It was September 18th, 1895 when the first chiropractic adjustment was given to a man named Harvey Lillard, by Dr. D.D. Palmer. Mr. Lillard, a janitor in the building where Dr. Palmer worked, was previously deaf for almost twenty years after he heard a "pop" in his spine when lifting a heavy box from a stooped position. Dr. Palmer had studied the nervous system and reasoned with Mr. Lillard that if a bone was out of place in his neck, then there could be pressure on the nerves to his ears and that could be the cause of his hearing loss. Dr. Palmer then proceeded to adjust Mr. Lillard's neck by hand and restored the alignment of his spine, thus removing the nerve pressure. Harvey Lillard's hearing returned completely within a few days and it was this event, 118 years ago, that sparked the creation of the profession of chiropractic.
