Back in the Day: the tobacco industry’s ‘smoking gun’

January 11, 1964 Surgeon General of the United States, Luther Terry, publishes a report on the adverse health effects of smoking. While not the first official study relating tobacco consumption and health hazards, it was certainly the first to have any significant impact on how society would view the dangers of smoking. The report was released on a Saturday to keep to a minimum the inevitably bad reaction of the stock market to the news that lung cancer and chronic bronchitis are causally related to cigarette smoking. It also suggested links between smoking and emphysema, cardiovascular disease, and other types of cancer. Compiled at the request of President John F. Kennedy, the report also recommended “appropriate remedial action” to warn the public of the dangers of tobacco smoke. By June 1964, the US government had ordered the tobacco industry to print health warnings on their products. Meanwhile smokers across the world became aware of the risks they were taking.

Also on January 11: William Hershel discovers Uranus’ moons Titania and Oberon (1787); Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California (1935); French president François Mitterand is buried (1996).

Born on January 11: Pierre Mendès-France (1907), Jean Chrétien (1934), Arthur Scargill (1938), Bryan Robson (1957), Mary J. Blige (1971), Rahul Dravid (1973).

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