October 12

1928 – The "Iron Lung" was used by its first patient, a young girl in Boston. The artificial respirator enabled her to breathe, despite being paralyzed by polio.
1964 – The Soviet Union launches "Voskhod 1" into Earth orbit, and is the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the first flight without space suits.

• The crew includes scientist Konstaintin Feoktistov and physician Boris Yegorov. They returned after 16 orbits around the planet.