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Following the thalidomide disaster1961 many accounts of pre-thalidomide drug safety history appeared. Some identified events which represented missed opportunities or ignored warning signs. This paper reviews three assertions made in these accounts; that an opportunity to introduce a spontaneous reporting system for suspected adverse drug reactions in 1893 was missed; that concerns about dangers of drugs in pregnancy identified in 1904 were ignored; and that a proposal to establish a drug regulatory body made in 1914 was abandoned. The paper concludes that even if all had been acted upon it is unlikely that the thalidomide disaster could have been entirely avoided. http://dx.doi.org/10.14195/1647-6336_14_3