Louis Pasteur
A chemist and microbiologist who disproved spontaneous generation by experiment and showed that fermentation and spoilage are caused by living organisms; from this came pasteurisation and the whole of surgical asepsis. He developed vaccines against anthrax and rabies, first trying the latter on a boy bitten by a rabid dog in 1885.
Born in Dole on 27 December 1822 at 02:00 Paris time, which France used until 1911. The hour is given consistently in references, but its documentary origin could not be established.