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BC
Agriculture (12,000 BC) [Unknown]
Gobekli Tepe (9000 BC) [Turkey]
Pesse Canoe (8000 BC) [Netherlands]
Irrigation (6000 BC) [Mesopotamia]
Wheel (4000 BC) [Mesopotamia]
Carnac Stones (3300 BC) [France]
Stonehenge (3000-1500 BC) [UK]
Pyramids (2600-1550 BC) [Egypt]
Arch (Engineering) (2000 BC) [Mesopotamia]
Ice Houses (Concept) (1780 BC) [China]
First Crane (6th century BC) [Greece] - Likely used in ancient Greece around the 6th century BC.
First Catapult (4th century BC) [Greece] - Likely appeared around the 4th century BC.
Water Wheels (300 BC) [Middle East]
Archimedes Screw (234 BC) [Greek]
Great Wall of China (220 BC - present) [China] - Construction spanned centuries and continues to be maintained.
Compass (206 BC) [China] - Developed by the Chinese.
Antikythera Mechanism (100 BC) [Greek]
AD
Paper (105 AD) [China]
Gunpower (First Reference) (142 AD) [China]
Pantheon (World's Largest Unreinforced Dome) (126 AD) [Rome]
First Alarm Clock (nnnn) [Ancient Greece]
First Windmill (700 AD) [Persia (modern-day Iran)]
Mechanical Clocks (1300) [Europe]
Eye Glasses (1300) [Italy]
Printing Press (Johannes Gutenberg) (1440) [Germany]
First Submarine (Concept by Cornelis Drebbel) (1620) [Dutch]
First Steam Engine (Thomas Newcomen) (1698) [UK]
17th Century
Steam Engine (Improved by James Watt) (1760s) [UK]
Improvements played a key role in the Industrial Revolution.
Turtle Submarine (David Bushnell, first used in warfare) (1775) [USA]
First Air Balloon {Montgolfier brothers} (1783) [France]
Steam Power Textile Mills (1780s) [UK]
Power Loom (1784) [UK]
Edmund Cartwright's power loom significantly increased textile production efficiency, contributing to the Industrial Revolution.
First commercially viable steamboats (John Fitch) (1787) [USA]
Cotton Gin (1793) [USA]
Eli Whitney's cotton gin revolutionized cotton processing in the American South, with both economic and social ramifications.
Vaccination (1796) [UK]
Edward Jenner's pioneering work with cowpox inoculation paved the way for modern vaccines.
18th Century
Refrigeration (Jacob Perkins) (1800s)
Jacob Perkins is credited with a patent for a vapor-compression refrigerator
Steam Locomotive (Richard Trevithick) (1804) [UK]
First Photograph (Joseph Nicéphore Niépce) (1826) [France]
Telegraph (1837) [USA]
Samuel Morse is credited with a key design for the telegraph.
Sewing Machine (1846) [USA]
Elias Howe Jr.'s patent for a sewing machine greatly accelerated clothing production.
Steel Production (Mid-19th Century) [Multiple Locations]
The Bessemer process significantly reduced the cost of steel production, impacting various industries like construction and transportation.
First Transatlantic Telegraph Wire (1858) [UK/Canada]
Two ships laid the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable
Internal Combustion Engine (Nikolaus Otto) (1860s-1870s) [Germany]
First Telephone Call (Alexander Graham Bell) (1876) [USA]
Bell is credited with transmitting the first recognizable speech over a telephone line.
First Subway (London Underground) (1863) [UK]
The Metropolitan Railway, the world's first underground railway, opened in London.
Transcontinental Railroad (1869) [USA]
The first transcontinental railroad in the US was completed, connecting the East and West Coasts.
First Practical Light Bulb (Thomas Edison) (1879) [USA]
While not the first light bulb, Edison's design was more commercially viable and long-lasting.
Oldest Surviving Video (Roundhay Garden Scene) (1888) [UK]
Captured by Louis Le Prince, the inventor mysteriously disappeared shortly after.
First Commercial Hydroelectric AC Power Plant (1882) [USA]
The world's first commercial hydroelectric power plant began operating at Niagara Falls.
First Motorcycle (by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach) (1885) [Germany]
19th Century
First Transatlantic Wireless Broadcast (1901) [Guglielmo Marconi] [St. John's, Newfoundland (Canada)]
In 1901, Marconi achieved a major feat by transmitting a wireless signal across the Atlantic Ocean from England to St. John's, Newfoundland (Canada).
First Wireless Telegraph (Guglielmo Marconi) (1895) [Italy]
Marconi built on earlier wireless communication concepts and demonstrated a successful wireless telegraph.
20th Century
First Airplane {Wright Brothers} (1903) [USA]
First Home Refrigerator (1913) (USA)
The General Electric Company introduced the "Monitor-Top" refrigerator, one of the first commercially available household refrigerators.
Panama Canal Opens (1914) [Panama]
The Panama Canal, a major engineering feat, opened for commercial use.
First tank in Battle {Motorized Warfare} (1916) [UK]
The first tanks were developed during World War I for trench warfare.
Little Willie (1915), considered the first prototype tank.
First radio-controlled aircraft used for target shooting (1917) [UK]
Developed by Dr. Archibald Low
Television (1927) [USA]
Though earlier experiments existed, Philo Farnsworth is credited with creating the first working electronic television.
Penicillin (1928) [UK]
Alexander Fleming discovered the world's first broadly effective antibiotic, revolutionizing medicine.
Radar (1935) [UK]
Developed in the UK during World War II for object detection.
Nuclear Fission (1938) [Germany]
The discovery of nuclear fission by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann opened the door to both nuclear power and atomic weapons.
Nuclear Bomb is invented (aka Manahattan Project) (1945) [USA]
- The devastating nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US marked the atomic age.
ENIAC (First Electronic General-Purpose Computer) (1945) [USA]
The ENIAC was a massive, room-sized computer used for ballistics calculations during World War II.
Microwave Oven (1946) [USA]
Percy Spencer accidentally discovered the power of microwave radiation while working on radar technology.
Transistor (1947) [USA]
The invention of the transistor by Bell Labs miniaturized electronics, paving the way for smaller computers and countless other devices.
First Artificial Satellite (Sputnik 1) (1957) [Soviet Union]
The launch of Sputnik 1 by the Soviet Union ushered in the Space Age.
Integrated Circuit (Microchip) (1958) [USA]
Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments created the first integrated circuit, a major step towards miniaturization and computing power.
Laser (1960s) [Multiple Locations]
Theodore Maiman is often credited with demonstrating the first functional laser in the US.
First Human in Space (1961) [Soviet Union]
Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel to space in 1961.
Computer Mouse (1964) [USA]
Douglas Engelbart at Stanford Research Institute developed the first computer mouse, revolutionizing human-computer interaction.
The Apollo 11 lands on the Moon (1969) [USA]
ARAPANET is brought online (1969) [USA]
The beginning of the Internet
First Mars Landing (1971) [Soviet Union (unsuccessful)]
The Soviet Union's Mars 3 lander touched down on Mars in 1971, but transmissions ceased shortly after.
Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (First Cellphone) (1973) [USA]
Magnetic Levitation Train (Maglev) (1984) [Japan]
First 3D Printer (1984) [Japan]
Dr. Hideo Kodama from is credited with inventing one of the first rapid prototyping machines, using layers of cured resin by UV light.
First Commercial 3D Printer (1986)
Chuck Hull from the USA filed the first patent for a system using stereolithography (SLA)
First MRI (1977) [USA]
The first whole-body MRI scanner was developed by Raymond Damadian in the US in 1977.
World Wide Web is created (1989) [UK]
Tim Berners-Lee's invention of the World Wide Web
21st Century
Human Genome Project Completed (2003) [International Collaboration]
An international effort to map all the genes of human DNA.
Social Networking Sites (Mid-2000s) [USA]
Platforms like Facebook and Myspace popularized online social connections.
Smartphones (Late 2000s) [Multiple Companies]
The convergence of mobile phones and powerful computing capabilities led to the rise of smartphones.
DARPA Grand Challenge is Complete (self-driving vehicles contest) (2005) [USA]
Stanford Racing Team won the $2 million prize with a time of 6 hours and 53 minutes.
CRISPR Gene Editing is Introduced (2012) [Multiple Researchers]
CRISPR offers powerful tools for gene editing, raising significant ethical and scientific considerations.