Industrialist and philanthropist James B. Duke establishes The Duke Endowment, part of which transforms Durham's Trinity College into Duke University.

James B. Duke makes an additional bequest to establish the Duke University Schools of Medicine and Nursing and University Hospital. The goal: improving health care in the Carolinas and nationwide.

Duke University Hospital opens to patients on July 21. The event attracts 25,000 visitors.

On Aug. 15, 1930, classes at the Medical School begin, while the first classes for nursing students begin on Jan. 2, 1931.

The clinic provides coordinated medical and surgical care to private patients with moderate incomes.

The Association of American Medical Colleges ranks Duke among the top 25 percent of medical schools in the country - less than five years after it opened.

Duke surgeon J. Deryl Hart uses ultraviolet lamps in operating rooms to kill airborne germs that cause post-operative staph infections. The number of infections and related deaths declines dramatically.

Duke establishes the nation's first brain tumor program, launching what will become a leader in the field.

Duke pediatric expert leads the push for drug companies to develop child-proof safety caps for medicine bottles.

The 40-bed North Carolina Cerebral Palsy Hospital is dedicated. It is later renamed Lenox Baker Children's Hospital.

The Duke University Center for Aging, the first research center of its kind in the nation, is established.

Duke surgeons become first to use systemic hypothermia during cardiac surgery. The technique of cooling patients' body temperatures minimizes tissue damage during lengthy surgeries. The practice is now standard worldwide.

The Medical-Surgical Nursing Department develops the clinical nursing specialist program, the first master's program of its kind in the United States.

Duke University School of Medicine admits its first African American student, Wilhem Delano Meriwether.

Duke establishes the nation's first Physician Assistant Program.

Duke scientists discover the enzyme that protects living things against the toxicity of oxygen.

In its hyperbaric chamber, Duke conducts the first recorded studies of humans' ability to function and work at pressures equal to a 1,000-foot deep-sea dive.

The Duke Databank for Cardiovascular Disease is created. It is today the world's largest and oldest databank on heart care outcomes.

The Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center becomes one of the nation’s first cancer centers established by the National Cancer Act. It is designated a "comprehensive" cancer center by the National Cancer Institute in 1973.

The Eye Center opens and is dedicated on November 8.

The new $94.5-million, 616-bed Duke University Hospital opens north of the original hospital. The total number of patient beds tops 1,000.

Duke becomes one of two hospitals to conduct the first human clinical trials of AZT, the first drug developed to treat HIV/AIDS.

Duke geneticists invent a three-minute test to screen newborns for over 30 metabolic diseases at once. The test is now routinely used throughout the country.

Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center develops the nation's first outpatient bone-marrow transplantation program.

Duke performs its first lung transplant and its first heart/lung transplant.

Duke pediatric immunologist Louise Markert, MD, develops the first treatment of its kind for babies with DiGeorge Syndrome suffering from thymus abnormalities.

Duke researchers identify apolipoprotein E (apoE) as the major susceptibility gene for Alzheimer's disease. It is one of many genetic risk factors for disease identified at Duke.

Duke enrolls the final patient in GUSTO-I, the largest clinical trial conducted in the United States. The trial infrastructure formed the foundation for the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), the nation's foremost academic clinical trials center.

Duke scientists help discover the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes responsible for many inherited forms of breast and ovarian cancers.

The Duke Clinical Research Institute is established. DCRI conducts large, multinational clinical trials, manages major national patient registries, and performs outcomes research.

Duke University Health System is created as Duke establishes partnerships with Durham Regional Hospital (now Duke Regional Hospital), Raleigh Community Hospital (now Duke Raleigh Hospital), and other regional health care providers and practices.

The McGovern-Davison Children’s Health Center opens, bringing all of Duke’s pediatric specialties under one roof. The $32.5 million facility is completely paid for through philanthropy.

Duke Health and the National University of Singapore partner to establish that country's first graduate medical school. The new school is based on Duke's medical school curriculum and the U.S. model in which students enter medical school after earning their baccalaureate degree.

Raleigh Community Hospital changes its name to Duke Raleigh Hospital, introducing Wake County residents to newly expanded services including a cardiovascular center and cancer center.

Duke is selected by the National Institutes of Health to lead the $300 million Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology (CHAVI). The consortium of research universities is dedicated to HIV vaccine research, development and design.

The FDA approves a lifesaving treatment developed at Duke for Pompe disease, a previously fatal genetic disorder.

The university-wide Global Health Institute is launched to promote education, research and service in health care to underserved populations globally.

The Duke University School of Nursing admits the first students into its new doctoral degree program. The school also opens a new facility that unites all nursing education and research programs on one campus.

Duke University Hospital is named a Magnet Hospital by the American Nurses Association. Less than 4 percent of U.S. hospitals hold the distinction. Durham Regional achieves Magnet status in 2008; Duke Raleigh follows in 2009.

Duke scientists create the first map of imprinted genes throughout the human genome. The mapping reveals four times as many imprinted genes as had previously been identified.

The first class of the Duke-NUS Doctor of Medicine program graduates.

A new Duke Cancer Center facility opens, a state-of-the-art patient care center that consolidates in one location almost all outpatient clinical cancer care services.

Robert Lefkowitz, MD, professor of medicine, wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Duke University Health System becomes the first provider in the greater Triangle region to implement the country's leading electronic health record (EHR) system. Duke University Hospital and 223 outpatient facilities use the state-of-the-art system.

Duke Medicine Pavilion, a major expansion of Duke University Hospital, opens. The eight-floor, 608,000 square-foot building includes 160 critical care rooms, 18 operating rooms and an imaging suite.  

In a first-of-its-kind operation in the United States, a team of Duke surgeons transplants a bioengineered blood vessel into a patient's arm. Duke surgeons helped create the vessel.

Blake Wilson, co-director of the Duke Hearing Center wins the 2013 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for his role in the development of cochlear implants.

On July 1, 2013, Durham Regional Hospital becomes Duke Regional Hospital.

The Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans Center for Health Education opens as the new home for the School of Medicine.

Duke doctors implant the seventh so-called "bionic eye" in the U.S., allowing a patient to see for the first time in 33 years.

Duke opens the state-of-the-art Hudson Building at Duke Eye Center. The four-floor facility has 116,000 square feet.

Paul Modrich, James B. Duke professor in the Department of Biochemistry, wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The award recognizes his four decades of work on how mistakes in the DNA code are repaired.

The FDA awards Duke "breakthrough therapy designation" for their poliovirus therapy for glioblastoma. The therapy was developed and is being tested by researchers at Duke's Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center.

Robert Califf, MD, vice chancellor of clinical and translational research at Duke University School of Medicine and a global leader in cardiovascular medicine, is named commissioner of the FDA.