This book is written to highlight the advances in surgery from antiquity to the present day. We will take you on an epic journey highlighting human spirit and ingenuity spanning the millennia. This account is not intended to be a comprehensive review of all events but instead covers key milestones, each of which represents progress towards the state of surgery today. With every major advance there were failures, false starts and disasters impacting the lives of who were not healed, their suffering was not relieved, or whose lives were not saved. This chapter acts as an executive summary of surgical history from antiquity (Bablyon, Egypt, Greece and Rome) through the Middle Ages, when the Arab and Islamic world were the guardians of and innovators for medical knowledge, to the Renaissance and Age of Englightenment in Europe. As anatomical and physiological knowledge advanced, the nineteenth century saw the introduction of anaesthesia, anti-sepsis, asepsis and an understanding of the role of microbes as the cause of infection. In the late 19th century women fought for the right to study medicine and practice as doctors, and their struggle to be treated equally extended through the twentieth century. In the 20th century, there was the introduction radiography, radiotherapy and many operations were introduced that could never have previously performed. Surgical specialties began to be developed in reconstructive surgery, orthopaedics, neurosurgery and urology. From the 1930’s and 40’s antibiotics were increasingly introduced and post WWII, cardiac surgery and transplantation were introduced. Minimally invasive surgery developed first in urology and gynaecology but from the 1980’s were introduced to abdominal and thoracic surgery. Robotic surgery was introduced around the beginning of the 21st century, whilst advances in genetics and medications began to offer personalised medicine for cancer treatment.