honor alumnus Zanvyl Krieger,
who committed $50 million for the endowment -- the largest gift to that time in Johns Hopkins’ history.
A record-setting gift of $20 million from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg
Foundation supports construction of a new cancer treatment building
named in their honor.
The Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute at Johns Hopkins is created to
examine bioethical questions and policy issues.
1996
A Johns Hopkins Nursing team develops accurate ways to screen for domestic violence
in ambulatory care settings.
Johns Hopkins engineers invent first all-plastic battery.
School of Medicine scientists identify gene mutations involved in 50%
of cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s
disease).
An APL team designs, builds, and launches NEAR, the first satellite of
the NASA Discovery Program, which would become the first to orbit an asteroid
in 2000.
1997
A School of Medicine team confirms location of a gene for manic-depressive
psychosis on a specific chromosome.
1998
Scientist John Gearhart is among the first to isolate and identify pluripotent
stem cells and prove they are capable of forming muscle, bone, nerve,
or other tissue.
 Fannie Gaston-Johansson is named full professor with tenure in the School of Nursing. This appointment makes Gaston-Johansson the first African American woman to have both tenure and full professorship at the university.
1999
Education faculty members develop national models for partnerships among
universities and school systems to recruit and train teachers for urban
systems.
Ophthalmologists identify a drug that stops the growth of abnormal blood
vessels in the eye and that might save the sight of diabetic patients.
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2000
Johns Hopkins neuroscientists identify key enzyme in brain that forms
hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.
2001
APL designs, builds, and operates NASA’s TIMED spacecraft to study
the region 40 to 100 miles above the Earth, one of the least explored and
understood regions of the atmosphere.
 Sidney Kimmel makes history with a commitment of $150 million to cancer
research at Johns Hopkins, which names the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive
Cancer Center in his honor.
Peabody and the National University of Singapore collaborate to create
the Singapore Conservatory of Music.
2002
APL develops a low-cost, portable landmine detector.
A Proteomics Center opens at the School of Medicine, focusing on what
proteins made by genes do, the next step in realizing the potential of
genetic medicine.
2003
A Johns Hopkins-led team settles a long controversy, determining that
light detection in the eye is accomplished with just three types of cells.
The Center for Africana Studies is established in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences in order to pursue broad inquiry into the ideas and experiences of African peoples throughout the world.
2005
 The university's Baltimore Scholars Program -- first envisioned by the university's Commission on Undergraduate Education -- begins, providing free tuition for undergraduate study to graduates of the city's public schools.
2006
Carol Greider shares the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research -- often called "the American Nobel" -- with two former colleagues for discovering telomerase, an enzyme that plays a major role in cancer growth and aging.
Hopkins surgical teams -- including 12 surgeons, 11 anesthesiologists, and 18 nurses -- completed the world's first five-way, "domino" donor kidney transplant operation among 10 individuals during a marathon, 10-hour procedure spread over six operating rooms.
The David H. Koch Cancer Research Building opens. The building is named in honor of David Koch, a university trustee and longtime supporter of Johns Hopkins and cancer research. A 250-seat auditorium honoring Kimmel Cancer Center founding director Albert Owens connects the Koch tower with its twin, the Bunting-Blaustein Cancer Research Building.
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2007
Michael Hanchard, a scholar of comparative politics in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, is named the university's inaugural Society of Black Alumni (SOBA) Presidential Professor. The Society of Black Alumni raised the funding needed to establish the endowed chair.
His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates, makes a financial commitment to Johns Hopkins in honor of his late father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Most of the gift will support construction of the Johns Hopkins Hospital’s cardiovascular and critical care tower. Some funds are to go to cardiovascular research in the School of Medicine and some are earmarked for AIDS research at the Johns Hopkins University-Makerere University Collaborative Care Center, at Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda.
 Pamela Flaherty, a trustee of the Johns Hopkins University since 1997, is elected the 15th chair of the university's board of trustees. Flaherty is the first woman to chair the university's governing board and the first graduate of its Nitze School of Advanced International Studies to hold the position. She succeeds Raymond A. "Chip" Mason, who served six years as chair.
 James West, a Johns Hopkins engineering faculty member who, while at Bell Labs, co-invented the microphone used in most telephones and many other electronic devices worldwide, is named a recipient of National Medal of Technology, one the nation’s highest honor for technological innovation.
 Kristina Johnson, dean of Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, is appointed Johns Hopkins' provost and senior vice president of academic affairs. An electrical engineer with 40 patents and co-founder of several start-up companies, she becomes the university’s 12th provost and the first woman to hold Hopkins' second-ranking position. Johnson succeeds Steven Knapp, the provost since 1996, who left to become president of the George Washington University.
 Lisa Cooper -- a Johns Hopkins alumnus, internist, and epidemiologist who conducts landmark studies designed to understand and overcome racial and ethnic disparities in medical care and research -- is named a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She follows eight other Johns Hopkins faculty and alumni who have also received the so-called MacArthur "genius" grant.
Nobel laureate and alumnus Peter Agre is tapped to lead the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute. In 2003, Agre shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of aquaporins -- channels that regulate and facilitate water molecule transport through cell membranes, a process essential to all living organisms.
 Yash Gupta is named the first dean of the university's Carey Business School, which launched on the strength of a $50 million gift from trustee emeritus William Polk Carey through his W. P. Carey Foundation.
Leon Fleisher receives the Kennedy Center Honors Award -- one of the nation's highest artistic tributes -- for a lifetime of contributions to American culture through the performing arts. The pianist and Peabody teacher is recognized alongside Steve Martin, Diana Ross, Martin Scorsese, and the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson.
 The university completes the Alonzo G. and Virginia G. Decker Quadrangle, the largest construction project on the Homewood campus since the orginal two quads -- the Wyman and Keyser quads -- were built. The Decker Quad is bounded on the north by Garland Hall, the university's central administration building, named for Charles S. Garland; on the west by Clark Hall, a biomedical engineering building named for trustee emeritus A. James Clark; on the east by a computational science and engineering building funded by State of Maryland support and private philanthropy; and on the south by Mason Hall, an admissions and visitor center named for Raymond "Chip" and Rand Mason in honor of their commitment to Johns Hopkins and Chip's service as university board chair. The quad is named for ardent supporters of Johns Hopkins, with Al serving as a university trustee from 1968 to 2002.
2008
The Mosaic Initiative will provide at least $5 million over the next five years in matching funds for departments seeking to improve diversity, including hiring and retaining outstanding women and underrepresented minority scholars for faculty positions.
 The state-of-the art 12-story tower being built to house the Johns Hopkins Chidren's Center will be named the Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children's Center at Johns Hopkins, in honor of the mother of New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a Johns Hopkins graduate and former trustee.
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