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Medicine · Recorded milestone

Polio vaccine

Recorded year1955

Jonas Salk's vaccine begins the near-eradication of polio.

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Built on

PenicillinRecorded · 1928requires
HeLa, the first immortal human cellsRecorded · 1951enables

Led to

Cell-culture rinderpest vaccineRecorded · 1962enables
Canine parvovirus vaccineRecorded · 1979enables
Bird flu vaccine for US poultryRecorded · 2025enables
Polio eradicatedForecast · ~2036enables

Sources & evidence

Additional source

Dataset updated 2026-10-18. This individual record has not been separately re-reviewed.