Today is May 1, and on this date in history, in 1956, Dr. Jonas Salk's polio vaccine was released to the public.  There really was a panic about the disease in the early 1950's that is hard to realize today.  Nobody gets polio anymore, but they sure did in the old days. President Franklin Roosevelt was the most famous victim.

I am 65 and I know several people near my age who are polio victims.  The vaccine was immediately dispensed all over the country and the disease was ended.

I am doing research on a great American invention and I chose the Polio Vaccine so it helped me ALOT!

Jonas Salk was primarily known for developing a vaccine against polio in the 1950's. Polio was a crippling disease that destroyed many lives. The onset was sudden and usually at the peak of a person's life. U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt was among the millions of victims of this disease. In Roosevelt's case, it destroyed the muscles around his legs, rendering him a cripple. Coincidentally, Roosevelt poured millions of dollars into research towards finding a cure for polio. If he hadn't been president, maybe Dr. Salk would not have discovered the cure or someone else would have found it much later. The polio vaccination no doubt saved millions of people throughout the entire world.

Saved countless human beings from death by developing the polio vaccine. That kind of thing reaches across not only our country, but the whole planet.