
09/18/2025
Today is National Chiropractic Founders Day! The very FIRST chiropractic adjustment took place Sept. 18, 1895. The history of chiropractic began when Dr. Daniel David Palmer met Harvey Lillard, a partially deaf janitor. When Dr. Palmer asked Lillard what happened, he replied: “I moved the wrong way, and I heard a ‘pop’ in my back, and that’s when I lost my hearing.” It was on this day Dr. Palmer asked Lillard into his office and persuaded him to lay flat on his stomach. Dr. Palmer examined Lillard’s back, found a vertebra was out of place and gave a sharp thrust with his hands to put the vertebra back into place. The next day, Lillard told him for the first time in 17 years, he could once again hear the sounds of the streets.
Another fun fact: Dr. Palmer developed the term ‘chiropractic’ which comes from the Greek words cheir (meaning ‘hand’) and praktos (meaning ‘done’), i.e. done by Hand.