What’s happened in the 100 years since the founding of the Chiropractic Society of Rhode Island? Well here’s a look at just before and the next 100 years…

1895 – Dr. D.D. Palmer administers two adjustments to the spine of Mr. Harvey Lillard in an effort to improve his hearing.2

1907 – The first lawsuit won for right to practice chiropractic.

1913 – Kansas issues the first licenses to practice chiropractic

1917 – First licenses for chiropractic issued in the state of Rhode Island

1918 – Chiropractic Society of Rhode Island founded

1918 – The Boston Red Sox win the World Series. It will be 86 more years until they win one again in 2004.

1922 - The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) is first organized in opposition to Dr. B.J. Palmer and the Universal Chiropractors' Association.

1927- Charles Lindbergh flies The Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic nonstop and solo, direct from New York City to Paris, as the first solo transatlantic flight.

1929 - The Wall Street Crash starts The Great Depression in the United States

1932 - Franklin D. Roosevelt elected to first of four terms as the President of the United States.

1941 – Pearl Harbor attacked by the Japanese starting the U.S.’ involvement in World War II

1945 - World War II ends and returning veterans enjoy the educational benefits of the G.I. Bill; chiropractic college enrollments skyrocket.

1947 – Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to play in the Major Leagues

1951 – DJ Alan Freed coins the term “rock n roll”.

1959 - Alaska and Hawaii are admitted as the 49th and 50th states in the U.S.

1963 – Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

1964 – The Beatles make their American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show

1969 – Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first men to arrive on the Moon during NASA's Apollo 11 mission

1971 - National College of Chiropractic achieves federally recognized regional accreditation from the New York State Department of Education; the first chiropractic school to achieve this distinction. 

1972 – Watergate scandal begins; Nixon resigns in 1974

1974 - Louisiana becomes the last state to license chiropractic

1975 – The Vietnam War ends

1976 – Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak create Apple Computers.

1977 – Star Wars premieres.

1981 – Lady Diana Spencer and Prince Charles are wed. MTV begins broadcasts.

1987 - Anti-trust case won against the American Medical Association, 1987. Chiropractic included into Blue Cross Rhode Island Health Plans.

1989 – The Berlin Wall is torn down, ending the Cold War.

1991 – Operation Desert Storm begins in Kuwait and Iraq.

1992 - Walter I. Wardwell, PhD, authors, and Mosby-Yearbook publishes Chiropractic: History & Evolution of a New Profession, a scholarly textbook of chiropractic history.

1994 – Nelson Mandela becomes President of South Africa

1994 - The U.S. Agency for Health Care Policy & Research issues its Clinical Practice Guidelines for Acute Low Back Problems in Adults, which recommends spinal manipulative therapy for low back pain.

1995 - The chiropractic profession celebrates its centennial with festivities in Washington, D.C. and Davenport, Iowa.

1996 - The Association of Chiropractic Colleges issues its "Paradigm" of chiropractic, which is widely endorsed by state, national and international chiropractic organizations.

1996 - U.S. government begins official funding support for an ongoing agenda for chiropractic research through the National Institutes of Health.

1997 – The first Harry Potter book is published

2001 – September 11 terrorist attacks.

2002 –Patriots win their first Super Bowl

2002 - The US Congress introduces chiropractic Services in the military health system then, in 2004, throughout the veterans’ administration healthcare system.

2004 – The Boston Red Sox end the “Curse of the Bambino” by defeating the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. Facebook launches.

2009 - Barack Obama sworn in as President of the United States.

2015 – Gay marriage legalized in all 50 states.

2018 - More than 70,000 active chiropractic licenses in the United States. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands officially recognize chiropractic as a health care profession.

2018 – 100th anniversary of the Chiropractic Society of Rhode Island

In other words, not too much. But the 100th celebration will be one for the ages. Please contact Shael Colantino at 401-207-0700 or [email protected] for ticket information.

Find us on the map