MEDLINE Celebrates Its 45th Anniversary!

October 2016 marks the 45th anniversary of MEDLINE (MEDLARS Online). Much has changed since 1971. Here are a some notable MEDLINE and current events that happened in 1971, 2006 at the 35th anniversary, and today. See Figure 1 for an infographic presentation of some of the information in the chart.

Notable MEDLINE Events
1971	2006 (Fiscal Year 2005 Statistics)	2016 (Fiscal Year 2015 Statistics)
236 indexed journals; grew to 1,222 journals by September 1972	4,928 indexed journals	5,618 indexed journals
147,000 total citations for MEDLARS since January 1, 1969; grew to 490,000 by September 1972	606,000 citations indexed; 13,476,222 total citations	806,326 citations indexed; 20,651,383 total citations not counting the 2 million OLDMEDLINE-derived citations that all now have MeSH
22 users	77 million PubMed unique visits	601 million PubMed unique visitors
70,000 searches/year by June 1972	754 million PubMed searches	2.8 billion PubMed searches (Web and API)
Operated on an IBM 360/50 mainframe computer	PubMed/MEDLINE runs on 20 Dell PowerEdge 1850 servers, 2 CPU 8Gb RAM, with the Linux operating system in 64 bit mode	PubMed runs on approximately 62 standard Linux servers, each with two quad core 2.6-3.6 GHz Intel Nehalem CPUs, 48-64 GB of memory, 1TB of local storage, and a Gigabit Ethernet connection.
Available via dial-up telecommunications for a fee	Available via the Internet World Wide Web	Still available free on the Internet World Wide Web

Current Events
1971	2006	2016
NASA Mariner 1 arrived at Mars - the first spacecraft to orbit the Red Planet.	March 10 - NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter enters Mars orbit.	NASA’s Juno spacecraft entered Jupiter orbit.
Chemistry Nobel Prize awarded to Gerhard Herzberg, Canada for "for his contributions to the knowledge of electronic structure and geometry of molecules, particularly free radicals."	Leading astronomers declared that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight.	Astronomers announced discovery of Proxmia b, a possibly Earth-like planet.
Earl W. Sutherland, Jr wins Nobel for Physiology or Medicine for "his discoveries concerning the mechanisms of the action of hormones."	A U.S. advisory panel recommended that 11- and 12-year-old girls be routinely vaccinated against the human papillomavirus virus that causes cervical cancer.	NCI announced a scientific roadmap to support the White House Cancer Moonshot goals.
In November Intel publicly introduced the world's first single chip microprocessor.	A drug-resistant bacterium, Staphylococcus aureus, became the most common identifiable cause of skin infections treated in emergency rooms, accounting for 59 percent of such ER cases in 11 major U.S. cities.	NIH began testing an investigational Zika vaccine in humans.
The 26th Amendment lowered the United States voting age from 21 to 18.	April - More than 1,000 cases of the mumps reported in Iowa and seven surrounding states in the largest outbreak of the disease in the U.S. in more than 20 years.	NIH funded precision medicine research with a focus on health disparities.
Walt Disney World opened October 1 in Orlando, Florida.	"30 Rock" debuts on NBC.	NLM welcomes Dr. Patricia Flatley Brennan, RN, PhD, as its new Director.
"All in the Family" debuts in 1971 on CBS.	July: "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" opens - as of September 2006 the film made over $414 million dollars in the U.S.	PubMed has its 20th anniversary.
National Book Award for fiction presented to Saul Bellow for Mr. Sammler's Planet.	As of September, the current number one song is "SexyBack" (Justin Timberlake).	Final videocassette recorder was manufactured by the Japanese company Funai.
"The French Connection" won the Best Picture Academy Award.		Summer Olympics held in Rio de Janiero; NIH funds Zika virus study involving U.S. Olympic team.
#1 song according to Billboard Magazine: "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night.		As of September 16, the movie "Finding Dory" grossed over $483 million in the U.S.
		In January, Adele's "Hello" is the # 1 song.