January 11, 1964

Surgeon General Luther Terry delivered the first Surgeon General‘s Report on Smoking and Health. Appointed to the position of surgeon general by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, Terry personally quit smoking in 1963 and undertook a campaign urging all American smokers to do the same. His report, based on more than 7,000 peer-reviewed articles, declared smoking to be a health hazard responsible for causing cardiovascular disease, emphysema, lung cancer and other ailments. The report was the first of more than 20 and resulted in the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965, requiring a warning label on each package of cigarettes.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Luther Terry (1911-1985) was the U.S. surgeon general from 1961-65. He campaigned to curb cigarette smoking in America and spearheaded the use of health warning labels on tobacco products. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of U.S. National Library of Science)

Shortly after a committee in Britain issued a report on the dangers of tobacco use in 1962, Luther Terry formed the Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health, which in 1964 released Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the United States, the first U.S. report to declare smoking a health hazard. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.