July 25 Birthday
On July 25, 1978, Louise Brown was born in Oldham, England — the first baby conceived through in vitro fertilization. Her parents, Lesley and John Brown, had been trying to conceive for nine years. Dr. Robert Edwards and Dr. Patrick Steptoe had developed the technique: eggs were extracted, fertilized in a petri dish, and implanted. The procedure was experimental and controversial — the Catholic Church opposed it, and the British Medical Research Council had refused funding. Louise Brown was healthy. Over eight million IVF babies have been born since. Edwards received the Nobel Prize in 2010; Steptoe had died in 1988. Rosalind Franklin, born this day in 1920, produced the X-ray crystallography images that revealed the structure of DNA. Her photograph 51 — taken by her student Raymond Gosling — was shown to James Watson without her knowledge. Watson later wrote that "the instant I saw the picture my mouth fell open and my pulse began to race." Franklin died of ovarian cancer at thirty-seven, four years before Watson and Crick received the Nobel Prize. People born on July 25 fall under the zodiac sign of Leo. The birthstone is Ruby and the birth flower is Larkspur. Historical events on July 25 include 1978: Louise Brown born — first human conceived by in vitro fertilization, 1956: Italian liner Andrea Doria sinks after collision with Stockholm off Nantucket, 1946: US conducts underwater atomic test at Bikini Atoll (Baker test). Famous people born on July 25 include Rosalind Franklin (1920), Estelle Getty (1923), Matt LeBlanc (1967).