Celebrations Today – August 27

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day:
  • Baculus of Sorrento
  • Caesarius of Arles
  • Margaret the Barefooted
  • Monica of Hippo, mother of Augustine of Hippo
  • Phanourios of Rhodes
  • Rufus and Carpophorus
  • Thomas Gallaudet and Henry Winter Syle (Episcopal Church)
  • August 27 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Film and Movies Day (Russia)
• Independence Day (Republic of Moldova), celebrates the independence of Moldova from the USSR in 1991.
• Lyndon Baines Johnson Day (Texas, United States)
• National Banana Lovers Day (United States)
• National Pots De Creme Day (United States)

Celebrations Today – USA: August 27

National Pots De Creme Day
National Just Because Day
National “”The Duchess”” Who Wasn’t Day
National Kiss Me Day
National Banana Lovers Day
National Burger Day
National Petroleum Day
National Pots de Crème Day
National Tarzan Day

Today in US History: August 27

A Case of Yellow Fever

Dr. J. C. Carroll,
Reproduction of photoprint made between 1895 and 1907.
Prints & Photographs Online Catalog

On August 27, 1900, U.S. Army physician James Carroll allowed an infected mosquito to feed on him in an attempt to isolate the means of transmission of yellow fever. Carroll developed a severe case of yellow fever, helping his colleague, Army pathologist Walter Reed, prove that mosquitoes transmit this often-deadly disease.

Prior to these findings, epidemics of yellow fever were common in the American South. Uncertain of how the disease was transmitted, many people would leave the South for the summer, the season in which the epidemics were most common, returning after the first frost.

During the 1888 yellow fever epidemic in Jacksonville, Florida, the government offered railroad transportation out of the area. In a 1940 interview, William F. Hawley describes the scene of panic at the train station:

[The trains] were packed to the limit, even the roofs of the cars [were] crowded with terrified citizens…Some people in their haste left their homes with fires burning, food in preparation for the noonday meal, and doors wide open.“William F. Hawley,”
Arlington, Florida,
Rose Shepherd, interviewer,
June 24, 1940.
American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936 – 1940

Corner of Forsyth and Hogan Streets,
Jacksonville, Florida,
between 1900 and 1915.
Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920

The Jacksonville epidemic began in the Mayflower Hotel which was “condemned and ordered burned to the ground,” according to Mr. Hawley. Many remedies were tried, such as burning barrels of tar in the street to disinfect the air and spraying a mixture of copperas, sulfur, and lime in the homes of the infected.

Even doctors were at a loss for a means of stopping the spread of yellow fever. In the 1939 interview “Ruby Beach,” Mrs. Scull remembered that during the Jacksonville epidemic, Dr. Wiley, president of the Board of Health, warned her and her sister not to go into the room with their ill mother. “The surest way possible for you to get the fever is to go near her bed,” he warned. Her sister astonished the doctor by reporting, “I’ve slept there two nights, and I am all right.”

• After Doctors Reed and Carroll’s discovery, effective ways were found to combat mosquitoes and the disease they transmitted. Search on the term Walter Reed in Washington as It Was: Photographs by Theodor Horydczak, 1923-1959 to see images of the medical facility named in Dr. Reed’s honor.

  
  International Nickel Co. at Walter Reed Hospital, Medical Staff at Work IX,
  Washington, D.C.
  Theodor Horydczak, photographer,
  circa 1920-1950.
  Washington as It Was: Photographs by Theodor Horydczak, 1923-1959

• Search on yellow fever in the American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936 -1940 interviews to find more stories.
• Search on yellow fever in the The Nineteenth Century in Print: Periodicals collection for a wealth of articles that touch on the effect of the disease on everyday life.
• Search on the term Walter Reed in Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic and American Engineering Record, 1933-Present to find black-and-white images of the house of Dr. Walter Reed and data pages about the man and his home.
• View The Great Fever from the Public Broadcasting Service for more information including a timeline, an explanation of how yellow fever is transmitted, a map of major American epidemics of yellow fever from 1793 to 1905, and a transcript of the film.
• Search on the term laboratory in Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America: Photographs by Samuel Gottscho and William Schleisner, 1935-1955 to find images of medical, pharmaceutical, and other laboratories of the mid-twentieth century.

Today in History – August 27-External Links

Today’s Weather in History
Today in Earthquake History
This Day in Naval History
Today’s Document from the National Archives
Today’s Events, Births & Deaths –Wikipedia
Today in History by AP
On this Day -1950 to 2005 – Today’s Story–BBC
On This Day: The New York Times
This Day in History –History.com
Today in Canadian History – Canada Channel
History of Britain that took place On This Day
Russia in History –Russiapedia