On this day, January 23, 1922, fourteen year old Canadian Leonard Thompson received the first successful insulin injection as a treatment for diabetes. Thompson, who was in a coma due to Type 1 Diabetes, was given an injection on January 11, but apparent impurities caused a sever allergic reaction. Biochemist James Collip worked to improve and purify the ox-pancreas extract. The second injection on January 23 brought the boy out of his coma and was a complete success. Prior to the development of insulin, people with Type 1 diabetes did not survive for more than a few weeks or months with the disease.
89 years ago, on May 6, 1937, a great airship burned in one of the most memorable moments of the twentieth century. The story of the Hindenburg has, over time, become more legend than fact, while truth has become nearly forgotten history.