The first public account identifying AIDS was published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on June 5, 1981. That date is now regarded as the beginning of the pandemic.

See the following for more information:

Special Report: 30 Years of AIDS

Patient No More: Timothy Brown—a.k.a. “the Berlin Patient”—is the Man Who Once Had HIV

Frontline Physician: Michael Gottlieb, MD, the doctor who diagnosed the first AIDS cases

31 at 30: Thirty-one long-term survivors on thirty years of AIDS

The POZ Timeline: Milestones in the HIV/AIDS pandemic

Video: Anthony Fauci, MD, head of NIAID, on how we stop AIDS (Part 1 & Part 2)

Video: Carlos del Rio, MD, on evolutions in AIDS treatment

Video: Larry Kramer, founder of ACT UP, on AIDS activism