From the first kidney transplant in 1960 to robotic open-heart surgery and last year's pioneering hand transplant, the NHS has come a long way in 65 years

The National Health Service, "the closest thing the English have to a religion" (Nigel Lawson; everybody on Twitter), is celebrating 65 years. The NHS's founding principle was simple: healthcare should be available, free of charge at the point of use, to all. It has been through several changes since 1948, from its structure to the range of services it now offers, thanks to research and other medical advances and breakthroughs.

Here are 65 facts about, and reasons to love, the NHS:

1. The first baby born on the NHS was in Carmarthenshire, at 12.01am, 5 July 1948. Aneira Thomas was named after MP Aneurin Bevan, the founding father of the NHS.

2. The first official patient was 13-year-old Mancunian Silvia Diggory, who was suffering from a liver condition. She went on to become a teacher, but …

3. … her son, Clive Diggory, is a GP in North Yorkshire. So is his wife, and their eldest son is currently in medical school.

4. Prescription charges were introduced in 1952, abolished in 1965 and brought back in 1968. Today, charges vary across the UK, but medicines are free for under-16s, pregnant women and those aged 60 and over.

5. In 1958, the first mass vaccinations programmes (for polio and diptheria) were introduced.

6. The NHS's first transplant (a kidney, between identical twins) took place on 30 October 1960, in Edinburgh. Both patients survived.

7. In 1963, the first liver transplant took place.

8. In 1979, the first bone marrow transplant took place

10. The NHS does a lot of transplants, OK?

11. But some took a while to bed in … The first NHS heart transplant took place in London in 1968. The patient died after 46 days. Only six heart transplants were carried out over the next 10 years for fear of failure.

12. In 1962, the NHS carried out its first full hip replacement. Today it does more than 1,000 a week.

13. The pill was introduced in 1961, available only to married women. Six years later, this was relaxed to include single women.

14. Louise Brown, the first test-tube baby in the world, was born on 25 July 1978. Today there are more than 6,000 test-tube babies born every year in the UK.

15. Abortions were made legal on 27 October 1967.

15. The NHS's first sextuplets were born to Sheila Thorns of Birmingham in 1968. Twenty-eight medical staff were at the delivery.

16. In 1972, CT scans, invented by British engineer Sir Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield, were introduced.

17. In 1988, the breast screening programme was introduced.

18. In 1948, patients had to spend a week with their head supported by sandbags after a cataracts operation. Today, it is a 20-minute procedure and patients go home on the same day.

19. Your correspondent was treated for two broken metatarsals at A&E – and felt briefly like Wayne Rooney.

20. Queens Elizabeth I and II are both very popular names for NHS hospitals. In Gateshead, King's Lynn, Woolwich, Welwyn Garden City … we could go on.

21. Everyone loves a good NHS documentary series. There is Channel 4's One Born Every Minute …

22. … and 24 Hours in A&E …

23. … and Casualty …

24. … and Holby City.

25. Wait. Those last two are actually fictional.

26. The NHS deals with more than 1 million patients every 36 hours.

27. There are 11 NHS ambulance trusts in England, and they make more than 50,000 emergency journeys each week.

28. The first NHS trusts were established in 1991. There are now more than 530 NHS trusts in England.

29. The NHS is one of the largest employers in the world, along with the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the Indian railways and the Walmart supermarket chain.

30. The NHS in England and Wales employs around 1.4 million people. This is approximately one in 23 of the working population.

31. It's great for women: around 80% of today's NHS workforce is female.

32. There are 41,962 managers and senior managers;

33. 721,717 professionally qualified clinical staff, including:

34. 39,409 GPs; and

35. 37,752 consultants.

36. Was that cheating? Sorry.

37. Hospital radio; a great British institution.

38. First introduced in 2000, there are now around 90 NHS walk-in centres.

39. Did you know the NHS also introduced Minor Injuries Units to deal with, well, minor injuries?

40. NHS Spectacles. 'Nuff said.

41. Are you a hypochondriac? There are hours of fun to be had on the NHS Choices website.

42. In November 1982, your correspondent was born with jaundice in an NHS hospital in east London. Discharged a few days later with a healthy brown complexion. Thanks, NHS.

43. In 1986, a generation was scared witless by the "don't die of ignorance" Aids campaign.

44. And remember that contraception poster with the pregnant man?

45. Staff at Milton Keynes hospital produced a "Clean Hands Rap". It's terrible, but adorable.

46. Then there was a Gangnam Style one in 2012.

47. It still loves transplants – on 27 December 2012, a surgical team at Leeds General Infirmary carried out the UK's first hand transplant operation.

48. Matthew Green, 40, became the first UK patient to receive a plastic heart implant at Papworth hospital, Cambridgeshire, in August 2011.

49. Aneira Thomas (remember her?) said: "There is no equality without the NHS. Bevan said the NHS gave us the moral leadership of the world. It is our moral duty to protect it."

50. In 2007, US director Michael Moore released the documentary Sicko, contrasting the American healthcare system with the NHS. We won.

51. Seriously, we won. A 2011 international survey found that the NHS was consistently a top performer.

52. British basketball legend John Amaechi agrees: he was rushed to an NHS hospital when he had trouble breathing earlier this year.

53. In 2007, the NHS did its first robotic open-heart operation. Amazing, right?

54. In 2008, the HPV vaccination was introduced for teenage girls, to help prevent cervical cancer.

55. Getting On, an NHS-based sitcom starring former psychiatric nurse Jo Brand, was a satirical treat.

56. Lansley-TV was briefly A Thing. Don't ask.

57. #welovethenhs began trending in 2009, started by TV writer Graham Linehan. David Cameron also used it in a tweet; it did not end well.

58. #ThanksNHS trended on Twitter today as a thank you for 65 years.

59. The creepy David Cameron election campaign poster ("I'll cut the deficit, not the NHS") was hijacked for a gazillion internet parodies.

60. In 1994, the Organ Donor Register was created after a five-year campaign by John and Rosemary Cox. More than 18 million people have signed up.

61. NHS Direct was launched in 1998. It now handles 20,000 calls a day – that's around eight million calls a year.

62. Nurses make up the largest part of the NHS workforce, about 410,615.

63. Danny Boyle wrote an extended love letter to the NHS at the Olympics opening ceremony in 2012. Britain's collective stiff upper lip briefly dissolved.

64. The average life expectancy has increased by at least 10 years since the NHS came into existence.

65. It's just bloody marvellous, isn't it?