On Oct. 10, 1962, the Kefauver-Harris Drug Amendments were signed into law by President Kennedy. Names after Senators Estes Kefauver of Tennessee and Oren Harris, of Arkansas.

Senators James Eastland of Mississippi and Everett Dirksen of Illinois were among the many who opposed Senator Estes Kefauver’s attempts to reform drug regulation in the early 1960s—at the same time when children around the world were suffering the crippling effects of thalidomide. Published by Herb Block, Washington Post.