Credit a modest 19th-century Parisian doctor for having invented the stethoscope. In 1816, while examining a female patient with heart disease, Dr. René Laennec faced a conundrum: He needed to ...

The French physician is celebrated in a Google Doodle marking what would have been his 235th birthday. René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec was born on February 17, 1781, in Quimper, France.