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or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts at IntoHistory.com. It's the afternoon of February 12, 1962, in a hospital waiting room on the outskirts of London, England.

15-year-old schoolboy David Jones brushes his long hair from his face and watches the busy doctors

and nurses at work. To pass the time, he begins to drum rhythmically on his leg. Sitting next to David

is his school principal. Annoyed by David's incessant drumming, he slaps his hand and David stops.

But the pain from the slap is nothing compared to the ache in David's head,

the reason he's at the hospital in the middle of a school day.

A few hours earlier, David was hit in the face by a classmate.

The two were fighting over a girl they both liked, and David got the worst of it.

He now sports a deepening bruise around his

eye and suffers from double vision that won't go away. Finally, a nurse calls David forward and leads

him to a separate room to see the doctor. Upon seeing David's long hair, the doctor gives a

disapproving shake of his head, then pulls out a small flashlight

from his pocket and shines it into David's eyes. David winces as the doctor passes the

light back and forth across his face. Then, turning off the flashlight, the doctor explains that

the punch David received has caused what could be permanent damage to David's left

eye. He then leaves David to inform the school principal. Alone, David rises and peers at

himself in the room's mirror. He's amazed by what he sees. In the bright light of the examination

room, the pupil of his right eye is as small as a pinprick,

but the pupil of his left eye is dilated, almost as large as the entire iris.

...