Timeline of Discovery

1500 BC (?)	Egyptians recorded a collection of recipes for medicines, which included a recipe using an infusion of dried myrtle leaves (which contain salicylic acid) to relieve back pain.	Ancient Egyptian carving of a garden.
200 BC	Hippocrates, a Greek physician, prescribes leaves and bark from willow tree (which, like the myrtle tree, also contains salicylic acid) to relieve fever and pain, including labor pains.	Hippocrates
100 AD	Greek surgeon Dioscorides mentions in his writings the use of willow leaves to relieve pain.	willow leaves
200	Pliny the Elder, a Roman statesman, describes the use of willow leaves in his writings, as does Galen, an alchemist/physician.	Galen
Middle   Ages	Europeans stop using willow bark remedies, as the willow bark supply is earmarked for making wicker. Use of willow for medicinal purposes banned in some places.
Before   1500	Native people of North America learn to make salicylate pain remedies from birch bark.
2 July   1763	Edward Stone, an English clergyman, reports to the Royal Society of London (world-renowned scientific group) of his successful experiments involving the use of willow bark to reduce fever in fifty of his patients. Meanwhile, on the European mainland, quinine is used to treat pain.
1828	Johann Büchner of Munich, Germany isolates pure salicin from willow bark. Salicin is the compound in willow bark that relieves pain. The name salicin was derived from salix, which is the Latin word for willow tree.
1835	Karl Lowig makes salicylic acid from meadowsweet flowers.
1838	Raffaele Piria converts salicin into salicylic acid. This is the first time salicylic acid was obtained from willow bark in the laboratory.
1853	Charles Frederic Gerhardt first synthesizes acetylsalicylic acid, but he fails to understand its molecular structure and its potential importance to humanity. His ASA is not pure and therefore of limited use.	acetylsalicylic acid
1859	H. von Glim also describes the preparation of ASA, but he, too, fails to grasp its molecular structure. His ASA also is not pure. Meanwhile, Herman Kolbe discovers how to synthesize salicylic acid from coal tar. The method he used is still called the "Kolbe synthesis.
1869	Karl-Johann Kraut repeats the previous two scientists' experiments and gives the first accurate information about the molecular structure of ASA, the ester of salicylic acid (SA). His sample also was not pure, by his own admission.
1874	Salicylic acid is first made industrially using Kolbe's method in Dresden, Germany. It is sold as a painkiller but severely irritates the stomach.
1897	On August 10, 1897, Felix Hoffmann, chemist in the Bayer chemical factory in Germany, prepares the first pure sample of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA). His laboratory journal notes the test he performed to assess the purity of his product. This is the beginning of the story of aspirin as we know it today, although the name, as of yet, has not been used.
1899	The first publication of clinical trial results appeared and showed the promising healing effects of ASA. Bayer refers to ASA as "aspirin" for the first time, and the company first distributes aspirin (as a powder) to physicians to give to their patients.
1900	Bayer introduces the first water-soluble tablet form of aspirin. This process cut production costs in half.
1915	Aspirin first becomes available without a prescription.
1948	Dr. Lawrence Craven discovers that men to whom he prescribed aspirin suffered no heart attacks. He recommends "an aspirin a day" to both patients and colleagues alike to decrease risk of heart attack.
1971	John Vane   John Vane, British pharmacologist, discovers that aspirin works by inhibiting the production of prostaglandins.
1980	FDA approves the use of aspirin to reduce the risk of stroke after signs of TIA (transient ischemic attack) that forewarns of possible impending stroke.
1982	John Vane receives the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his research on prostaglandins.
1985	FDA approves aspirin to prevent heart attack in patients with previous attacks or unstable angina pectoris.
1998	The FDA rules that aspirin can be labeled as being helpful in preventing heart attacks and strokes in men and women when taken in daily doses as low as 81 mg, the size of a child's aspirin. The FDA also approves aspirin for use by patients during a suspected heart attack.