1981 The CDC reports a cluster of pneumocystis pneumonia in five gay men in Los Angeles in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The term GRID is coined for the epidemic.
1982 Gay Men’s Health Crisis is formed to deal with the disease in New York City.
Congressman Henry Waxman organizes the first congressional probe into the epidemic.
AIDS is found in a baby who had received a blood transfusion.
The CDC renames GRID AIDS in the hopes of ending stigma surrounding the disease.
1983 The CDC identifies all major routes of AIDS transmission.
The first dedicated outpatient center for AIDS patients opens in San Francisco.
1984 Ryan White is diagnosed with AIDS.
1985 The CDC puts out blood screening guidelines for all donated blood to protect the nation’s blood supply.
Ryan White is banned from school because of his AIDS diagnosis. This event sparks nationwide debate.
Rock Hudson dies of AIDS-related complications.
1987 The FDA approves AZT for treatment of HIV/AIDS.
President Reagan gives his first address dealing with the AIDS epidemic and announces the formation of the President’s Commission on HIV.
The AIDS quilt is unfurled on the National Lawn.
1988 Surgeon General Koop mails more than a million copies of the Understanding AIDS brochure to every household in America. It is the largest medical mailing in American history.
1991 Magic Johnson announces he’s HIV positive.
1996 The AIDS cocktail antiretroviral drug therapy regimen becomes standard.
2007 The Berlin Patient Timothy Ray Brown is cured of AIDS.
2016 Governor Mike Pence declares a state of
emergency in Indiana due to an HIV outbreak that occurred in December 2015.