- Prehistoric (Before Written Records)
- European cave paintings (c. 15,000BC) depicts what appears to be the use of therapeutic touch
- 3000 BC-Chinese: Cong-Fu of the Tao-Tse. Oldest known book written about massage
- Chinese Anmo Techniques
- 2760 BC-Nei Ching describes therapeutic touch
- 2500 BC-Egyptians create reflexology
- 1800 BC-Ayurvedic, Art of Life. Book which included massage techniques
- 16th Century BC "The San-Tsai-Tou-Hoei" published by Japanese listing passive and active massage procedures
- 9th Century BC Homer spoke of massage for healing and relaxation
- 7th Century BC Greek priest-physician Aescaulapius created gymnastics by combining exercise and massage
- 5th Century BC Green physician Herodicus prolonged the life of many patients with massage
- Herodotus, a Greek historian, wrote of the benefits of massage
- Hippocrates (460-380BC) a pupil of Herodicus wrote of the benefits of massage
- 300 BC-The Laws of Manu. Defined everyday life, including massage
- Julius Caesar (100-44BC) demanded a daily massage
- Celsus (42BC-AD37) an eminent Roman physician wrote about massage
- DeMedicina - deals with prevention and therapeutics using massage
- Greek physician Claudius Galen (AD 130-200) who was physician to Marcus Aurelius discovered that arteries and veins contain blood
- Ambroise Pare (1517-1530) a French surgeon, wrote of the healing effects of massage. He was also a founder of modern surgery and inventor of the ligation of arteries.
- Mercurialis (1530-1606) a professor of medicine at the University of Padua, Italy published a book De Arte Gymnastica that covered the benefits of massage
- William Harvey (1578-1657) an English physician discovered the circulation of blood in 1628
- John Grosvenor (1742-1823) an English surgeon and practitioner of chirurgy (healing with the hands)
- Per Henrik Ling (1776-1839) a Swedish physiologist known as the father of physical therapy and he established the Royal Swedish Central Institute of Gymnastics
- Mathias Roth, who studied under Ling, published the first book in English on the Swedish movements
- Dr. Johann Merger (1839-1909) of Holland, established the practice and art of massage as a scientific subject for physicians
- Emil Vodder, an Austrian, developed Manual Lymph Drainage
- Elizabeth Dicke, a German, developed Connective Tissue Massage in the 1940s
- Dr. James H. Cyriax, an English orthopedic physician, created Deep Transverse Friction Massage
- The American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) began in 1943