1954 - Alexander D. Langmuir, M.D., M.P.H., set up a leptospirosis laboratory in Jacksonville, Florida.
1955 - CDC established the Polio Surveillance Program.
1956 - Dr. William Cherry found the first practical use for the fluorescent technique, which was successful in identifying pathogens that might be used in biological warfare.
1957 - National guidelines for influenza vaccine were developed.
1962 - CDC played a key role in one of the greatest triumphs of public health: the eradication of smallpox.
1963 - CDC tested the newly developed jet injector vaccine for smallpox.
1964 - The first Surgeon General's report linking smoking to lung cancer was released. It stated that "cigarette smoking is a health hazard of sufficient importance in the United States to warrant appropriate remedial action."
1973 - Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report reported that emissions of lead in residential areas constitute a public health threat, contrary to popular assumption at the time.
1974 - CDC planned a major campaign to reverse the downward trend in the number of Americans immunized.
1975 - The last victim of variola major smallpox, the more severe form of the disease, was reported.
1980 - Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published the first report on the newly-recognized toxic shock syndrome, an illness associated with tampon use.
1981 - The first diagnosis of the fatal disease later known as AIDS was described in the June 5, 1981, issue of MMWR.
1982 - CDC advised of the possible risk of Reye syndrome associated with the use of aspirin by children with chickenpox and flu-like symptoms.
1984 - CDC studied Vietnam veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange during combat and later fathered babies; no increased risk of birth defects was found.
1989 - CDC reported the 100,000th AIDS case in the United States.
1990s
1990 - For the first time, CDC reported the possible transmission of HIV from a dentist to a patient in Florida during an invasive procedure.
1991 - A CDC study showed that one in five teen deaths is gun-related, and firearm death rates for male teens exceeded those for all natural causes of death.
1992 - The National Academy of Sciences reported on a dangerous new phenomenon: the emergence of new and virulent diseases that are resistant to antibiotics.
1993 - CDC reported that 200,000 Americans had died of AIDS since the epidemic began.
1994 - CDC published a frank brochure on how condoms reduce the transmission of the AIDS virus.
1995 - CDC recommended offering HIV testing to all pregnant women.
1996 - CDC, in partnership with the International Society for Travel Medicine, initiated the GeoSentinel surveillance network to improve travel medicine.
1997 - CDC participated in the nationally televised White House event of the Presidential Apology for the Tuskegee Study.
1998 - For the first time since 1981, AIDS was diagnosed in more African-American and Hispanic men than in gay white men.
2000 - CDC identified an outbreak of HIV-related tuberculosis among young transgender people in New York and Boston.
2001 - CDC learned of the first of the 2001 anthrax attacks; the victim was Robert Stevens, a 63-year-old Florida man. He would be the first in a series of domestic terrorism victims of infection by anthrax sent through the mail.
2002 - CDC reported that U.S. newborn HIV infections were down 80 percent since 1981.
2003 - Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was first reported in Asia. CDC provided guidance for surveillance, clinical and laboratory evaluation, and reporting.
