History of cryonics
The history of cryonics is rather short. The idea of preserving people for later repair and resuscitation was not introduced until a 1930´s science fiction story by Neil A Jones.

In 1964, a man called Robert C.W. Ettinger published a book called "The Prospect of Immortality" in which he seriously suggested that freezing people for the future might be a sensible thing to do in real life. He claimed that they could start immediately with the freezing procedure and let the really difficult part (thawing and revival) be taken care of by more knowledgeable people later. Much later, if necessary.

The first man that was suspended was Dr James Bedford. He was 73 years old at the time he was frozen, by Cryonics Society of California. This was 12 January in 1967. Not much later, a small handful of cryonics companies, such as Trans Time, were formed and began offering services. Bedford has never thawed. When he was moved to Alcor in 1991 (where he still is!), the original ice cubes were still intact.