Technically, artificial insemination predates the modern medicine era. The concept, if not the techniques of achieving it, might go back as far as King Henry VIII, who in desperate efforts to help his wife Catherine of Aragon conceive, attempted some crude artificial insemination efforts. In the intervening years, farmers and scientists began experiments with AI, combining genes from bulls and cows to make calves with favorable traits. Some of the most notable breakthroughs came from Russia, who was not bound by the edicts of the Catholic Church edicts against AI that almost certainly delayed its development.

On this day, November 1, in 1939, scientists displayed the first successful artificial insemination rabbit. The techniques perfected in animal studies led to adaptation of AI to humans.

By the closing decade of the 20th century, artificial insemination became more accepted, if not commonplace. U.S. doctors artificial inseminated an estimated 172,000 women per year, with about half the cases resulting in pregnancy and birth. The method spread faster than the laws covering it, and legal questions arose around the issues of parentage (when the sperm was donated). A whole host of issues on ethics, privacies and liabilities of both donors and mothers still remain, but have hardly slowed down the accelerating trend of artificial insemination.