Main Street Here you will see the history of discovery for vaccines and learn about the first modern scientist - Louis Pasteur. Edward Jenner is presented here as the "Father of Vaccines." He realized that it was possible to stop smallpox from spreading if he infected a person with cowpox first! In 1980, due to the widespread use of a vaccine based on Jenner's own, smallpox was eradicated from the earth - the only disease yet to suffer that fate. Diseases: Smallpox, Tuberculosis, Influenza, and Polio.