Meet the very first ‘test-tube baby’

Plus: Endangered species and JFK Jr. |

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. SUBSCRIBE to TIME Magazine July 26, 2018 By Lily Rothman This Wednesday was a milestone birthday for a woman named Louise Brown, which means it was also a milestone for medical history. That's because, when Brown was born 40 years ago, she was the first baby born after being conceived through IVF. TIME's Ciara Nugent spoke to Brown this week about what it was like to grow up famous for being the first "test-tube baby"—and why she doesn't mind that term, even though "there weren't any test tubes involved." Click here to read the whole story. Here's more of the history that made news this week: HISTORY ON TIME.COM What the South in the '60s Said About America's Future A focused look at the South in 1964 "offered a glimpse into a future marked by dramatic and unforeseen change" How Internships Replaced the Entry-Level Job The American internship has changed drastically over the course of the last 75 years. Here's how the idea got started Lessons From America's First Camping Guide The history of camping in the U.S. starts in the Adirondacks, with a guidebook that became an instant bestseller. The Surprising Story of World War I’s Only Attack on U.S. Soil Though the attack's circumstances were remarkable, its death toll was zero Why the Endangered Species Act Was Created in the First Place "Nothing is more priceless and more worthy of preservation than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed," said President Nixon FROM THE TIME VAULT 75 Years Ago: Patton in Sicily “His mind and his experience told him that the foes to be beaten in Europe were the Germans, that the way to defeat the Germans was to confront them with overwhelming force. He likes to say: ‘It makes no difference what part of Europe you kill Germans in.’ Sicily, for him, is a way station on the road to the battlefields where Germans can be killed in quantities. On the way he will see to it that, as in Sicily, he meets them when he has the superior forces necessary to kill and defeat them.” (July 26, 1943) Read the full story Today in 1999: Remembering JFK Jr. “We saw them in black and white, blessed and cursed, the image of the merry young father climbing off the helicopter, wrapping his arms around the tiny boy who ran across the lawn to him, cuddling his son in the rowboat, walking on the beach, tumbling in the grass. The pictures of President Kennedy and his son brought home to us one life ended too soon, the hollowing out of a country's soul when it lost its President, but most cruelly they reminded us of the boy who lost his dad before he got to know him. All he could do was salute. We saw those pictures again all weekend, but now the dark shadow has lengthened with the passing of 35 years to claim the son as well.” (July 26, 1999) Read the full story Today in 2004: Back to Vegas “This New Vegas, this stomach-churning Vegas, was built from a scrap heap of roller coasters. When gambling popped up at every racetrack and lottery counter and on every riverboat and square foot where a Native American once lived, Las Vegas had an identity crisis. It built theme parks, believing that if its vices had become acceptable, it might as well be a peddler of family-friendly activities. And it stumbled. Because what Vegas hadn't understood is that, compared with even the most worn-out vices, like keno and showgirls, roller coasters bite. So now Vegas has reinvented itself again, returning to vice but sanitizing it by creating the biggest, nicest place to sin ever imagined, a Sodom and Gomorrah without the guilt." (July 26, 2004) Read the full story HIGHLIGHTS FROM AROUND THE WEB Medieval Mess At Forbes, Medieval studies prof Matthew Gabriele looks at what a controversy over the lineup at an academic conference reveals about the lingering effects of old attitudes about race on the way the Middle Ages are studied. Female Filmmakers Manohla Dargis of the New York Times uses a new film series as a jumping-off point to explain the importance of women in early Hollywood history—and how they later got left out of their own story. Art History NBC News goes to Italy for a look inside the story of the young woman thought to have been the inspiration for Botticelli’s famous “Birth of Venus.” Running Interference At the Atlantic, Peter Beinart argues that the U.S. won’t be able to confront the current problem with Russian interference in American politics until the nation admits to its own history of meddling in foreign elections. Poet Preserved With a local story that sheds light on broader issues about preservation, Jim O’Grady at Gothamist details the arguments over whether to preserve a Brooklyn house where Walt Whitman once lived. To Unsubscribe Unsubscribe here if you do not want to receive this newsletter. Update Email Click here to update your email address. Privacy Policy Please read our Privacy Policy. TIME may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. For Further Communication Please email history@time.com TIME Customer Service 3000 University Center Drive Tampa, FL 33612-6408 Connect with TIME Find TIME on Facebook Follow TIME on Twitter Subscribe to more TIME Newsletters Get TIME on your Mobile Device Get TIME on your iPad Subscribe to RSS Feed