1616

William Harvey discovered that blood has a flow inside the animal body.

1665

Richard Lower succeeded in saving life of a dog by transfusing another “dog’s” blood in it.

1667

The first recorded blood transfusion into vein or artery took place in France in 1667 and was unsuccessful. A cupful of lamb’s blood was transfused into a man via a silver tube. The man survived two transfusions and then died.

1668

The Pope banned any kind of experiment on blood,

1818

Dr. James Blund was successful in saving a man’s life by direct transfusion from another man.

1874

William Highmore first suggested Autologous transfusion.

1875

Karl Landsteiner was first to notice that just any man’s blood cannot be transfused to another.

1900-01

Karl Landsteiner’s experiment revealed A, B and O group in human blood. This opened the floodgate for the development of science of “Transfusion Medicine”. Rightly, Karl Landsteiner was awarded “Nobel Prize” for his grand discovery.

1914

Dr. Hustin’s use of sodium citrate removed the problems of coagulation of blood.

1914-18

Blood transfusion was used during the first world war, when blood was transported to the battlefront in modified, clean, sterilized milk bottles.

1930

The first mobile blood bank was set up in the 1930s during the Spanish civil war.

1937

World’s first hospital blood bank was established on March 15, in Cook County Hospital of Chicago, U.S.A.

1939

India’s first blood bank was set up in the School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkatta (Calcutta) by Sir Upendranath Brahmachari, the then Chairman of Bengal Red Cross Society.

1940

Rhesus Factor of Blood was discovered by Landsteiner and Weighner.

1941

Blood collecting bottles and also the collection quantity per unit was specified.

1957

Dr. Gibson found out the process of storing blood upto 28 days in a temperature of 4 - 6°C by mixing it up with a solution of ACD and sodium dehydrogen phosphate.

1964

Infection of jaundice through blood transfusion was confirmed.

1981

Use of polythene bags for collection, storage and transfusion of blood was legalised.

1986

First AIDS patient due to blood transfusion in Mumbai was reported.

1996

Supreme Court’s judgment on blood transfusion and blood banking in India; as a result of which National Blood Transfusion Council and State Blood Transfusion Councils are established for improvement of Blood Banking services in the country.

2000

World Health Day on 7th April 2000 was celebrated with, “Safe blood starts with me” as the slogan of the year.

2001

Every year, over 100 million blood units are collected from blood donors throughout the world. 6. 5 million blood units are collected, every year, in India.