Back before there was salmonella in eggs (and I mean salmonella in the eggs prior to a human doing something to put it there), you could eat runny eggs with no danger. There were no pasteurized egg products in stores, because we didn't need them.

This comes from the FDA "Bad Bug Book" chapter on Salmonella:

Various Salmonella species have long been isolated from the outside of egg shells. The present situation with S. enteritidis is complicated by the presence of the organism inside the egg, in the yolk. This and other information strongly suggest vertical transmission, i.e., deposition of the organism in the yolk by an infected layer hen prior to shell deposition. Foods other than eggs have also caused outbreaks of S. enteritidis disease.

And from the same page:

S. enteritidis outbreaks continue to occur in the U.S. (Table 1). The CDC estimates that 75% of those outbreaks are associated with the consumption of raw or inadequately cooked Grade A whole shell eggs. The U.S. Department of Agriculture published Regulations on February 16, 1990, in the Federal Register establishing a mandatory testing program for egg-producing breeder flocks and commercial flocks implicated in causing human illnesses. This testing should lead to a reduction in cases of gastroenteritis caused by the consumption of Grade A whole shell eggs.

Basically, salmonella can get into the yolks of the eggs before they're laid, and this is a somewhat recent development. It's advised to thoroughly cook your eggs, yolk and all. I'm not sure exactly when this problem started to become apparent, but I believe it was in the mid to late 80's