
1877 – Born on October 21st in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Canadian-born American bacteriologist whose research helped ascertain that DNA is the substance responsible for heredity, thus laying the foundation for the new science of molecular genetics.
1887 – He went to New York City when his clergyman father began missionary work in the Bowery.
1893 – Avery attended the Colgate Academy and later the Colgate University.
– He became the leader of the college band and acquired the nickname "Babe" because of his small stature.
1904 – He practiced medicine there, became a bacteriologist at Hoagland Laboratory, Brooklyn.
1907 – Avery accepted an associate directorship at Hoagland Laboratory in Brooklyn — the first privately endowed bacterial research laboratory in the United States.
1913 – Avery published a clinical study of the tuberculosis bacterium.
– Joined the Rockefeller Institute.
1917 – His career-long studies of the pneumococcus bacterium included the immunological classification of this organism.
1944 – His subsequent pneumococcal research, summarized, indicated that the agent that transforms non-virulent strains to virulent was DNA, thus demonstrating that DNA is the chemical basis of heredity.
1948 – Avery did his Pneumococcus work at the Rockefeller and stayed there until his retirement.
1955 – He was diagnosed with liver cancer and died on February 20th in Nashville, Tennessee.