UW–Madison firsts

DateEvent
1875 Nation’s first Scandinavian studies department
1890 First test of butterfat content in milk
1913 Discovery of vitamin A
1916 Discovery of vitamin B
1924 Discovery of methods to enrich food with vitamin D
1919 Oldest educational radio station
1926 First university dance program
1930s Discovery of methods to iodize salt
1936 First artist-in-residence program at a university
1939 First university department of wildlife management
1959 First space-based weather camera
1968 First bone marrow transplant
1970 Creation of the first synthetic gene
1973 Nation’s only on-campus blood donation center
1987 Development of Wisconsin Solution, used in transplant surgery
1998 First cultivation of embryonic stem cells in a lab