| Year | Events |
| 1923 | Dr. Elliott C. Cutler performed the 1st successful section of the stenosed mitral valve. |
| 1938 | Dr. Robert Gross performed the 1st cogenital heart defect correction by ligating a patent ductus arteriosus. |
| 1940 | Dr. Michael DeBakey invented the roller pump, which became the driving component of the heart-lung machine for open heart procedure. |
| 1945 | Drs. Alfred Blalock and pediatric cardiologist Helen Taussig reported the 1st cure of three “Blue babies” by operation. |
| 1945 | Dr. Robert Gross performed the 1st successful correction of aortic coarctation. |
| 1952 | Dr. F. John Lewis of University of Minnesota performed the 1st open heart operation, using hypothermia, to close an atrial septal defect (atrial-SD) in a 5-year-old girl. |
| 1953 | After more than 20-years of research, Dr. John H. Gibbon used an extra-corporeal heart-lung machine, developed with IBM, to give a patient continuous blood flow for 26 minutes to close an atrial-SD. |
| 1954 | Dr. Clarence W. Lillehei performed the 1st cross-circulation when the patient’s parent served as a living oxygenator. He did 45 such operations to close ventricular-SD. |
| 1964 | Dr. H. Edward Garrett performed the 1st successful coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) procedure using a saphenous vein graft |
| 1969 | Dr. Denton Cooley of Texas 1st successfully implanted an artificial heart in a patient. |
| 1970 | Dr. William S. Pierce developed the Penn State Heart-Assist Pump, the 1st surgically implantable pulsatile blood pump |