//History of Science and Technology: Timeline //Chronological Summary of Inventions and Scientific Theories & Discoveries //Copyright 2001 by The Crimson Bird Book Shoppe //http://crimsonbird.com //A UW CSE 143 student prepared this file from http://www.crimsonbird.com/science/timeline.htm //Prepared on Oct. 26, 2002 //Note, for purposes of the assignment, only A.D. dates were copied. 0150 Ptolemy studied mathematics, science, geography; proposed that the earth is the center of the solar system 0190 Chinese mathematicians calculated pi to five decimal places 0271 Chinese mathematicians invented the magnetic compass science 0415 A mob of rioters burned down the Library of Alexandria, and much of the recorded knowledge of the western world was lost 0450 the "Dark Ages" in Europe (lasted until 1000) 1232 Rockets invented in China to defend city of Kaifeng against Mongol invaders 1252 Pope Innocent IV approved the use of torture in witchcraft trials 1269 Maricourt used compass to discover that a magnet is encircled by lines which terminate on two poles 1348 The plague appeared in Europe 1390 The first paper mill began operating in Germany 1455 The Gutenberg Bible became the first book printed with movable metal type 1508 Leonardo da Vinci compiled notebooks on mechanics, astronomy, anatomy, and his inventions (until 1510) 1543 Copernicus formed the hypothesis that the planets revolve around the sun. 1543 Vasalius published treatise on human anatomy 1570 Brahe discovered supernova in constellation Cassiopeia 1600 Gilbert discovered that electricity occurs in things other than amber; wrote a book on magnetism 1608 Lippershey invented the telescope 1609 Galileo built 20X telescope, discovered craters and mountains on the moon 1609 Kepler announced his 1st and 2nd laws 1613 Galileo discovered sunspots 1614 Napier discovered logarithms 1616 Galileo called to Rome and ordered to stop supporting the Copernican theory 1619 Kepler announced his 3rd law 1619 The first slaves transported to America 1620 Bacon published "Novum Organum" (scientific method and inductive reasoning) 1621 Snell discovered the law of refraction 1628 Harvey published a book describing blood circulation 1633 The Inquisition denounced Galileo 1637 Descartes Published "Geometry" 1638 Galileo published "Discourses Concerning Two New Sciences", summarizing the principles of mechanics 1642 Pascal invented the mechanical adding machine 1650 Archbishop Usher estimated by reading the Bible that the earth was created on October 23, 4004 BC at 9:00 AM 1652 Pascal discovered laws of fluid pressure 1654 Guericke invented the vacuum pump 1660 Redi disproved theory of spontaneous generation with experiment on flies 1666 Newton invented the calculus 1666 Newton discovered glass prism separates white light into spectrum 1675 Leibniz independently invented the calculus 1687 Newton published "Principia", describing the laws of motion 1690 Locke published "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" (empiricism, tabula rasa) 1692 The first witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts 1704 Newton published "Opticks" 1738 Bernoulli proposed laws of fluid mechanics 1758 Linnaeus developed taxonomy of species, proposed binomial nomenclature 1764 Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny 1769 Watt invented the modern steam engine 1777 Lavoisier proposed idea of chemical compounds made of elements 1781 Herschel discovered Uranus 1783 Michel and Montgolfier invented the hot air balloon; the first people to fly, altitude 1800 m 1785 Coulomb confirmed the inverse square law for electric force 1785 Hutton proposed the idea of uniformitatianism in the geological history of the earth 1785 Cartwright invented the power loom for producing cloth 1787 Berthollet proposed system of chemical nomenclature 1792 Rousseau wrote "Social Contract" 1793 Whitney invented the cotton gin 1796 Jenner discovered smallpox vaccination 1799 Discovery of the Rosetta Stone 1800 Volta invented the battery 1800 Ampere discovered properties of magnetic field produced by electric current 1803 Dalton composed the law of definite proportions in chemistry 1804 Rockets developed by the British Army Corp reached height of 1830 m 1807 Fulton invented the steamboat 1808 Dalton published a periodic table based on atomic weights 1811 Avogadro introduced the concept of the mole 1814 Stephenson invented the locomotive engine 1820 Oersted discovered that an electric current causes the deflection of compass needle 1822 Champollion translated the Rosetta Stone 1825 discovery of Ampere's Force Law 1827 Brown discovered Brownian motion 1830 The first railroad (between Liverpool and Manchester, England) 1831 Faraday (England) and Henry (U.S.) independently discovered that a current is produced in a wire when it is moved near a magnet 1833 Charles Lyell published "Principles of Geology", based on uniformitarianism 1839 Goodyear invented vulcanized rubber 1844 Morse sent the first telegraph message 1846 Galle discovered Neptune, accounting for observed perturbations in the motion of Uranus 1849 Fizeau measured the velocity of light 1853 Bessemer in Britain and Kelly in U.S. invented the Bessemer steel process 1854 Boole invented Boolean algebra 1856 Neanderthal fossil found in Germany 1859 Darwin published "On The Origin of Species" 1866 Mendel wrote a paper on his findings about heredity in plants 1868 Cro-Magnon fossil found in France 1869 Mendeleyev used a periodic table of known elements to correctly predict the properties then undiscovered elements 1873 Maxwell published "Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism" 1874 Cantor established principles of mathematical set theory 1877 Edison invented the phonograph 1877 Hall discovered the two moons of Mars 1879 Wundt established the first laboratory for psychology experiments 1879 Edison invented the electric light bulb 1882 Lindemann proved that pi is transcendental 1882 Edison created the first large power station in NYC 1883 Wroblewski and Olszewski first produced liquid oxygen. 1885 Benz invented the gasoline-powered automobile 1885 Eastman invented the box camera 1885 Hertz discovered the photoelectric effect 1885 Balmer discovered spectral lines of hydrogen 1887 Mendelson and Morley conduct experiment showing no evidence for the existence of an "ether" 1888 Hertz discovered radio waves, verifying Maxwell's prediction of electromagnetic waves 1888 Edison invented the kinetoscope 1889 Hollerith invented the first calculating machine, used punch cards 1891 "Java Man" discovered in Indonesia 1892 Dewar discovered that a double-walled bottle with a vacuum layer insulates the contents from heat flow 1895 Roentgen discovered x-rays 1895 Marconi invented antenna and wireless telegraph (short distance) 1896 Becquerel discovered radioactivity 1896 Marconi increased range of wireless telegraph to 1.6 km 1897 Marconi increased range of wireless telegraph to 29 km; first ship-to-shore message 1898 Curie and Curie announced their discovery of radium and polonium 1899 Marconi established wireless telegraph service between England and France 1900 First public awareness of Mendel's findings in genetics, when his 1865-1866 papers were found 1900 Freud published "The Interpretation of Dreams" 1900 Finlay discovered that yellow fever is spread by mosquitos 1900 Planck proposed that energy can only be absorbed or emitted by matter in discrete amounts (quanta) 1901 First transatlantic wireless telegraph 1902 Discovery of Tyrannosaurus Rex 1902 Kennelly (U.S.) and Heaviside (England) independently discovered the ionosphere 1903 The botanist De Vries discovered mutations in plants 1903 Wright brothers' airplane remained in flight for 12 seconds 1904 Fleming invented vacuum tube diode 1904 Genetics experiments by Thomas Morgan, discovery of sex-linked mutations (among a group of fruit flies with normal red or unusual white eyes, all of the white-eyed offspring were male). 1905 Einstein published papers on Brownian motion, the photoelectric effect, and the special theory of relativity 1906 De Forest invented the triode vacuum tube 1906 Thomson discovered the electron 1908 the "Tunguska event" - major damage to a forest region in Siberia caused by a comet or meteorite 1908 Ford produced the Model T automobile 1908 Wegener proposed theory of continental drift 1909 The "Piltdown Man" hoax -- a fake archeological discovery announced by dishonest scientists who wanted to "prove" that human beings had evolved in Europe 1911 Rutherford discovered that the positive charge in an atom is concentrated in a small nucleus; proposed a planetary model of the atom 1912 Pickard invented the crystal diode and crystal detector 1913 Edison invented motion pictures with sound 1913 Ford added the assembly line to his automobile plant 1913 Bohr published his model of the atom, based on energy states described by one quantum number 1916 Lewis proposed the idea of covalent bonds 1916 Einstein published the general theory of relativity 1917 Germany - the first major military use of airplanes to drop bombs on cities 1919 Eddington recorded data on the sun's gravitational deflection of starlight during a solar eclipse, confirming Einstein's general theory of relativity 1923 Freud published "The Ego and the Id" 1923 Development of the diptheria vaccine 1923 Production of insulin to treat diabetes 1923 Hubble estimated the distance from the Milky Way Galaxy to the Andromeda Galaxy 1924 Discovery of Australopithecus Africanus, its human-sized brain too large to be that of an ape, but having the canine teeth of a gorilla 1924 De Broglie proposed that all matter has wave properties 1925 Pauli proposed the Exclusion Principle (no two electrons in an atom can have the same set of quantum numbers) 1925 Scopes fired from biology teaching position for teaching evolution 1926 Schrodinger developed the wave equation 1926 Born proposed the statistical interpretation of the wave equation 1926 Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket 1927 Heisenberg proposed the Uncertainty Principle (we cannot simultaneously determine the position and momentum of a subatomic particle) 1927 Experiment by Davisson and Germer, and simultaneous experiment by G. P. Thompson, proved the wave behavior of electrons 1927 the first television transmission (England) 1928 Dirac developed the relativistic quantum theory 1927 Big bang theory introduced 1929 Hubble discovered that the galaxies are moving away from each other, causing an expansion of the universe 1930 Tombaugh discovered Pluto 1931 Lawrence invented the cyclotron 1931 Anderson discovered the positron 1932 Chadwick discovered the neutron 1936 the first regular television broadcast (England) 1937 Discovery of the muon 1938 Hahn, Strassmann, Meitner and Frisch discovered nuclear fission 1938 Bethe hypothesized that nuclear fusion is the source of energy in stars 1939 The first regular TV broadcast in the U.S. 1939 Discovery of Kirlian photography -- electrical "auras" surrounding living specimens 1942 Fermi produced the first nuclear chain reaction in an experiment 1942 Establishment of the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb 1945 The first atomic bomb was detonated at Hiroshima, Japan -- about 70,000 people were killed instantly; about 30,000 more people died within several weeks 1946 Gamow proposed the Big Bang hypothesis. 1946 The University of Pennsylvania developed the ENIAC computer, containing 18,000 vacuum tubes 1947 W. F. Libby invented radiocarbon dating 1947 Researchers at Bell Labs invented the transistor 1947 Discovery of the pion (predicted by Yukawa in 1935) 1948 Kinsey published "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" 1951 Franklin discovered nucleic acids (RNA and DNA), helical shape 1952 The first sex-change surgery, transforming George Jorgensen into Christine Jorgensen 1953 Kinsey published "Sexual Behavior in the Human Female" 1953 Watson and Crick discovered DNA has double helix, composed of ATCG bases occuring in pairs (A with T, and C with G) 1953 Miller produced amino acids from inorganic compounds and sparks 1953 Radioactive fluorine dating proved that the "Piltdown Man" artifact was a hoax 1956 Discovery of the neutrino (predicted by Pauli in 1930) 1957 The first artificial satellite, Sputnik, put into earth orbit 1958 U.S. Congress established NASA 1959 First unmanned spacecraft hit the moon (Soviet Union) 1960 Maiman invented the ruby laser 1960 Javan invented the helium-neon laser 1960 Goodall studied chimpanzees in Tanzania 1960 Development and approval of the birth control pill 1961 A person orbited the earth for the first time (Yuri Gagarin) 1963 Vine and Matthews discovered that rock layers with particular magnetic orientations, indicating reversals of the earth's magnetic field, are symmetrical about the mid-oceanic ridge, indicating that new crust is created at the ridge. 1963 Gell-Mann proposed protons and neutrons are made of smaller particles (quarks) 1964 Discovery of a quasar 1964 Unmanned U.S. spacecraft transmitted television pictures of the moon before hitting the surface 1964 Wilson and Penzias discovered the background microwave radiation of the universe 1965 The first "space walk" (Soviet Union) 1966 The first unmanned soft landing on the moon (Soviet Union) 1967 Salam and Weinberg developed a model to unite electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force. 1967 Bell and Hewish discover pulsars 1967 U.S. astronauts Grissom, White and Chaffee killed during ground test; Apollo program delayed 1968 Human beings orbited the moon for the first time (Apollo 8) 1969 People walked on the moon for the first time (Apollo 11) 1969 Meteorite in Australia found to contain amino acids 1970 Apollo 13 moon landing canceled due to severe malfunctions 1971 First unmanned spacecraft hit Mars (Soviet Union) 1971 Apollo 15 used the lunar rover 1971 First space station, Salyut 1, and first space docking (Soviet Union) 1972 Discovery of a 2 million year old humanlike fossil, Homo habilis, in Africa 1973 U.S. launched Skylab space station 1974 Discovery of "Lucy" in Africa, an almost complete homonid skelton over 3 million years old, only 3 and a half feet tall but having adult teeth, a small brain, walked upright 1975 First unmanned soft landing on Venus (Soviet Union) 1975 The first U.S.-Soviet space docking (Apollo and Soyuz) 1975 Invention of the CAT scanner (computerized axial tomography) 1976 Cosmic string theory was introduced 1977 Voyager spacecraft launched; contained recording of earth sounds, including music and greetings in 55 Earth languages 1977 Submarine "Alvin" explored midoceanic ridge, discovered chemosynthetic life 1979 First "test tube baby" from artificial insemination 1979 Voyager 1 and 2 photographed Jupiter 1980 Voyager 2 photographed Saturn 1980 Introduction of the the communication protocol that led to the Internet 1981 Binnig and Rohrer invented the scanning tunneling microscope 1981 U.S. launched the first space shuttle, Columbia 1982 First launch of communications satellites into orbit by space shuttle 1984 First retrieval of malfunctioning satellites, repair and relaunch by space shuttle 1984 Discovery of ozone hole over Antarctica 1986 Voyager 2 photographed Uranus; discovered moons 1986 Development of the first high temperature superconductors 1986 Soviet Union launched Mir space station 1986 U.S. space shuttle Challenger exploded on launch, killing 7 astronauts 1989 Voyager 2 photographed Neptune; discovered moons 1989 An asteroid came relatively close to colliding with the earth 1990 Hubble Space Telescope launched; optical defect discovered 1991 Discovery of the buried crater near the Yucatan Peninsula, dated at 65 million years old 1992 Pope John Paul II acknowledged the Vatican's error in the condemnation of Galileo 1993 Wiles proved Fermat's Last Theorem, which had been first proposed in 1637 1993 Hubble Space Telescope repaired 1994 Hubble Space Telescope confirmed existence of a black hole 1994 Astronomers observed comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (S-L 9) colliding with Jupiter 1995 the second U.S./Russian space docking (Atlantis and Mir) 1995 Discovery of the top quark at Fermilab 1996 Pope John Paul II affirmed evolution by natural selection 1997 Microscopic analysis of meteorite led to belief in ancient life on Mars 1997 Pathfinder vehicle studied and photographed Mars