American Heart Association
The American Heart Association grew out of a set of smaller precursor groups. The primary precursor was the Association for the Prevention and Relief of Heart Disease, formed in New York City in 1915, to study whether patients with heart disease could safely return to work. Several similar organizations formed or evolved in Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago in the 1920s. Recognizing the need for a national organization to share research and promote findings, the American Heart Association was formed in 1924 by six cardiologists representing several of these precursor groups.
Association of American Universities
The AAU was founded on February 28, 1900, by a group of 14 Doctor of Philosophy degree–granting universities in the United States to strengthen and standardize American doctoral programs. American universities—starting with the Johns Hopkins University in 1876—were adopting the research-intensive German model of higher education. Lack of standardization damaged European universities' opinions of their American counterparts, however, and many American students attended graduate school in Europe instead of staying in the US. The presidents of the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Chicago, Columbia University, Harvard University, and the University of California had sent a letter of invitation to nine other universities to meet at Chicago in February 1900 to promote and raise standards. Charles E. Elliot of Harvard University was elected the organization's first president, and Stanford University's David Starr Jordan was elected the organization's first chairman.