November 29, 1902

On this day “The New York Medical Record” published an account of pioneering surgeon Dr. Luther Leonidas Hill performing the first successful surgery on a wounded heart in the Western Hemisphere when he sutured a knife wound in a 13-year-old boy’s heart. Widely regarded as an authority on heart wounds, Hill had not actually operated on a living heart. The boy survived the 45-minute surgery and within a few weeks had recovered from his wounds. Hill, a Montgomery native, was the father of Alabama politician and U.S. Sen. Lister Hill, whom he named for Joseph Lister, the pioneer of sterile surgery.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Young doctor Luther Leonidas Hill, seated far right, poses with a group of medical students in Birmingham in 1890. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of University of Alabama at Birmingham Archives)

Lister Hill (1894-1984) was a U.S. representative and senator from Alabama best known for his contributions to health care policy and for sponsoring legislation that created the Tennessee Valley Authority. A Montgomery lawyer before entering politics, Hill was elected president of the Montgomery Board of Education at age 22, served in the U.S. Army in World War I, and was a member of Congress for nearly 46 years. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives and History)

Lister Hill, right, of Alabama is sworn into the U.S. Senate by Vice President John Nance Garner in 1938 to fill the seat of Hugo Black, who had been appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Dixie Bibb Graves filled the seat vacated by Black for five months prior to Hill’s election. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of the Library of Congress)

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