AIDS is an everyday experience. These dates represent milestones in the AIDS epidemic. Some dates are known globally; others commemorate individual experiences. AIDS Is Everyday is an ongoing art project produced in conjunction with Visual AIDS to help break down the silence, shame and stigma surrounding HIV.

Add a date about your history with HIV to our online calendar at poz.com/AIDSIsEveryday.

January

President Barack ObamaDreamstime.com

1 — Ward 86, the world’s first dedicated outpatient AIDS clinic, opens at San Francisco General Hospital. (1983)

4 — Gay Men’s Health Crisis, now known as GMHC, becomes the first community-based AIDS service provider. (1982)

12 — President Barack Obama addresses HIV in his final State of the Union Address. “Right now, we’re on track to end the scourge of HIV/AIDS.” (2016) 

16 — The Ryan White Story first airs on television. (1989)

Istock

20 — HIV activist and UNAIDS staffer Eric Sawyer carries the Olympic flame in Calgary, Canada, as part of the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay. (2010)

22 — ACT UP New York activists enter the CBS Evening News studio and shout “AIDS is news. Fight AIDS, not Arabs” during the opening broadcast. (1991)

25 — The musical Rent opens at the New York Theatre Workshop, the same day Jonathan Larson, its author and composer, dies. (1996)

President George W. BushDreamstime.com

27 — Doctor informs artist John Hanning that he has six months to live. He survived. (1995)

28 — President George W. Bush announces the establishment of PEPFAR to address AIDS across the globe, specifically in Africa, in his State of the Union Address. (2003)

February

4 — The International Olympic Committee rules that athletes with HIV are eligible to compete in the Games. (1992)

Olympic Rings

7 — National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

8 — Transdisciplinary artist Dudley Saunders performs In These Boxes at Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, Louisiana. (2014)

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14 — National Condom Day

17 — Randy Shilts, the U.S. journalist who covered the AIDS epidemic and wrote And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, dies of an AIDS-related illness at age 42. (1994)

Greg LouganisDreamstime.com

24 — Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis announces on ABC’s 20/20 that he is living with HIV. (1995)

25 — We Were Here, a documentary by David Weissman, premieres at The Castro Theatre in San Francisco. (2011)