1700 – Bernardino Ramazzini, widely considered the “father of industrial medicine,” publishes his first book on occupational diseases, De Morbis Artificum Diatriba (The Diseases of Workmen).

1864 – North America’s first accident insurance policy is issued.

1867 – Phillipa Flowerday is hired by the firm of J. & J. Colman in Norwich, Great Britain. Her employment at this mustard company is considered the earliest recorded evidence of a company specifically hiring an industrial nurse.

1869 – The Pennsylvania Mine Safety Act passes into law.

1877 – The state of Massachusetts institutes the first government-sponsored factory inspection program.

1880 – The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a professional, technical organization, responsible for developing safety codes for boilers and elevators, is founded..

1888 – Betty Moulder of Pennsylvania works with coal miners.

1895 – Vermont Marble Company initiates Industrial Nursing Service with Ada Mayo Stewart as the industrial nurse.

1896 – The National Fire Protection Association is founded to prevent fires and to write codes and standards.

1897 – Great Britain passes a workmen’s compensation act for occupational injuries. English legislators would later (1906) extend the act to encompass occupational diseases.

1902 – The state of Maryland passes the first workers’ compensation law.

1906 – The Pittsburgh Survey – the first systematic survey of workplace fatalities in the United States is conducted in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

1907 – The Monangah Mining Disaster – Largest coal mining disaster in U.S. history takes place in Monongah, West Virginia.

1908 – Dr. Alice Hamilton, the first physician to devote herself to research in industrial medicine, publishes her first article about occupational diseases in the United States.

1911 – First U.S. worker’s compensation laws are enacted.

1912 – National Organization for Public Health Nursing is formed.

1912 to 1914 – National Council for Industrial Safety is established. Originally organized to collect data and promote accident prevention programs, it became the National Safety Council in 1913.

1913 – Industrial nurses registry is established in Boston.

1913 – The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes data that show a rate of 61 industrial deaths per 100,000 workers.

1914 – The U.S. Public Health Service establishes the Office of Industrial Hygiene and Sanitation. Its primary function is research in occupational health. After several name changes it became the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in 1971.

1916 – The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of state workers’ compensation laws.

1916 – The American Association of Industrial Physicians and Surgeons is formed. It later became the American Occupational Medicine Association, then the American College of Occupational Medicine, and finally, in 1991, the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

1917 – First industrial nursing course is offered at Boston University College of Business Administration.

1918 – The American Standards Association is founded. Responsible for the development of many voluntary safety standards, some of which are referenced into laws, today it is known as the American National Standards Institute.

1919 – Alice Hamilton, M.D., is appointed assistant professor of industrial medicine at Harvard Medical School, the first woman to be on the faculty of Harvard University.

1919 – First book on industrial nursing is written by Florence Wright.

1935 – Social Security Act of 1935 is passed. This act provided funds for state industrial programs.

1936 – Walsh-Healey Act for worker health and safety standards is enacted, setting safety and health standards for employers receiving federal contracts over $10,000.

1937 – Godfrey publishes one of the first statements on the need for public health involvement in accident prevention in the American Journal of Public Health.

1937 – The Council on Industrial Health of the American Medical Association is created.

1937 – An estimated 2,200 nurses are working in the industry.

1938 – American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists is formed.

1939 – American Industrial Hygiene Association is formed.

1942 – Gordon formalizes concept that epidemiology could be used as a theoretical foundation for accident prevention.

1942 – DeHaven describes structural environments as a primary cause of injury in falls from heights.

1942 – American Association of Industrial Nurses is founded with Catherine Dempsey as the first President.

1943 – Army directives are created for the establishment of industrial medical programs in all Army-owned and operated plants, arsenals, depots, and ports of embarkation.

1943 – American Public Health Association Committee on Administrative Practice appoints a subcommittee on accident prevention; the subcommittee reports accident prevention programs in six state and two local health departments.

1946 – The American Academy of Occupational Medicine is founded. Its membership comprises full-time physicians in occupational medicine. It merges with the American Occupational Medicine Association in 1988 to form the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

1948 – All states (48 at the time) have workers’ compensation laws.

1950 – The first doctorates of industrial medicine are conferred upon three graduates of the University of Pittsburgh.

1952 – The Coal Mine Safety Act passes into law.

1953 – Human Factors in Air Transportation is published by McFarland. Industrial Nursing Journal begun; it later became the Occupational Health Nursing Journal and then AAOHN Journal.

1955 – First annual Stapp conferences on the biomechanics of crashes are held.

1955 – American Board on Preventive Medicine recognizes occupational medicine as a subspecialty, with its own certification requirements.

1956 – Accident Prevention Program is initiated by the U.S. Public Health Service.

1959 – Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is founded.

1960 – Specific safety standards are promulgated for the Walsh-Healey Act.

1961 – American Public Health Association publishes Accident Prevention: The Role of Physician and Public Health Workers.

1964 – Passage of the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act greatly expands the powers of federal inspectors. It served as a model for the 1970 Occupational Health and Safety Act.

1964 – Journal of Safety Research begins publication.

1964 – Haddon, Suchman, and Klein publish Accident Research: Methods and Approaches.

1964 – Eleven schools of public health develop training programs in injury prevention funded by the U.S. Public Health Service.

1964 – The four major U.S. auto manufacturers install front-seat lap belts as standard equipment.

1966 – Accidental Death and Disability: The Neglected Disease of Modern Society is published by the National Research Council.

1966 – The U.S. Department of Transportation and its sections, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, are established.

1968 – President Lyndon Johnson calls for a federal occupational safety and health law.

1969 – Mine Safety and Health Act becomes law.

1969 – The Construction Safety Act is passed into law.

1969 – Board of Certified Safety Professionals, which certifies practitioners in the safety profession, is established.

1969 – Graduate programs in occupational health nursing begin.

1970 – Occupational Safety and Health Act is passed into law.

1970 – The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health are established.

1972 – Black Lung Benefits Act is enacted.

1972 – Accreditation Board for Occupational Health Nursing is established.

1974 – The Industrial Medical Association becomes the American Occupational Medicine Association.

1977 – Mine Safety and Health Administration is established to administer the provisions of the Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977.

1977 – American Association of Industrial Nurses is renamed as American Association of Occupational Health Nurses.

1980 – First population-based and emergency room-based injury surveillance system is implemented in the United States (Massachusetts and Ohio).

1985 – Injury in America: A Continuing Public Health Problem is published by the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine.

1988 – The American Academy of Occupational Medicine and the American Occupational Medical Association merge to become the American College of Occupational Medicine.

1988 – Occupational Safety and Health Administration hires its first occupational health nurse.

1988 – Role of the Primary Care Physician in Occupational and Environmental Medicine published by the Institute of Medicine.

1991 – Disability in America: Toward a National Agenda for Prevention is published by the Institute of Medicine.

1991 – Addressing the Physician Shortage in Occupational and Environmental Medicine is published by the Institute of Medicine.

1992 – Americans with Disabilities Act is passed.

1993 – Injury Control in the 1990s: A National Plan for Action is published by the Centers for Disease Control.

1998 – American Association of Occupational Health Nurses Foundation established.

1999 – Reducing the Burden of Injury is published by the Institute of Medicine.