1936: The Dallas City-County Hospital System is founded after passage of a state law authorizing incorporation of two tax-supported institutions — the general city hospital (Parkland) and the Convalescent Home in Hutchins. It also establishes a third hospital, Woodlawn, for the care of tuberculosis patients.
1939: Dr. Edward Cary and other prominent Dallas citizens organize Southwestern Medical Foundation to promote medical education and research.
1943: When Baylor University College of Medicine moves to Houston, the foundation creates Southwestern Medical College and Cary becomes its first president.
1949: Southwestern becomes the second state-supported medical school in Texas, besting efforts from San Antonio and Temple.
April 26, 1952: Groundbreaking ceremonies for Parkland are held at the present location.
1954: Parkland becomes the first civilian hospital in Texas to use an artificial kidney machine.
Oct. 3, 1954: The new Parkland Memorial Hospital is officially dedicated.
Dec. 23, 1954: Dallas County voters overwhelmingly approve creation of the Dallas County Hospital District.
1955: Parkland establishes its first kidney dialysis unit.
1955: Parkland performs the first corneal transplant in Dallas.
1956: Parkland develops one of the first nuclear medicine labs in the United States.
April 2, 1957: Parkland cares for 175 patients in two hours after a tornado ravages Dallas.
1957: Parkland acquires a cineangiofluorograph, the first X-ray machine in the United States capable of shooting simultaneous front and side views of a beating human heart, and performs the first open- and dry-heart surgery in Dallas, replacing a missing wall in a 7-year-old girl's heart.
1958: Parkland opens a four-story outpatient clinic.
1959: Parkland begins the first medical service in Texas specializing in pediatric infectious diseases.
1961: Parkland opens one of the largest civilian burn units in the United States, designating four, four-bed wards as a burn treatment area. The area is officially dedicated in 1962.
1962: Parkland's Emergency Room becomes a model system for the nation when it is reorganized into six treatment areas and, under the direction of Head Nurse Doris Nelson, begins the nation's first nurse-directed triage system.
1962: Parkland offers the first seven-day, 24-hour staffed operating room in North Texas.
Nov. 22, 1963: President Kennedy is brought to Parkland after he is shot by an assassin.
