Frank Macfarlane Burnet (1899-1985) was an Australian virologist best known for his contributions to immunology. He conducted pioneering research on bacteriophages and viruses at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Melbourne, and served as director of the Institute from 1944 to 1965. Burnet's research on viruses resulted in significant discoveries concerning their nature and replication and their interaction with the immune system. From the mid-1950s, he worked extensively in immunology and was a major contributor to the theory of clonal selection, which explains how lymphocytes target antigens for destruction. Burnet and Peter Medawar were co-recipients of the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for demonstrating acquired immune tolerance. This research provided the experimental basis for inducing immune tolerance-the platform for developing methods of transplanting solid organs. Burnet left the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in 1965, and continued to work at the University of Melbourne until his official retirement in 1978. During his working life he wrote 31 books and monographs and more than 500 scientific papers. (more...)

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• Israeli ground forces enter Gaza after a week of airstrikes against Hamas in the area.
• John Atta Mills (pictured) of the National Democratic Congress is elected President of Ghana.
• The 2009 Dakar Rally, the first to take place outside of Europe and Africa, begins in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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• In Bangkok, Thailand, a fire at a nightclub kills 61 people and injures 212.
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January 6: Tenth of Tevet (Judaism, 2009); Epiphany in Western Christianity

• 1066 - Harold Godwinson was crowned King of England, widely regarded as the last Anglo-Saxon king before the Norman conquest.
• 1661 - Thomas Venner and the Fifth Monarchists unsuccessfully attempted to seize control of London from the newly restored government of Charles II.
• 1838 - Samuel Morse and his assistant Alfred Vail successfully tested the electrical telegraph for the first time at Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown, New Jersey, USA.
• 1907 - Italian educator Maria Montessori opened her first school and day care center for working class children in Rome.
• 1941 - During his State of the Union Address, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented his Four Freedoms as fundamental freedoms humans everywhere in the world ought to enjoy.
• 1994 - Two-time American Olympic figure skating medalist Nancy Kerrigan (pictured) was clubbed on the right leg by an assailant hired by Jeff Gillooly, the ex-husband of her rival skater Tonya Harding.

• More events: January 5 - January 6 - January 7

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