<p>Nowadays defibrillation is one of the key methods of human resuscitation. This article provides a brief biography of Professor Claude Beck and the story of the first successful human defibrillation that was performed and described in 1947.</p><p>Received 15 September 2017. Revised 30 November 2017. Accepted 1 December 2017.</p><p><strong>Funding:</strong> The study did not have sponsorship.</p><p><strong>Conflict of interest:</strong> Authors declare no conflict of interest.</p><p><strong>Acknowledgement:</strong> The authors thank Boris B. Gorbunov from the Department of Biomedical Systems, National Research University of Electronic Technology (Moscow, Russia) for the access to original Russian publications of the last century and Kay Peterson from the Division of Medicine & Science, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC, USA) for provision of illustration.</p>