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Chiropractor in a coat leans over a patient's back, bracing with both arms and applying pressure.
Chiropractic adjustment (1920). (Photo: Joy Loban)

First known chiropractic adjustment performed by Daniel David Palmer.

1895

ICM
Chiropractic adjustment (1920). (Photo: Joy Loban)

After theorizing that a man's hearing loss is due to a spinal misalignment, Palmer adjusts the man's back and claims to restore his hearing. Seeing the body as a machine whose parts can be manipulated for a "drugless" cure, he begins developing a system of manual adjustments using other modalities to inform his approach. Palmer will go on to open the first chiropractic school in 1897.