The first inoculation against Smallpox was administered on May 14, 1796, by Edward Jenner, when Jenner took fluid from a cowpox blister and scratched it into the skin of James Phipps, an eight-year-old boy
(a brief aside – how much do you trust your kid’s doctor –
“Good Afternoon Mr and Mrs. Phipps. Little Jimmy seems fine, nothing out of the ordinary. I’ll see him next year for his check up. Oh by the way, I’d like to smear some pus from a cow sore into a small open wound I’ve just inflicted upon Jimmy. It’s no big deal.”)
This medical wonder came only four days after Napoleon’s army defeated the Austrians in the Battle of Lodi.
Exactly 22 years prior to that, King Louis XV had died of smallpox (on May 10, 1774. Bizarrely enough, Louis‘ ancestors, Henry IV was assassinated on May 14, 1610 and his son, Louis XIII died on May 14, 1643.)
When he died, Louis XVI became king, and only five years later (on La Quatorze Juillet, French for “the Fourth of July“), the Revolution began (mostly because Louis‘ wife kept telling everyone to eat cake), which resulted in the Rain of Terror, which resulted, eventually, in Napoleon.
Which practically brings it all full circle, if you’re not a stickler for circularity.
And so it goes
The Haus of Dcaligari 