APA Historical Database: Selected Entries

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On June 14:

1864 — Alois Alzheimer was born. Alzheimer was a German physician and histopathologist. In 1906, Alzheimer first described the syndrome of behavioral and physical degeneration in aging adults that now bears his name. He also provided a comprehensive histopathology of general paresis (1907) and a method of studying individual cells of the cerebro-spinal fluid.

1905 — Oscar Krisen Buros was born. Buros began assembling a list of mental measurements while still a student. The list grew into the Mental Measurements Yearbook, which appeared in frequent revisions and became the authoritative guide to psychological assessment instruments.

1917 — Julius Wagner von Jauregg first intentionally injected a syphilitic psychotic patient with malaria. He later found that the treatment reduced the patient's symptoms. Wagner von Jauregg won the 1927 Nobel prize for his work, which represented the first successful biological treatment for any psychiatric disorder.

1920 — Francis Cecil Sumner became the first African American to earn a PhD in psychology. Sumner earned the degree from Clark University, working under G. Stanley Hall. His dissertation, which he successfully defended on June 11, 1920, was titled "Psychoanalysis of Freud and Adler."

1942 — The first meeting of the National Research Council Emergency Committee was held in Vineland, New Jersey, to determine psychological participation in World War II. Robert Yerkes chaired the group. The coordination required of the participating groups helped to forge the modern, reorganized APA.

1951 — UNIVAC, the first commercial computer, was dedicated and demonstrated at the U.S. Census Bureau in Philadelphia. Statistics, testing, experimental instrumentation, artificial intelligence, cognition, perception, and teaching are some of the areas of psychology affected by commercial computers.

1957 — S. S. Stevens's article "On the Psychophysical Law" was published in Psychological Review. The article was the first thorough exposition of the power law of psychophysics.

1969 — Texas Governor Preston Smith signed Senate Bill 667, establishing certification and licensure of psychologists in the state.

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