6000 to 3400 BC: Natives of India and Egypt tinker around with nose shaping — apparently vanity is the oldest vice.
1700s:
British physicians visit India and discover the rhinoplasty techniques
that would eventually become the modern-day nose job. They bring these
procedures back to the Western world.
1940s:
Japanese prostitutes, believing that larger breasts will attract
American servicemen, experiment with breast augmentation. They inject
themselves with non-medical grade silicon, paraffin, and other
substances such as sponges.
1951: Sir Harold Gillies, an otolaryngologist from New Zealand, performs the very first male-to-female sex change operation.
1962:
Texas native Timmie Jean Lindsey becomes the first woman to receive
silicone breast implants. Lindsey had wanted to have her ears pinned
back but couldn't afford the surgery. She agreed to undergo the
augmentation in exchange for ear surgery. In 2007, she spoke out saying
she regretted the procedure.
1993: Jennifer Grey, who catapulted to fame as Baby in Dirty Dancing,
undergoes rhinoplasty to reshape her famous hooked nose. She emerges
unrecognizable with a small, delicate nose. She later admitted: "I went
in the operating room a celebrity — and came out anonymous. It was like
being in a witness protection program or being invisible."
1996: Pamela Anderson, already known for both her skimpy Baywatch
lifeguard swimsuits and large set of implants, has her first child and
announces that she is able to breast-feed — proving to the world that a
pocket of silicon doesn't hinder the mother-child bond.
2003: Nip/Tuck
premieres on FX. The show, which ran for seven seasons, portrays the
sordid lives of two fictitious cosmetic surgeons in Miami. It quickly
becomes the highest-rated basic cable series of all time.
2006:
Actress Tara Reid becomes a tabloid sensation after confessing that she
underwent multiple plastic surgeries including breast augmentation and
liposuction procedures that "went wrong," resulting in deformities.
2009:
Reality star Heidi Montag has ten plastic surgeries in a single day,
including brow-lifts, ear-pinnings, a chin reduction, and a second
rhinoplasty and breast augmentation. In December 2010, she expressed
regret over the procedures, saying: “Surgery ruined my career and my
personal life... I wish I could jump into a time machine and take it all
back. Instead, I'm always going to feel like Edward Scissorhands."
2009:
Solange Magnano, an Argentine model and former beauty queen, dies at
age 38 when injections from a buttocks-firming procedure traveled to her
lungs and brain.
2010:
In a grueling 24-hour operation involving 30 professionals, Spanish
surgeons complete the world’s first full-face transplant on a
31-year-old man who accidentally shot himself while hunting.
2010:
No longer just for the rich and famous, more than 13 million cosmetic
surgical and nonsurgical procedures are performed nationally — a
155-percent increase from when statistics were first pulled in 1997. The
top procedures are breast augmentation, liposuction, eyelid surgery,
abdominoplasty, and breast reduction.
Source : MSN Health
