Portrait of Henry Hallett Dale

Birthday profile

Henry Hallett Dale

Henry Hallett Dale, English pharmacologist and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1968)

Born
June 9, 1875
Died
July 23, 1968
Zodiac sign
Gemini
Birth year
1875

About Henry Hallett Dale

Sir Henry Hallett Dale (9 June 1875 – 23 July 1968) was an English pharmacologist and physiologist. For his study of acetylcholine as agent in the chemical transmission of nerve pulses (neurotransmission) he shared the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Otto Loewi. == Early life and education == Henry Hallett Dale was born in Islington, London, to Charles James Dale, a pottery manufacturer from Staffordshire, and his wife, Frances Anne Hallett, daughter of a furniture manufacturer, from South Devon. Henry was the third of seven children, one of whom (his younger brother, Benjamin Dale) became an accomplished composer and warden of the Royal Academy of Music. Henry was educated at the local Tollington Park College and then The Leys School Cambridge (one of the school's houses is named after him) and in 1894 entered Trinity College, Cambridge, working under the physiologist John Langley. For a few months in 1903 he also studied under Paul Ehrlich in Frankfurt, Germany. Also in 1903, Dale assisted Ernest Starling and William Bayliss in the vivisection of a dog, by removing the dog's pancreas and then killing the dog with a knife, which ultimately led to the events of the Brown Dog affair. Dale received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Cambridge in 1909. == Career and research == While working at the University College London, he met and became friends with Otto Loewi. Dale became the director of the Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology at the National Institute for Medical Research in London in 1914.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

Henry Hallett Dale timeline

  1. Although Dale and his colleagues first identified acetylcholine in 1914 as a possible neurotransmitter, Loewi showed its importance in the nervous system.
  2. Dale became the director of the Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology at the National Institute for Medical Research in London in 1914.

The world when Henry Hallett Dale was born

Henry Hallett Dale was born in 1875. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst Kentucky Derby — won by Aristides
  • Top headlineCivil Rights Act of 1875 passed
  • Technology milestoneFirst Kentucky Derby horse race
  • World population~1.55B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderUlysses S. Grant
  • U.S. population42.6M

1875 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Henry Hallett Dale's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18752026
Population42.6M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.