* James B. Duke establishes The Duke Endowment and directs that part of his $40 million gift be used to transform Durham's Trinity College into Duke University.
1925
* James B. Duke makes an additional bequest to establish the Duke School of Medicine, Duke School of Nursing, and Duke Hospital, with the goal of improving health care in the Carolinas and nationwide.
1927
* Dr. Wilburt Cornell Davison elected Dean of the Duke University School of Medicine and Hospital on 21 January.
* Construction begins on the Medical School and Duke Hospital.
1929
* 3,000 applicants apply to the new medical school. 70 first- and third-year students are selected, including four women.
* Duke Hospital opens July 20, 1930, attracting 25,000 visitors.
* Classes began in Hospital Administration, dietetics, and medical technology on 15 August.
* The eighteen third year and thirty first year medical students began classes on 2 October.
1931
* The Duke School of Nursing's first class of 24 undergraduate students begin classes January 2.
* Dedication ceremony for Duke Medical School and Hospital on 20 April.
* Private Diagnostic Clinics were organized 15 September.
1932
* Baker House, named for Bessie Baker, first Dean of Nursing at Duke Hospital, opened.
1934
* The first Duke Medical Postgraduate Symposium is offered to physicians in the southeast.
1935
* The Association of American Medical Colleges ranks Duke among the top 25 percent of medical schools in the country-less than five years after it opened.
1936
* Duke surgeons led by Dr. J. Deryl Hart pioneer the use of ultraviolet lamps in operating rooms to eliminate infectious organisms that cause post-operative Staph infections. This procedure dramatically reduces the number of infections and related deaths.
1937
* Dr. Joseph Beard developed a vaccine against equine encephalomyelitis.
* Duke establishes the nation's first brain tumor program, launching what will become one of the world's foremost cancer programs.
* The 65th General Hospital was authorized as an affiliated unit of the Duke University School of Medicine on 17 October.
* Duke's Medical Alumni Association is organized.
* For his studies of the metabolism of the tubercle bacillus, which eventually led to effective medications, pharmacologist Frederick Bernheim is nominated for the Nobel Prize.
1940s-1950s
* Dr. Walter Kempner's research, using a rice-based diet and daily laboratory testing, demonstrates that degenerative processes attacking the kidney, heart, brain and retina can be arrested by dietary changes. These dramatic findings draw patients to Duke from across the nation.
1947
* Bell Research Building opened as the first building of the medical center that wasn't connected with the main buildings.
* North Carolina Cerebral Palsy Hospital dedicated with 40 beds (Lenox Baker Hospital).
* Duke pediatrician Jay Arena leads the push for drug companies to develop the child-proof safety cap for medicine bottles.
1951
* Hanes House for Nurses opened.
1955
* Psychiatrist Ewald W. Busse establishes the Duke University Center for Aging, the first research center of its kind in the nation. Now the oldest continuously running aging center in the United States, the Duke Center for Aging has pioneered long-term studies of health problems among the elderly.
1957
* Outpatient and PDC plus Hanes and Reed private floors and operating rooms opened.
* The original Medical School and Hospital are renamed "Duke University Medical Center."
1959
* Duke develops a machine that lowers patients' blood temperatures below 68 degrees Fahrenheit and is the first to place a patient under this deep hypothermia during open-heart surgery.
* Dr. Barnes Woodhall appointed Dean of the Medical Center on 1 July.
1962
* Gerontology Building and the Diagnostic and Treatment Center opened (Busse Building).
1963
* Clinical Research Building opened (Stead Building).
* Hyperbaric Chamber opened.
* First African-American student admitted to Duke University School of Medicine.
1964
* Dr. William G. Anlyan became Dean of Duke University Medical Center and School of Medicine on 1 July.
1965
* Duke establishes the nation's first Physician Assistant Program.
1966
* New Hospital Entrance, the Woodhall Building, opened.
* The New Medical School Curriculum gives students greater freedom to choose their course materials.
* The Duke Medical Scientist Training Program, a joint degree program leading to both the MD and the PhD degrees, is founded. It is one of the first three in the nation.
1968
* The Nanaline Duke Research Building opened.
* Dr. Irwin Fridovich and graduate student Joe McCord discover the enzyme which protects all living things against the toxicity of oxygen.
1969
* In its hyperbaric chamber, Duke conducts the first recorded studies of humans' ability to function and work at pressures equal to a 1,000-foot deep-sea dive.
* The new $94.5 million, 616-bed Duke Hospital opens, bringing the total number of patient beds to more than 1,000.
1985
* Duke becomes one of two hospitals to conduct the first human clinical trials of AZT, the first drug to offer a substantial improvement in quality of life for AIDS patients.
1989
* Dr. Ralph Snyderman appointed Chancellor for Health Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine on 1 January.
* Duke researchers discover a gene that increases people's risk of developing the most common kind of Alzheimer's disease, showing for the first time that it can be inherited.
1992
* Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center develops the nation's first outpatient bone-marrow transplantation program.
1994
* The Medical Center embarks on the busiest period of new construction in decades, including the Levine Science Research Center, Medical Sciences Research Building, a complete renovation of Duke Clinic, additions to the Morris Building for cancer care and research, a new Children's Health Center, a new ambulatory care building, and new parking garages.
* The Levine Science Research Center opened.
* The Medical Science Research Building opened.
1995
* Duke scientists, with colleagues at Princeton University, generate the first clear images of the human lung using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The new technique could greatly aid diagnosis and treatment of lung disorders such as emphysema and asthma.
1998
* The Duke University Health System - an integrated academic health care system serving a broad area of central North Carolina - is officially created as Duke establishes partnerships with Durham Regional Hospital, Raleigh Community Hospital, and other regional health care providers. DUHS today includes three hospitals, ambulatory care and surgery clinics, primary care medical practice clinics, home health services, hospice services, physician practice affiliations, managed care providers and other related facilities and services.
* The McGovern-Davison Children's Health Center opened.
2004
* Dr. Victor J. Dzau, M.D., appointed Chancellor for Health Affairs at Duke University and President and CEO of the Duke University Health System effective July 1, 2004
