Smallpox shot side effects feared - Study on volunteers finds pain, flu-like symptoms common

	10000 B.C. Smallpox appears in settlements in northeast Africa.
	1350 B.C. The first recorded smallpox epidemic occurs during the Egyptian-Hittite war when Egyptian prisoners unwittingly spread the virus among the Hittite population.
	1000 B.C. Variolation, an early form of smallpox inoculation, is developed in China and India. The process involved taking the pus from the pocks of someone suffering from the virus and inoculating healthy people with it. A mild case of smallpox developed, but the process granted lifelong immunity afterwards. The practice would eventually spread to Europe and the New World by the 18th century.
	180 The Roman Empire is devastated by the Plague of Antonine which kills millions. The dead include Marcus Aurelius, the reigning emperor.
	570 Bishop Marius of Avenches names the virus, "variola", a derivation of the Latin word for "stained." The popular term for the virus, "smallpox", won't come into use in England until the 15th century.
	910 Rhazes. a Persian physician, writes the first medical description of smallpox.
	1520 Two years after Spanish conquistadors arrive in Mexico, the Aztec emperor Ciutlahuac dies of smallpox. Over the next century of Spanish occupation, Mexico’s population diminishes from an estimated high of 15 to 20 million in 1518 to 1.6 million by 1620. The decimation is repeated throughout the New World as Europeans unknowingly introduce smallpox.
	18th century Smallpox kills four reigning European monarchs including Tsar Peter II of Russia and King Louis XV of France. Other notable victims include the king of Ethiopia and a Japanese emperor. By the last decades of the 18th century an estimated 400,000 Europeans die of smallpox each year.
	1754-1767 Smallpox is used as a weapon when British forces distribute blankets used by smallpox patients to Native American tribes during the French-Indian war.
	1774 Benjamin Jesty, a farmer from the town of Dorset in the United Kingdom, inoculates his family with material taken from the udders of cows that had cowpox, a virus similar to smallpox. Medical reports begin to appear linking smallpox immunity in those individuals with a previous case of cowpox.
	1796 Edward Jenner, a British surgeon, injects the fluid extracted from a postule of a cowpox victim into a healthy child. Eventually, the word "vaccine", derived from the medical name of cowpox, "variolae vaccinae", falls into common usage. Jenner does not invent vaccination, but he does confer scientific status. By 1800, Jenner’s efforts to popularize vaccination results in vaccination campaigns throughout Europe.
	1801 President Thomas Jefferson creates the National Vaccine Institute.
	1803 Spain begins the first overseas vaccination program when it sends the vaccine to North and South America.
	1967 World Health Organization launches global vaccination campaign against smallpox.
	1972 Routine smallpox vaccination among the American public ends.
	1977 Last naturally occurring case of smallpox reported in Somalia.
	1980 The World Health Organization recommendeds that all countries cease vaccination and that all laboratories destroy their stocks of smallpox or transfer them to the Institute of Virus Preparations in Moscow, Russia, or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Ga. All countries report compliance. Soviets begin to develop smallpox as a bioweapon.
	1982 Vaccine production is discontinued in the United States.
	1990 U.S. military discontinues routine vaccinations.
	Today Smallpox vaccinations are generally limited to selected lab workers and military personnel.


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