July 6 Birthday
On July 6, 1885, Louis Pasteur administered the first rabies vaccine to a human. Joseph Meister, a nine-year-old boy, had been bitten by a rabid dog. Rabies was invariably fatal once symptoms appeared. Pasteur's vaccine had been tested only on animals. He injected Meister with increasingly strong doses of dried spinal cord from rabies-infected rabbits. Meister survived. Pasteur became a national hero. The Pasteur Institute was founded in 1888 to produce the vaccine and conduct research. Two of the most influential Americans of the 21st century were born on this day in 1946: George W. Bush and Sylvester Stallone. Bush, the son of a president, attended Yale and Harvard Business School, flew fighter jets in the Texas Air National Guard, owned the Texas Rangers, and was elected governor of Texas. As president, he launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, cut taxes, and created the Department of Homeland Security. Stallone wrote Rocky in three days, sold the script on the condition that he star in it, and was nominated for two Oscars for the same film. People born on July 6 fall under the zodiac sign of Cancer. The birthstone is Ruby and the birth flower is Larkspur. Historical events on July 6 include 1885: Louis Pasteur administers first successful rabies vaccine to a human, 1944: Hartford Circus Fire kills 168 (mostly children), 1957: Althea Gibson wins Wimbledon, first Black tennis player to win. Famous people born on July 6 include Dalai Lama (1935), Sylvester Stallone (1946), George W. Bush (1946).