Apart from discovering blood types Landsteiner also found that people of the same or compatible types can receive transfusions from one another. Established in 2004, World Blood Donor Day serves to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products, and to thank blood donors for their voluntary, life-saving gifts of blood. By midday online correspondent | Posted 1 hourGoogle commemorates Karl Landsteiner, an Austrian and American biologist and physician, who discovered the existence of blood types A, B, AB and O in 1900, on his 148th birth anniversary. Karl Landsteiner and Alexander S. Wiener identified the the Rhesus factor, in 1937, thus enabling physicians to transfuse blood without endangering the patient′s life. His birthday 14 June is observed as World Blood Donor Day (WBDD).

Source: Mid-Day June 14, 2016 03:22 UTC