The Erie Canal opens, the Pony Express closes, Wyatt Earp shoots it out in Tombstone, "Baby Fae" gets a baboon heart, and the Patriot Act is signed into law, all on this day.
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Courtesy of LLUMC
1984: "Baby Fae" is given the heart of a baboon after being born with a severe heart defect. The procedure, performed by Leonard L. Bailey at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California, initially appears to be successful, but Fae would die 21 days later of a kidney infection.