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.

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1 – 2,500 activists marched on President Bush’s vacation home in Kennebunkport, Maine, to demand leadership on AIDS. After a die-in on the road to the Bushes’ house, activists unrolled a 50-foot-long banner outlining a 32-point plan to end the AIDS crisis. (1991)

2 – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publishes the first occupational HIV exposure precautions for health care workers and allied health professionals. (1983)

Activists put a giant condom over Senator Jesse Helms’s house. (1991)Courtesy of Peter Staley

5 – Activists put a giant condom over Senator Jesse Helms’s house. (1991)

7 – The AIDS-themed Broadway musical Rent take its final bow. (2008)

8 – Actor Brad Davis dies of AIDS-related complications at age 41. He played the lead role in Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart. (1991)

9 – The CDC identifies all major routes of HIV transmission—and rules out transmission by casual contact, food, water, air or environmental surfaces. (1983)

12 – Actor Anthony Perkins, known for playing Norman Bates in Psycho, dies of AIDS-related pneumonia at age 60. (1992)

17 – President Ronald Reagan mentions AIDS publicly for the first time during a press conference. (1985)

22 – National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day

24 – The CDC releases revised HIV testing recommendations for health care settings, recommending routine HIV screening for all individuals ages 13 to 64 and yearly screening for those at high risk. (2006)

The CDC uses the term “AIDS” (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) for the first time. (1982)

27 – National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

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30 – New York’s attorney general and Lambda Legal file the first HIV-related discrimination lawsuit on behalf of Joseph Sonnabend, MD, and his patients. (1983)