history-notes

A Chronicle of Nature, Science, & Technology

This is a chronicle of humanity, and everything that led up to us. I’ve shown each known branch along the path of human evolution. The branch leading to humans is on the left.

I’m interested in alphabets, writing, number systems, printing, reproducible ideas in publications, patents, inventions, and innovations. My goal is a universal history of science and nature.

Accessible explanations let us stand on the shoulders of giants.

Environmental data provide context. Atmospheric oxygen (O₂) tells the eucharyotes’ story. Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) tells temperature’s story. Sea level varies with temperature.

In the Holocene epoch, the average global temperature has varied < ±2 °C from the 20th century average of 15.0°C (59.0°F). Atmospheric CO₂ has steadily increased from about 260 ppm, and dust levels have stayed below 0.1 ppm. Dust levels exceed 0.4 ppm when the global average temperature drops more than 6 °C below the Holocene average, during major glaciations: the air becomes cold and dry.

Units

The Big Bang
< 10 Billion Years Ago: Mitochondria, Chloroplasts
< 1 Billion Years Ago: Hox, Gut, Spine, Eye, Jaw, Lungs, Limbs, Amniotic Sac
< 100 Million Years Ago: Thumb, Color Vision, No Tail
< 10 Million Years Ago: Stone Tools, Fire
< 1 Million Years Ago: Anatomically Modern Humans
< 100 Thousand Years Ago: Clothing, Dogs, Agriculture
< 10 Thousand Years Ago: Cats, Pottery, Copper Tools, Bronze Tools, Writing, Soap, Iron Tools, History, Medicine, Mathematics
Common Era: Paper, Zero, Algebra
1000s: Compass, Movable Type, Printing Press
1500s
1600s: Science, Cell Biology, Calculus, Principia
1700s: Metal Lathe, Flush Toilet
1800s
- 1810s
- 1820s
- 1830s
- 1840s: Anesthesia
- 1850s: Telegraph
- 1860s: Antiseptics
- 1870s: Statistics
- 1880s: Telephone
- 1890s: Radio
1900s: Assembly Line
- 1910s
- 1920s
- 1930s: Turing Machine
- 1940s
- 1950s
- 1960s: Internet
- 1970s
- 1980s
- 1990s: World Wide Web
2000s
- 2010s: Reusable Orbital Rockets
- 2020s
Resources

The Big Bang

13.80 bya: The Big Bang occurred, and 370,000 years later produced the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR)
13.53 bya: The first stars formed
11.9-10.8 bya: Quasar activity peaked

< 10 Billion Years Ago

8.8 bya: The Milky Way galaxy formed
4.7 bya: Neutron stars collided, seeding a dust cloud with heavy elements, which eventually formed our solar system
4.603 bya: The Sun formed, containing 99.86% of the mass in the solar system
4.599 bya: The planet Jupiter accumulated almost 0.1% of the mass in the solar system, leaving about 0.04% for the other planets, moons, asteroids, comets, meteoroids, and interplanetary dust
4.543 bya: The planet Gaia formed
4.51 bya: The planet Theia collided with Gaia, then the Earth & Moon formed from the debris
4.4 bya: Liquid water and an atmosphere (of CO₂, H₂, & water vapor) existed on Earth at a pressure above 27 atm, with temperatures of 230 °C
? bya: Pyrimidine (precursor to cytosine, thymine, and uracil) existed
? bya: Purine (precursor to adenine and guanine) existed
? bya: RNA existed
? bya: DNA existed
4.29-3.48 bya: Our last universal common ancestor (LUCA) lived
4.1-3.8 bya: The Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB) of the inner Solar System may have occurred
3.8 bya: Archaeal lipids existed
3.6-2.7 bya: The supercontinent Vaalbara existed
3.5 bya: Earliest oxygen production in shallow oceans, absorbed by the sea and sea bed
3.5 bya: Single celled life existed
? bya: Actin, a protein family necessary for phagocytosis, existed
3.2 bya: Asgardarchaeota split from Crenarchaeota
2.9 bya: The Pongola glaciation occurred
2.8-2.4 bya: The supercontinent Ur existed
2.7-2.5 bya: The supercontinent Kenorland existed
2.7-2.4 bya: Nickel deposits, necessary for chemosynthetic methane producers, decreased dramatically
2.5-2.0 bya: The supercontinent Arctica existed
2.45 bya: O₂ production started, practically no atmospheric O₂ before this, with the possible exception of shallow oceans
2.45-2.22 bya: Huronian glaciation, caused by oxygen
2.4 bya: An asteroid impacted Earth, creating the Suavjärvi crater which is 3 km in diameter
2.4-2.05 bya: Great Oxidation Event, Earth’s 3rd atmosphere began

Mitochondria

2.1-1.7 bya: A prokaryote (“before kernel”) incorporated a Rickettsiales, the source of mitochondria, via phagocytosis
2.1 bya: Eukaryota (“true kernels”) split from Lokiarchaeota (“ancient things”), possibly evolving the nuclear envelope to protect the genome from reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by the cells’ pre-mitochondria
2.023 bya: An asteroid impacted Earth, creating the Vredefort crater which is 160 km in diameter
1.9-1.0 bya: The supercontinent Atlantica existed
1.85 bya: The Boring Billion began; O₂ reached 0.03 atm, but oceans and seabed rock absorbed most of it
1.849 bya: A comet impacted Earth, creating the Sudbury Basin which is 130 km in diameter
1.8-1.4 bya: The supercontinent Nuna existed
1.5 bya: The cell nucleus (present in archaea & eukaryotes, but not eubacteria) existed

Chloroplasts

1.4 bya: A eukaryote incorporated a cyanobacteria, Gloeomargarita lithophora, the source of choloroplasts via phagocytosis
? bya: Orthokaryotes split from Discicristata
? bya: Neokaryotes (all unikonts & bikonts) split from Jakobids (which have bacteria-like mitochondria)
? bya: Scotokaryotes (a.k.a. Opimoda) split from Corticata (“one with a cortex”, a.k.a. Diphoda or Bikonts, e.g. plants, algae, etc.)
? bya: Podiata split from Malawimonas
? bya: Amorphea (a.k.a. Unikonts, “one pole”, i.e. a flagellum) split from CRuMs (heterotrophic protists)
? bya: Obazoa split from Amoebozoa (amoeboid protists)
1.23-0.825 bya: The supercontinent Rodinia existed
1.1 bya: Opisthokonts (“rear pole”, i.e. a flagellum) split from Apusomonadida (protozoan zooflagellates)
1.1 bya: Holozoa split from Holomycota (fungi, slime molds, & amoebae)
? ybp: Filozoa (“thread animals”) split from Pluriformea (“many shapes”)

< 1 Billion Years Ago

950? mya: Choanozoa (“collar animal”, a.k.a. Apoikozoa, “colony animal”) split from Filasterea (amoeboid protists)
952 mya: Animalia (a.k.a. Metazoa) split from Choanoflagellate (“funnel whips”, single-celled eukaryotes with flagella)
948 mya: Eumetazoa (“well after animal”) split from Porifera (sponges)
850 mya: The Boring Billion ended; O₂ was still 0.03 atm, but escaped the oceans and absorbed into land, then atmospheric levels rose quickly

Hox

? mya: The Protohox gene diverged into Hox & ParaHox
? mya: ParaHoxozoa split from Ctenophora (comb jellies)
? mya: Planulozoa split from Placozoa (“flat animals”)
824 mya: Bilateria (embryos have bilateral symmetry) split from Cnidaria (jellyfish & polyps)
800 mya: Massive uptick in zinc composition of marine sediments, attributed to eukaryotes

Gut

797 mya: Nephrozoa split from Xenacoelomorpha (small, soft bodied, aquatic, worm-like animals without a gut)
717 mya: The Sturtian glaciation (snowball Earth) began
684 mya: Deuterostomes (“second mouth”) split from Protostomia (“first mouth”)
684 mya: Chordata split from Ambulacraria (echinoderms and hemichordates)
676 mya: Olfactores (“smellers”) split from Cephalochordata (lancelets)
662 mya: The Sturtian glaciation (snowball Earth) ended
650-635 mya: The Marinoan glaciation (snowball Earth) occurred
633-573 mya: The supercontinent Pannotia existed at the South Pole

Spine

615 mya: Vertebrata (chordates with backbones) split from Tunicata (e.g. sea squirts)
600 mya: O₂ exceeded 0.1 atm
600 mya: An asteroid impacted Earth, creating the Beaverhead crater which is 60 km in diameter
580 mya: An asteroid impacted Earth, creating the Acraman crater which is 90 km in diameter
579 mya: The Gaskiers glaciation (snowball Earth) occurred for ~340 ka
575 mya: The Avalon explosion of evolution occurred, producing the Ediacaran biota
542 mya: The End-Ediacaran extinction occurred

Eye

541 mya: The Cambrian explosion of evolution occurred, CO₂ was 4000 ppm, O₂ was 0.12 atm, global temp was +13 °C
517 mya: The End-Botomian extinction event occurred
502 mya: The Dresbachian extinction event occurred
500 mya: The Steptoean Positive Carbon Isotope Excursion (SPICE) occurred, O₂ was 0.30 atm, global temp peaked at +15 °C
490 mya: Green algae evolved into Embryophyta (land plants)
488 mya: The Cambrian–Ordovician extinction event occurred

Jaw

473 mya: Gnathostomata (“jaw mouth”, a.k.a. jawed fish) split from Osteostraci (“bony shields”) & Pituriaspida (“pituri shield”)
469 mya: The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE) occurred, with fish diversifying rapidly
468 mya: The L chondrite parent bodies collided between Mars & Jupiter, producing many asteroids that still impact Earth
467.5 mya: The Ordovician meteor event occurred, due to the L chondrite parent body collision, with 100x meteorites compared to today
460-440 mya: The Late Ordovician glaciation occurred, CO₂ fell to 2000 ppm
450 mya: The global temperature fell to about 4 °C above the 20th century average
450-420 mya: The Andean-Saharan glaciation occurred
443 mya: The Ordovician–Silurian extinction events occurred, 85% of species lost

Lungs

435 mya: Euteleostomi (bony vertebrates, a.k.a. Osteichthyes) split from Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fish)
424 mya: The Lau extinction event occurred
420 mya: Elegestolepis, a primitive shark, existed

Limbs

413 mya: Sarcopterygii (“lobe-finned fish”) split from Actinopterygii (“ray-finned fish”)
409 mya: Tungsenia, a bony fish and the earliest known ancestor of tetrapods, existed
400 mya: O₂ exceeded 0.15 atm, and the global temperature rose to about 12 °C above the 20th century average
400 mya: Rhipidistia split from the Coelacanth (“hollow spine”)
385 mya: Wattieza, an early tree, existed
380 mya: Elpistostege, an early tetrapod that was basically a fish with arms, had digits, small bones that would eventually become fingers
372 mya: The Late Devonian extinction event occurred, 75% of species lost
360-345 mya: Archaeopteris, an early tree, existed
360-260 mya: The Late Paleozoic icehouse (a.k.a. Karoo ice age) occurred
359 mya: The Hangenberg extinction event occurred, 96% of vertebrate species lost
352 mya: Tetrapoda (“four legs”) split from Dipnoi (lungfish)
350 mya: O₂ exceeded 0.2 atm, and the global temperature fell to about 5 °C above the 20th century average
335-175 mya: The supercontinent Pangaea existed

Amniotic Sac

312 mya: Amniota (membrane surrounding the fetus) split from Amphibia (“both kinds of life”)
305 mya: The Carboniferous rainforest collapse occurred
300 mya: Pinophyta (a.k.a. conifers) existed
300 mya: O₂ peaked at 0.2-0.35 atm, and the global temperature fell to about 2 °C below the 20th century average, all modern classes of fungi existed
273 mya: Olson’s Extinction occurred
260 mya: The Late Paleozoic icehouse ended, and global temperature stayed above the 20th century average for the next 256 million years
260 mya: The Capitanian extinction event occurred, 35% of species lost
252 mya: The Permian–Triassic extinction event, i.e. “The Great Dying” occurred, 90% of species lost to volcanoes, O₂ fell to 0.15 atm
250 mya: The global temperature rose to about 11 °C above the 20th century average
245-202 mya: Angiosperms (“enclosed seeds”, a.k.a. flowering plants) split from Gymnosperms (“naked seeds”, a.k.a. seed-producing plants)
230 mya: Eoraptor, an early dinosaur, existed
215-175 mya: The supercontinent Pangaea split into Laurasia & Gondwana, creating the North Atlantic Ocean between North America and northwest Africa
214 mya: An asteroid impacted Earth, creating the Manicouagan crater which is 85 km in diameter
201.3 mya: The Triassic–Jurassic extinction event occurred, 70% of species lost
200 mya: O₂ exceeded 0.2 atm, CO₂ was > 3000 ppm, and the global temperature fell to about 2 °C above the 20th century average
183 mya: The Pliensbachian-Toarcian extinction events occurred
177 mya: Synapsida (“fused arch”, e.g. mammals) split from Sauropsida (“lizard faces”, e.g. reptiles & birds)
159 mya: Theriiformes (“beastlike”) split from Prototheria (“first beasts”, a.k.a. monotremes, e.g. platypi & echidnas)
150 mya: O₂ exceeded 0.26 atm, CO₂ was > 3000 ppm, global temp rose to about 5 °C above the 20th century average
145 mya: An asteroid impacted Earth, creating the Morokweng crater which is 70 km in diameter
129-125 mya: Poaceae, a.k.a. Gramineae or grasses evolved
116 mya: The Aptian extinction event occurred
105 mya: Eutheria (“true beasts”, placental mammals) split from Metatheria (“changed beasts”, e.g. marsupials)
100 mya: The global temperature rose to about 8 °C above the 20th century average

< 100 Million Years Ago

96 mya: Boreoeutheria (“northern true beasts”) split from Atlantogenata (elephants, sloths, etc.)
94 mya: The Cenomanian-Turonian anoxic event, a mass extinction, occurred
90 mya: Euarchontoglires (Supraprimates) split from Laurasiatheria (dogs, cats, giraffes, whales, etc.)
88 mya: Euarchonta (“true ancestors”) split from Glires (dormice), maybe
86.2 mya: Primatomorpha split from Scandentia (tree shrews)
79.6 mya: Primates split from Dermoptera (gliding mammals)
78 mya: Even-toed ungulates (e.g. pigs, cows, sheep, goats, camels, llamas, deer, giraffes, hippos, whales, and dolphins) split from odd-toed ungulates (i.e. horses, asses, zebras, rhinos, and tapirs)
70.3 mya: An asteroid impacted Earth, creating the Kara crater which is 65 km in diameter

Thumb

70 mya: Primates evolved thumbs
67 mya: Haplorhini (“simple nosed”, a.k.a. dry nosed primates) split from Strepsirrhini (“twisted nosed”, a.k.a. moist nosed primates)
67 mya: The global temperature fell to about 6 °C above the 20th century average, CO₂ was 350-500 ppm
66.7 mya: The first known bird existed: a recent common ancestor of chickens and ducks
66 mya: An asteroid impacted Earth, creating the Chicxulub crater which is 150 km in diameter
66 mya: The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction event occurred, 75% of species lost (including all dinosaurs except birds)
65 mya: The global temperature rose to about 11 °C above the 20th century average, CO₂ was 2300 ppm
60 mya: Angiosperms (a.k.a. flowering plants) replaced Pinophyta (a.k.a. conifers) as the dominant trees
56 mya: Laurasia split into North America & Eurasia
55 mya: The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) occurred; atmospheric CO₂ increased, and the global temperature spiked to over 14 °C above the 20th century average
50 mya: Pinnipeds (“fin-foot”, a.k.a. seals) split from other Caniformes (“dog-like” carnivores)
49-45 mya: Cetaceans (whales) evolved from land mammals back into sea mammals
45 mya: The global temperature fell to about 9 °C above the 20th century average
43 mya: Simians (flat nosed primates) split from tarsiers
42 mya: Caniformia (“dog-like” carnivores) split from Feliformia (“cat-like” carnivores)
40 mya: O₂ dropped to 0.23 atm, and the global temperature spiked to about 11 °C above the 20th century average
35 mya: An asteroid impacted Earth, creating the Popigai crater which is 90 km in diameter
35 mya: The global temperature fell to about 3 °C above the 20th century average, and began to oscillate a couple °C
33.9 mya: The Late Cenozoic Ice Age began, and is ongoing
30 mya: The global temperature peaked at least 6 °C above the 20th century average, and continued to oscillate around 4-6 °C above for the next 10 million years

Color Vision

29 mya: Catarrhini (“narrow nosed”, Old World monkeys) split from Platyrrhini (“flat nosed”, New World monkeys)
28 mya: The East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) formed, due to declining atmospheric CO₂
25 mya: O₂ dropped to 0.21 atm, the global temperature peaked about 7 °C above the 20th century average, and continued to oscillate around 4-6 °C above for the next 5 million years

No Tail

20 mya: Hominoidea (apes) split from Cercopithecidae (Old World monkeys)
15.7 mya: Hominidae (great apes) split from gibbons (lesser apes)
15 mya: The global temperature peaked at least 7 °C above the 20th century average
14 mya: The Middle Miocene disruption occurred, extinctions related to cooling
14 mya: The East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) reached its current extent
10 mya: The global temperature fell to about 4 °C above the 20th century average, and began to oscillate around 2-4 °C above for the next 4 million years

< 10 Million Years Ago

9 mya: Homininae split from orangutans
8 mya: Hominini split from gorillas
7 mya: Hominina split from Panina, i.e. chimpanzees and bonobos
7 mya: The Sahara formed for the first time as the Tethys Sea dried up
6 mya: The global temperature fell to about 1 °C above the 20th century average
5.96-5.33 mya: The Messinian salinity crisis desiccated the Mediterranean Sea, ending with the Zanclean flood
5 mya: The global temperature peaked at least 4 °C above the 20th century average, and began to oscillate around 1-3 °C above for the next million years
4.2-3.8 mya: Australopithecus anamensis (“southern ape of the lake”) evolved in what is now Ethiopia & Kenya
4 mya: Early humans evolved to walk on two legs (bipedalism)

Stone Tools

3.4 mya: The Stone Age began (tools made in what is now Ethiopia, near Gona)
3.3 mya: Early humans made large stone tools in what is now Kenya (Lomekwi 3)
3 mya: The global temperature began to regularly dip below the 20th century average, and oscillate between +3 & -3 °C for the next million years
2.8 mya: Homo habilis (“handy man”) evolved near Olduvai Gorge in the East African Rift
2.7 mya: The Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI) occurred, following the closure of the Central American Seaway with the formation of the Isthmus of Panama
2.58 mya: The Pleistocene epoch (a.k.a. the Ice Age) began
2 mya: The global temperature began to regularly peak below the 20th century average, and oscillate between 0 & -3 °C for the next 1.6 million years
1.9 mya: Homo erectus (“upright man”) evolved near Lake Turkana in the Kenyan Rift Valley
1.89 mya: Humans began to run long distances, and sweat, and lose body hair
1.8 mya: Homo erectus migrated out of Africa by this time
1.25-0.7 mya: The Mid-Pleistocene Transition occurred, glacial cycles switched from 41 ka to 100 ka
1.08 mya: The Mangakino eruption occurred in present day New Zealand, with a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 8
1.07 mya: An asteroid created Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana

Fire

1.0 mya: Homo erectus controlled fire in Wonderwerk Cave, in the Asbestos Mountains of South Africa

< 1 Million Years Ago

990-950 kya: The Jaramillo reversal of Earth’s magnetic field occurred
970 kya: Sea level was 79 m below the 20th century average
800 kya: CO₂ dipped below 190 ppm, global temp -9 °C from present
790 kya: CO₂ peaked around 260 ppm, global temp -1 °C from present
788 kya: An asteroid impacted southeast Asia creating the Australasian strewnfield
781 kya: The Brunhes-Matuyama reversal of Earth’s magnetic field occurred
750 kya: CO₂ dipped below 180 ppm, global temp -9 °C from present
740 kya: CO₂ peaked around 210 ppm, global temp -4 °C from present
720 kya: CO₂ dipped below 190 ppm, global temp -9 °C from present
700 kya: CO₂ peaked around 240 ppm, global temp -2 °C from present
670 kya: CO₂ dipped below 170 ppm, global temp -11 °C from present
660 kya: CO₂ peaked around 200 ppm, global temp -7 °C from present
640 kya: CO₂ dipped below 190 ppm, global temp -9 °C from present
610 kya: CO₂ peaked around 260 ppm, global temp -1 °C from present
600 kya: CO₂ dipped below 220 ppm, global temp -7 °C from present
590 kya: CO₂ peaked around 250 ppm, global temp -2 °C from present
580 kya: CO₂ dipped below 200 ppm, global temp -7 °C from present
540 kya: CO₂ peaked around 250 ppm, global temp -1 °C from present
530 kya: CO₂ dipped below 200 ppm, global temp -8 °C from present
490 kya: CO₂ peaked around 250 ppm, global temp -1 °C from present
450 kya: A catastrophic glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) occurred, creating the English Channel
440 kya: CO₂ dipped below 200 ppm, global temp -9 °C from present
415 kya: Early humans controlled fire in Suffolk, England
400 kya: CO₂ peaked around 280 ppm, global temp +2 °C from present, first time it exceeded 20th century average since 2 million years ago
350 kya: CO₂ dipped below 200 ppm, global temp -9 °C from present
335 kya: The Whakamaru eruption occurred in present day New Zealand, with a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 8
320 kya: CO₂ peaked around 300 ppm, global temp +2 °C from present
315 kya: Homo sapiens (“wise man”) evolved
300 kya: Most homo species lived in hunter-gatherer societies, with tools, culture, and speech
270 kya: Y-chromosomal Adam lived (Y-DNA haplogroup A00)
260 kya: CO₂ dipped below 200 ppm, global temp -9 °C from present, sea level was 80 m below
250 kya: Homo neanderthalensis evolved
240 kya: CO₂ peaked around 280 ppm, global temp +2 °C from present
200 kya: 7 subspecies of early humans, including Homo sapiens existed
194 kya: The Penultimate Glacial Period began
173 kya: African wildcats split from European wildcats
160 kya: CO₂ dipped below 200 ppm, global temp -9 °C from present
160 kya: A catastrophic glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) occurred, widening the English Channel
150 kya: Mitochondrial Eve lived before this (mt-DNA haplogroup L)
150 kya: Sea level was 1 m above the 20th century average
140 kya: The Penultimate Glacial Period reached its maximum, sea level was 150 m below present

Anatomically Modern Humans

140-110 kya: Anatomically modern humans (AMH) evolved a larger fore-brain, smaller teeth, and longer distal bones
135 kya: The Penultimate Glacial Period ended
131 kya: North African/Near Eastern wildcats split from Southern African wildcats & Asiatic wildcats
130 kya: The Eemian interglacial period began
128 kya: Early humans cooked with fire regularly
120 kya: CO₂ peaked around 280 ppm, global temp +3 °C from present, sea level was 6 m above present, warmest in the past 3 million years
120-90 kya: The Abbassia Pluvial occurred, bringing moisture to North Africa
115 kya: The Last Glacial Period (LGP) began
105-75 kya: North Africa became humid (the “Green Sahara”), then dried out

< 100 Thousand Years Ago

Clothing

83 kya: Humans wore clothing (body lice diverged from head lice)
73 kya: The Toba volcano erupted
71-14.5 kya: North Africa dried out, with 3 semi-humid interruptions
70-50 kya: Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa
65-61 kya: North Africa briefly became semi-humid, then dried out
52.5-50.5 kya: North Africa briefly became semi-humid, then dried out
50-40 kya: Early human tools and cultures became more sophisticated in an explosion of innovation
50-30 kya: “Gracile” anatomically modern humans (AMH) evolved
43 kya: Early European Farmers (EEF) split from Western Hunter-Gatherers (WHG)
40 kya: Humans lived in the Maribyrnong River valley near modern Melbourne
37.5-33 kya: North Africa briefly became semi-humid, then dried out
32 kya: Dogs diverged from wolves
26.5-20 kya: The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) occurred, CO₂ dipped to 180 ppm, global temp -9 °C from present, dust exceeded 1.6 ppm
25.7 kya: The Oruanui supereruption occurred in present day New Zealand, with a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 8
25 kya: Ancestral Native Americans (ANA) split from East Asians
24 kya: Ancestral Native Americans (ANA) migrated across Beringia, and inhabited the Bluefish Caves
23 kya: Early European Farmers (EEF) split from Caucasus Hunter-Gatherers (CHG)
22 kya: Ancient North Eurasians (ANE) split from Western Hunter-Gatherers (WHG)
21 kya: Humans walked through what is now White Sands National Park
20 kya: Ancestral Native Americans (ANA) split from Ancient Beringians (AB)
20 kya: Sea level was 130 m below present
18 kya: CO₂ fell to local minimum around 200 ppm, global temp -10 °C from present, sea level was 120 m below present
17-15 kya: The Oldest Dryas occurred, global temperatures declined sharply
15 kya: Sea level was 110 m below present
15-13 kya: The Late Glacial Interstadial (LGI) occurred, first pronounced warming since LGM, global temp spiking to -1 °C from present
15-13 kya: The Missoula floods, a series of catastrophic glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) occurred, creating the Channeled Scablands
14.7-13.5 kya: Meltwater pulse 1A occurred, and the sea level rose from > 100 m to < 80 m below present
14.6 kya: Heinrich event H1 occurred, with many glaciers calving icebergs rapidly
14.5 kya: Humans made bread at Shubayqa in modern Jordan
14.5-5.5 kya: The African humid period occurred

Dogs

14.2 kya: Dogs lived with humans along the Rhine River
14.2-14.1 kya: The Older Dryas occurred, global temperatures declined sharply

Agriculture

14 kya: Other homo species have died, agriculture becomes common
14 kya: Sea level was 80 m below present, global temp was 2 °C below present
13.5 kya: Natufians established Abu Hureyra near the Euphrates River: a few hundred people lived there year-round, the largest settlement of people anywhere at the time
13 kya: Sea level was 78 m below present, global temp was 2 °C below present
13 kya: Natufians brewed beer at Raqefet Cave, near Haifa
13 kya: Lake Agassiz (the largest lake on Earth) experienced a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF), creating the Glacial River Warren which drained into Hudson Bay affecting thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean
13 kya: The Sahara was as dry as it is today, but was beginning to grow lush forests due to the African humid period
13 kya: The Laacher See eruption occurred in present day Germany, with a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 6
12.8 kya: A comet impacted the Earth, leaving nanodiamonds as evidence
12.8-11.7 kya: The Younger Dryas occurred, the last cold snap of the Pleistocene epoch (a.k.a. the Ice Age); global temperatures declined sharply
12.2 kya: Neolithic age began, agriculture existed in the Levant, CO₂ exceeded 250 ppm, global temp rose to the present level
12.2 kya: Natufians established Mureybet near the upper Euphrates River, building round structures
12 kya: Sea level was 65 m below present, global temp was 2 °C below present
12 kya: People in Asia domesticated the bottle gourd
12-9 kya: The Altai floods, a series of catastrophic glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) occurred, creating giant current ripples
12 kya: The human population of Earth exceeded four million people
9700 BCE: The Holocene epoch and Boreal age began, ending the Last Glacial Period (LGP); global temperatures increased, CO₂ was 270 ppm
9670 BCE: Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) settlers near the Queiq (a.k.a. Aleppo) River built Tell Qaramel, the earliest known stone tower
9500 BCE: People near the upper Euphrates River built Göbekli Tepe, the oldest known temple, using the oldest megaliths
9500-9200 BCE: Meltwater pulse 1B occurred
9400 BCE: People in Cyprus had domesticated pigs from the mainland
9300 BCE: Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) settlers in Mureybet near the upper Euphrates River built the first known settlement with rectangular structures
9000 BCE: Sea level was 60 m below present
9000 BCE: Natufians settled Jericho
9000 BCE: People in the Fertile Crescent domesticated peas, wheat, rye, & barley which tolerates salty soil better than the others
9000 BCE: People in what is now China domesticated soybeans
8500 BCE: People in the Mediterranean Basin domesticated the sheep
8500 BCE: People in the Tigris basin domesticated pigs and cattle, perhaps near Çayönü Tepesi
8350 BCE: People in the Levant settled ʿAin Ghazal (“Spring of the Gazelle”) by the Zarqa River, where the city of Amman is today
8000 BCE: People in the Levant settled Gesher in the Jordan Valley
8000 BCE: Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) settlers built the Tower of Jericho, the tallest artificial structure at 8.5 m until 2650 BCE
8000 BCE: People in what is now Iran domesticated the goat
8000 BCE: Sea level was 45 m below present
8000 BCE: The human population of Earth exceeded five million people

< 10 Thousand Years Ago

Cats

7500 BCE: A farmer lived with a domesticated African wildcat in Cyprus
7450 BCE: Lake Agassiz drained into Hudson Bay and the Glacial River Warren ceased, raising global sea levels 0.8-2.8 m
7200 BCE: Lake Agassiz merged with Lake Ojibway
7200 BCE: The Jeitun people grew wheat and barley near the Alborz and Kopet Dag mountains, and built rectangular clay buildings at Sang-i Chakmak but did not yet make pottery
7100 BCE: People in Anatolia established Çatalhöyük, the largest known settlement at several thousand people
7000-3000 BCE: The Holocene Climatic Optimum (HCO) occurred, with Arctic temperatures 2 °C above the 20th century average, or more
7000 BCE: Sea level was 30 m below present
7000 BCE: People on the plains of the Indus River domesticated the zebu, founded Mehrgarh near the Bolan Pass, the earliest known farming settlement of the Indus Valley Civilisation, and grew wheat from the Fertile Crescent

Pottery

6700 BCE: Mesopotamians made pottery, for example at Tell Sabi Abyad in the Balikh River valley
6550 BCE: Lake Agassiz emptied into Hudson Bay, raising global sea levels
6500 BCE: The Ubaid people settled Tell el-‘Oueili, the earliest known human settlement in southern Mesopotamia
6500-6200 BCE: Doggerland flooded and became the North Sea, separating the British Isles from continental Europe
6250 BCE: Lake Ojibway drained into Hudson Bay, possibly affecting thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean
6200 BCE: The 8.2-kiloyear event occurred, with the global temperature abruptly cooling
6000 BCE: People in Southeast Asia domesticated the chicken
6000 BCE: People in what is now China independently domesticated pigs
6000 BCE: Sea level was 15 m below present
6000 BCE: Samarran people at Choga Mami dug the first known irrigation canals
6000 BCE: The Hassuna people built the earliest known kiln at Yarim Tepe in Mesopotamia
6000 BCE: The Peiligang people inscribed the Jiahu symbols, examples of proto-writing, and made bone flutes, the earliest known musical instruments in what is now China
5500 BCE: Sea level was 6 m below present
5400 BCE: Sumerians founded the city of Eridu
5202 BCE: People made ceramics, flutes, and inscribed markings near Dispilio, Greece
5000 BCE: Lake Megachad reached its greatest extent of over 400,000 square km and 173 m deep sometime before this

Copper Tools

5000 BCE: Illyrians smelted copper on Rudnik Mountain in what is now Serbia
5000 BCE: People in what is now Peru domesticated guinea pigs
5000 BCE: People in Egypt domesticated the donkey
5000 BCE: Sumerians founded the city of Uruk
5000 BCE: Sea level was 4 m below present
4500 BCE: The Laurentide Ice Sheet retreated from Nunavik
4500 BCE: Sumerians invented the slow potter’s wheel
4000 BCE: The Vinča people inscribed the Vinča symbols, examples of proto-writing
4000 BCE: Sea level was 3 m below present
4000 BCE: People in what is now China domesticated the duck
4000 BCE: People in what is now India & China domesticated the water buffalo
4000 BCE: People in Africa, Asia, & Europe domesticated the honey bee
4000 BCE: People in Arabia domesticated the dromedary camel
4000-3000 BCE: The African humid period ended in North Africa, recreating the Sahara as it was about 13,000 years ago
3900-3500 BCE: Human populations rapidly increased with the spread of agriculture, pottery, the wheel, and animal husbandry, see the Neolithic decline
3800 BCE: Sumerians founded the city of Ur
3500 BCE: People in the Fertile Crescent and Indus Valley Civilization used a heavy stone as a flywheel for the fast potter’s wheel
3500 BCE: The Botai culture near the Ishim River in what is now northern Kazakhstan domesticated the horse
3400 BCE: People founded the ancient city of Jawa, and built the oldest known dams
3400 BCE: The Neolithic decline began, with human settlements abandoned permanently, decreased cereal production, and the emergence of communicable diseases such as pneumonic plague

Bronze Tools, Writing

3300 BCE: The Bronze Age began in Southern Asia
3300 BCE: Sumerians in Uruk on the ancient channel of the Euphrates River wrote cuneiform
3300 BCE: People in the Indus Valley Civilization wrote the Indus script
3300 BCE: Eastern Hunter-Gatherer (EHG) males mated with Caucasus Hunter-Gatherer (CHG) females to produce Western Steppe Herders (WSH)
3200 BCE: The Gerzeh culture in Egypt wrote hieroglyphs (“sacred carvings”), descended from Sumerian cuneiform
3200 BCE: Sumerians inscribed the Kish tablet, an example of proto-writing
3100 BCE: Sumerians founded the city of Kish
3000 BCE: Sea level was 2 m below present
3000 BCE: The Indus Valley Civilisation had many advanced technologies, notably sanitation using separate channels for wastewater and rainwater
3000 BCE: People in what is now China domesticated the silkmoth
3000 BCE: People in the Mediterranean Basin domesticated the pigeon

Soap

2800 BCE: People in Babylon recorded the earliest known recipe for soap
2650 BCE: The Third Dynasty of Egypt constructed the Pyramid of Djoser, the first colossal stone structure in Egypt and the tallest artificial structure in the world at 62.5 m, surpassing the Tower of Jericho from 8000 BCE
2600 BCE: Western Steppe Herders (WSH) migrated across Eurasia, spreading the Indo-European language family
2600 BCE: The Norte Chico in what is now Peru founded the city of Caral, building large stone temples
2580-2510 BCE: The Fourth Dynasty of Egypt constructed the Giza pyramid complex
2500 BCE: People in Egypt fried food
2500 BCE: The Instructions of Shuruppak, an example of Sumerian wisdom literature, existed by this time
2300 BCE: Urukagina enacted the first known government reforms, to combat corruption
2200 BCE: A major drought, the 4.2-kiloyear event, may have contributed to the collapse of civilizations across Asia & Africa
2200 BCE: The Indus Valley Civilisation founded the city of Lothal on an ancient course of the Sabarmati River where it met the Arabian Sea
2100 BCE: Minoans on the Aegean Islands wrote Cretan hieroglyphs
2050 BCE: Ur-Nammu enacted the Code of Ur-Nammu
2050 BCE: The Sintashta culture near the Ural and Tobol rivers invented the spoked wheel and light chariot
2000 BCE: Sea level was 1 m below present
2000 BCE: Sumerians in Larsa inscribed the Sumerian King List on a clay tablet
2000 BCE: The Indus Valley Civilisation inscribed copper plates, perhaps for printing
2000 BCE: The last woolly mammoths lived on Wrangel Island
2000 BCE: Babylonians used a seven day week, and a positional sexagesimal (base-60) number system which is the basis for 60 minutes per hour and 360 degrees in a circle

Iron Tools

1900 BCE: People smelted and smithed iron in Anatolia or Caucasus
1850 BCE: People near Wadi El-Hol, Egypt wrote Proto-Sinaitic script
1850 BCE: The Kültepe texts, the oldest known writing in Anatolia, were written in Akkadian and contained Hittite loanwords, the oldest known use of Indo-European language
1800 BCE: Assyrians from Assur on the Tigris River introduced cuneiform to Hattusa, the capital of the Hittite Empire
1800-1450 BCE: Minoans on the Aegean Islands wrote Linear A, descended from Cretan hieroglyphs
1754 BCE: Hammurabi enacted the Code of Hammurabi
1700 BCE: King Anitta, who wrote the oldest known Indo-European text in Hittite, burned Hattusa
1600 BCE: The Thera volcano erupted on the island now called Santorini, destroying the Minoan settlement Akrotiri
1450-1200 BCE: Mycenaeans in Greece wrote Mycenaean Greek in Linear B, descended from Linear A
1400 BCE: Descendants of the Andronovo people composed the Rigveda (Praise Knowledge), the earliest known example of Sanskrit
1300 BCE: Mycenaeans in Greece made concrete floors in the royal palace of Tiryns on the Peloponnese peninsula
1200 BCE: People at Yinxu in what is now China carved oracle bone script
1200-1150 BCE: The Late Bronze Age Collapse occurred, with invading Sea Peoples introducing iron in large quantities to the eastern Mediterranean
1050 BCE: Phoenicians wrote using the Phoenician alphabet, descended from Linear B
1000 BCE: Sea level was 1 m below present
1000 BCE: The human population of Earth exceeded fifty million people
900 BCE: Olmecs carved characters into the Cascajal Block
800 BCE: The Greek alphabet descended from the Phoenician alphabet, introducing vowels
800 BCE: The Aramaic alphabet descended from the Phoenician alphabet
800 BCE: The Hebrew alphabet descended from the Aramaic alphabet
743 BCE: Tiglath-Pileser III organized the first standing army
700 BCE: Etruscans wrote using the Etruscan alphabet, descended from the Greek alphabet
700 BCE: Nabatean traders discovered hydraulic lime and pioneered concrete, using it to make waterproof underground cisterns in the desert
688 BCE: The Assyrian Jerwan Aqueduct used waterproof concrete
668 BCE: Ashurbanipal systematically collected the first known library in Nineveh on the Tigris River, including the Epic of Gilgamesh
650 BCE: Hesiod wrote Theogony & Works and Days no later than this
630 BCE: The Homeridae developed the Iliad and the Odyssey no later than this
620 BCE: Draco (a.k.a. Drakon), Athens’ first democratic legislator, introduced the Draconian constitution, replacing oral law and blood feud with a written code displayed publicly
600 BCE: Latin script originated, descended from the Etruscan alphabet
594 BCE: Solon reformed the Draconian constitution, cancelling debts, freeing slaves, and eliminating the death penalty except for homicide
566 BCE: Peisistratos commissioned official texts of the Iliad and the Odyssey for the Panathenaic Games
550 BCE: Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Empire, the first historical event as described by Herodotus
546 BCE: Anaximander wrote On Nature, describing an early theory of evolution, and other works on science and geometry, including a world map, by the time he died
545 BCE: Thales of Miletus was the first known to have applied deductive reasoning to geometry, for example to find the height of the pyramids and the distance to ships from shore, described static electricity, and taught Anaximander, by the time he died
530 BCE: Eupalinos engineered the Tunnel of Eupalinos, the first geometrically excavated tunnel, through Mount Kastro in Samos
530 BCE: Pythagoras founded a school at Croton
500 BCE: Darius I standardized the Aramaic alphabet, descended from the Phoenician alphabet
500 BCE: Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War
500 BCE: The human population of Earth exceeded one hundred million people
476 BCE: Hecataeus of Miletus wrote Περίοδος γῆς (Periodos ges, Journey Around the Earth or World Survey), and Γενεαλογίαι (Genealogiai) or the Ἱστορία (Historia) by the time he died
472 BCE: Aeschylus’ tragedy The Persians won first prize in the Athens City Dionysia festival
458 BCE: Aeschylus’ tragedy The Oresteia won first prize in the Athens City Dionysia festival

History

440 BCE: Herodotus wrote The Histories, establishing historiography
431-411 BCE Thucydides wrote the History of the Peloponnesian War, establishing scientific history and documenting how the Plague of Athens spread via infection, an important milestone in the germ theory of disease
430 BCE: Aeschylus, or someone else, wrote Prometheus Bound by this time
423 BCE: Aristophanes produced The Clouds, mocking Socrates
422 BCE: Aristophanes produced The Wasps, ridiculing Cleon
420 BCE: Democritus & Leucippus formulated the atomic theory at Abdera, Thrace
420 BCE: The “Old Oligarch” wrote the Athenaion Politeia (Athenian Constitution)
403 BCE: The city of Athens officially adopted the standard 24-letter Greek alphabet
400 BCE: Laozi wrote the Tao Te Ching
399 BCE: The city of Athens tried Socrates for moral corruption and impiety
387 BCE: Plato founded his Academy
375 BCE: Plato wrote the Republic, an influential work on philosophy & political theory

Medicine

370 BCE: Hippocrates by the time he died had written or inspired the Hippocratic Corpus, establishing medicine and coining the Hippocratic Oath
370 BCE: Xenophon wrote:
362 BCE: Xenophon wrote Hellenica, describing the last 7 years of the Peloponnesian War, following Thucydides
361 BCE: Xenophon wrote the Oeconomicus (Economics), a Socratic dialogue on agriculture and managing a household
360 BCE: Xenophon wrote Symposium & Agesilaus
360 BCE: Aristotle wrote Timaeus
360 BCE: Aristotle wrote Poetics
355 BCE: Xenophon wrote Ways and Means
354 BCE: Xenophon wrote On Horsemanship, Hipparchicus, & Cynegeticus (On Hunting) by the time he died
350 BCE: Aristotle wrote Περὶ οὐρανοῦ, a.k.a. De Caelo (On the Heavens)
335 BCE: Alexander the Great’s armies spread the use of the Koine Greek language
334 BCE: Aristotle founded the Lyceum
325 BCE: Dakṣiputra Pāṇini wrote Aṣṭādhyāyī on Sanskrit grammar
322 BCE: Aristotle wrote many works on biology, Rhetoric, and other subjects by the time he died

Mathematics

300 BCE: Euclid wrote Elements, beginning formal mathematics
300 BCE: Zeno of Citium founded Stoicism
300 BCE: Indian mathematicians wrote the Bakhshali manuscript around this time, using shunya-bindu (“the dot of the empty place”) to represent zero as a small circle
295 BCE: Demetrius of Phalerum acquired writings of Aristotle and Theophrastus for Ptolemy I Soter
287 BCE: Theophrastus wrote Historia Plantarum (History of Botany)
283 BCE: Ptolemy II Philadeplhus created the Library of Alexandria, continuing work started by Ptolemy I Soter
260 BCE: Ashoka carved the Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription in Ancient Greek and Aramaic
259 BCE: Ashoka carved the Minor Rock Edicts with Brahmi script including Brahmi numerals, precursors to the Hindu numeral system but lacking zero
250 BCE: Archimedes of Syracuse designed the block and tackle pulley system
250 BCE: Archimedes of Syracuse wrote On Floating Bodies, describing Archimedes’ principle
250 BCE: Kātyāyana wrote Vārttikakāra by this time, on Sanskrit grammar
240 BCE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
240 BCE: Eratosthenes measured the Earth’s circumference
234 BCE: Archimedes of Syracuse described the screw pump
233 BCE: The Taupo volcano erupted on New Zealand’s North Island
230 BCE: Aristarchus of Samos by the time he died wrote Peri megethon kai apostematon (On the Sizes and Distances), calculating that the Sun is larger than the Moon, and suggesting that planets orbit the Sun
220 BCE: Li Si compiled the Cangjiepian (Three Chapters), standardizing Small seal script
220-150 BCE: Apollonius of Perga invented the astrolabe, a celestial navigation device that determines latitude, i.e. one’s north-south position on Earth
212 BCE: Archimedes of Syracuse wrote many mathematical works including Perí sfaíras kaí kylíndrou (On the Sphere & Cylinder) which gave the Archimedean property by the time he died
200 BCE: Apollonius of Perga wrote Conics and other works on mathematics
180 BCE: Marcus Aurelius completed his Meditations
164 BCE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
163 BCE: Terence wrote Ἑαυτὸν τιμωρούμενος (The Self-Tormentor), a.k.a. Heauton Timorumenos, with the line “Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto”, or “I am human, nothing human is alien to me.”
150 BCE: Patañjali wrote Mahābhāṣya on Sanskrit grammar
135 BCE: Hipparchus compiled a star catalog, later copied by Ptolemy, and introduced apparent magnitude, a measure of brightness
127 BCE: Hipparchus wrote two books on the precession of the equinoxes: On the Displacement of the Solsticial and Equinoctial Points & On the Length of the Year
120 BCE: Hipparchus wrote Peri megethon kai apostematon (On Sizes and Distances), Pròs tèn Eratosthénous geographían (Against the Geography of Eratosthenes), and many others by the time he died
107 BCE: Roman tribunes required secret ballots
100 BCE: Nabataeans wrote the Nabataean alphabet, a descendant of the Aramaic alphabet that developed into the Arabic alphabet
100 BCE: Patañjali wrote Mahabhashya (Great Commentary) by this time, on Sanskrit grammar and semantics
91 BCE: Sima Qian published Shiji or Records of the Grand Historian
87 BCE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
75 BCE: Old Latin became standardized as Classical Latin
56 BCE: Lucretius wrote De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things), promoting Epicureanism, specifically atomism, and stating that the world contained “seeds” that can sicken you if inhaled or ingested
46 BCE: Julius Caesar proposed the Julian calendar
44 BCE: The Palmyrene alphabet descended from cursive versions of the Aramaic alphabet
40 BCE: Andronicus of Rhodes wrote down Aristotle’s Organon (Instrument), on logic
36 BCE: Marcus Terentius Varro wrote Rerum rusticarum libri III (Three Books on Agriculture), which states “Precautions must also be taken in the neighborhood of swamps […] because there are bred certain minute creatures which cannot be seen by the eyes, which float in the air and enter the body through the mouth and nose and there cause serious diseases.”
36 BCE: Diodorus of Sicily wrote Bibliotheca historica, a universal history
23 BCE: Horace wrote the first 3 books of his Odes, including “carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero” (“seize the day, trusting tomorrow as little as possible”)
15 BCE: Vitruvius wrote De architectura, libri decem (Ten Books on Architecture)
12 BCE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth

Common Era

1 CE: Sea level was near the present
12 CE: Livy wrote Ab Urbe Condita Libri CXLII (From the Founding of the City in 142 Books), a history of ancient Rome
23 CE: Strabo wrote the last edition of his Geographica (Geography)
50 CE: The Syriac alphabet descended from the Palmyrene alphabet
66 CE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
70 CE: Hero (a.k.a. Heron) of Alexandria wrote many works on mathematics and engineering, including Metrica which explored geometry in 3D, and Catoptrics which explored mirrors, by the time he died
70 CE: Pedanius Dioscorides wrote De materia medica (On the matter of medicine), an influential work on pharmacology for 1500 years
77 CE: Pliny the Elder wrote Naturalis Historia (Natural History)
95 CE: Quintillian wrote Institutio Oratoria (Institutes of Oratory): his aim was “the education of the perfect orator”, and he taught Pliny the Younger rhetoric
99 CE: Pliny the Younger wrote the first book of his Epistulae (Letters)

Paper

105 CE: Cai Lun invented paper and the modern papermaking process
108 CE: Arrian of Nicomedia wrote Discourses of Epictetus
109 CE: Pliny the Younger wrote the first 9 books of his Epistulae (Letters)
111 CE: Ban Biao’s children wrote The Book of Han, a history of China
125 CE: Arrian of Nicomedia wrote Enchiridion of Epictetus
131 CE: Arrian of Nicomedia wrote Periplus of the Euxine Sea
137 CE: Arrian of Nicomedia wrote Techne Taktike, on Roman military tactics
141 CE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
150 CE: Claudius Ptolemy wrote the Almagest on astronomy, and Geography on cartography, borrowing from Hipparchus’ work
160 CE: Arrian of Nicomedia wrote Alexándrou Anábasis (The Anabasis of Alexander), Indica, Ta met’ Alexandron (Events after Alexander), Kynēgetikos (On Hunting), and many other books by the time he died
175 CE: Galen wrote On Initial Causes & On the Different Types of Fever, speculating that some patients might have “seeds of fever” that are present in the air
178 CE: Galen wrote Epidemics, stating that a “seed of the disease” lurked in patients’ bodies
180 CE: Pausanias wrote his Hellados Periegesis (Description of Greece), a gift to modern archaeology
230 CE: The Hatepe eruption occurred in present day New Zealand, with a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 7
250 CE: Diogenes Laërtius wrote Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
263 CE: Liu Hui wrote commentary on The Nine Chapters of Mathematical Art, demonstrating negative numbers
298 CE: Diophantus published Arithmetica by the time he died, introducing algebraic and Diophantine equations
313 CE: The Sogdian alphabet descended from the Syriac alphabet
321 CE: Constantine I decreed a seven day week in the Roman Empire, and made Sunday a public holiday
374 CE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
400 CE: The Arabic alphabet descended from the Nabataean alphabet
400 CE: Joannes Stobaeus compiled Eklogon, apophthegmaton, hypothekon biblia tessara (Four Books of Extracts, Sayings and Precepts) an anthology of classical Greek literature including the Delphic maxims, e.g. “Know thyself”
451 CE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
500 CE: Indian mathematicians developed the Hindu numeral system
510 CE: Aryabhata wrote Aryabhatiya, which states “sthānāt sthānaṁ daśaguṇaṁ syāt” (“from place to place each is ten times the preceding”), originating the modern decimal-based place value notation
524 CE: Boethius wrote The Consolation of Philosophy
525 CE: Dionysius Exiguus invented the Anno Domini calendar era, an alternative to the Era of the Martyrs
529 CE: Justinian I ordered Tribonian to compile the Corpus Juris Civilis (Body of Civil Law), an influential work in jurisprudence
536 CE: The volcanic winter of 536 occurred, beginning the Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA)
600 CE: The human population of Earth exceeded two hundred million people
607 CE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
613 CE: Isidore of Seville wrote De natura rerum (On the Nature of Things), mentioning “pestifera semina” (“plague-bearing seeds”)

Zero

628 CE: Brahmagupta wrote the Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta, demonstrating zero and negative numbers
630 CE: Isidore of Seville wrote Etymologiae (Etymologies), an influential encyclopedia
661 CE: Muawiyah I founded the Umayyad Caliphate, and the Bayt al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) library in Damascus
684 CE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
700 CE: The Old Uyghur alphabet descended from the Sogdian alphabet, in Turpan
732 CE: Bede wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, popularizing the Anno Domini era
782-796 CE: Alcuin of York developed Carolingian minuscule from Roman half uncial & Irish insular scripts, introducing lowercase letters, which improved legibility
786 CE: Harun al-Rashid reestablished the Bayt al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) library in Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate
813 CE: Al-Ma’mun expanded the Bayt al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) library in Baghdad

Algebra

820 CE: Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi wrote Al-jabr (“reunion of broken parts”), the basis of algebra
825 CE: Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi wrote On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals, including an explanation of zero
830 CE: Al-Kindi wrote On the Use of the Hindu Numerals
830 CE: Rabanus Maurus wrote De rerum naturis (On the nature of things), an encyclopedia based on Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae
837 CE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
863 CE: Saints Cyril & Methodius developed the Glagolitic script, derived from medieval cursive Greek minuscule script
893 CE: Cyrillic script developed, based on Greek uncial script & Glagolitic script
900 CE: Arab navigators originated the kamal, a celestial navigation device that determines latitude, i.e. one’s north-south position on Earth
912 CE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
915 CE: Al-Tabari wrote his History of the Prophets and Kings, a detailed and comprehensive chronicle of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern history
932 CE: Al-Razi, a.k.a. Rhazes wrote Al-Hawi (The Comprehensive Book on Medicine), and many other books on medicine, philosophy, and chemistry, describing the modern recipe for soap by the time he died
946 CE: The Paektu volcano erupted in Manchuria
947 CE: Al-Masudi wrote the first edition of Murūj aḏ-Ḏahab wa-Maʿādin al-Jawhar (Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems), a book on world history, the first to combine history and scientific geography in a large-scale work
964 CE: Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi wrote the kitāb suwar al-kawākib (Book of Fixed Stars), updating Hipparchus’ astronomical observations
976 CE: The Codex Vigilanus (Watchful Manuscript) introduced Arabic numerals (except zero) to the West
977 CE: Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khwarizmi compiled Mafātīḥ al-ʿulūm (The Keys of the Sciences), an encyclopedia, stating that if no number appears in the place of tens in a calculation, a little circle (called a ṣifr) should be used “to keep the rows”
980 CE: Al-Majusi published Kāmil al-ṣināʻa al-ṭibbīya (The Complete Book of the Medical Art)
987 CE: Ibn al-Nadim wrote Kitāb al-Fihrist (The Book Catalogue), an encyclopedia

1000s

1000 CE: The human population of Earth exceeded three hundred million people
1000 CE: Soudas wrote the Suda, an encyclopedia
1000 CE: Al-Biruni wrote al-Athar al-Baqqiya ‘an al-Qorun al-Khaliyya (The remaining traces of past centuries)
1006 CE: Light from a supernova reached Earth from 7,200 light years away
1021 CE: Ibn al-Haytham wrote Kitāb al-Manāẓir (Book of Optics), among many other works on physics, mathematics, and astronomy
1025 CE: Avicenna wrote The Canon of Medicine
1027 CE: Avicenna wrote The Book of Healing
1030 CE: Al-Biruni completed his Tārīkh al-Hind (History of India)
1036 CE: Al-Biruni listed Kitab al-saydala fi al-tibb (Book on the Pharmacopoeia of Medicine) among 103 titles he had written on astrology, astronomy, geography, geology, history, mathematics, medicine, physics, psychology, sociology, and theology
1037 CE: Al-Biruni wrote Codex Masudicus, noting that Eurasia only covers 2/5 of the Earth’s surface and another continent must exist on the other side of the planet
1044 CE: Zeng Gongliang compiled the Wujing Zongyao (Complete Essentials for the Military Classics), describing the recipe for black powder
1054 CE: Light from the supernova that created the Crab Nebula reached Earth from 6,500 light years away
1065 CE: Nizam al-Mulk established Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad, the largest university of the Medieval world
1066 CE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
1085 CE: Ibn Bassal (“he who tends bulbs”) wrote Dīwān al-filāha (An Anthology of Husbandry) on agronomy, describing the noria and saqiyah which are flywheels used for irrigation

Compass, Movable Type

1088 CE: Shen Kuo wrote the Dream Pool Essays, describing the magnetic compass and its use in navigation, Bi Sheng’s invention of movable type, and many other topics in science and technology
1125 CE: Theophilus Presbyter wrote De diversis artibus (On various arts), on illumination and oil painting, stained glass, metalworking, and the use of flywheels
1145 CE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
1150 CE: Medieval universities developed Blackletter, a.k.a. Gothic script from Carolingian minuscule, which was faster for scribes to write and took up less space on the page, though less legible
1154 CE: Muhammad al-Idrisi created the Nuzhat al-mushtāq fi’khtirāq al-āfāq (The book of pleasant journeys into faraway lands), a.k.a. Kitab Rujar, Tabula Rogeriana, or Map of Roger, a world map later used by Christopher Columbus & Vasco da Gama
1200 CE: Alexander of Villedieu wrote Carmen de Algorismo (Poem about Arithmetic), demonstrating the Hindu-Arabic numeral system
1202 CE: Fibonacci wrote Liber Abaci (The Book of the Abacus), popularizing the Hindu-Arabic numeral system and introducing zero to the West
1222 CE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
1225 CE: Johannes de Sacrobosco wrote Algorismus Vulgaris (Common Algorithms)
1231 CE: Ali ibn al-Athir wrote al-Kāmil fit-Tārīkh (The Complete History)
1240 CE: Bartholomeus Anglicus (Bartholomew of England) compiled De proprietatibus rerum (On the Properties of Things), a widely translated encyclopedia
1247 CE: Qin Jiushao wrote Mathematical Treatise in Nine Sections, the oldest surviving Chinese mathematical text using a round symbol for zero
1250 CE: Tata-tonga introduced the Old Uyghur alphabet to Genghis Khan, and adapted it into Mongolian script
1250 CE: The human population of Earth exceeded four hundred million people
1257 CE: The Samalas volcano erupted in present day Indonesia, and may have contributed to the Little Ice Age
1258 CE: Tusi rescued about 400,000 manuscripts from the Bayt al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) library before Hulagu Khan sacked Baghdad
1259 CE: Tusi convinced Hulagu Khan to build the Maragheh observatory
1269 CE: Petrus Peregrinus de Maricourt wrote his Epistola de magnete (Letter on the Magnet), describing magnetic polarity, and the magnetic compass
1272 CE: Tusi compiled Zīj-i Īlkhānī, a star catalog
1274 CE: Tusi wrote many works on astronomy, biology, chemistry, logic, and mathematics, establishing trigonometry as a separate discipline from astronomy by the time he died
1279 CE: Faraj ben Salim translated Al-Razi’s Al-Hawi (The Comprehensive Book on Medicine) into Latin
1295 CE: Ramon Llull may have used a mariner’s astrolabe, a celestial navigation device that determines latitude, i.e. one’s north-south position on Earth
1300 CE: Marco Polo & Rustichello da Pisa wrote Livres des Merveilles du Monde (Books of the Wonders of the World)
1301 CE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
1315-1329 CE: Abu’l-Fida wrote Tarikhu ‘al-Mukhtasar fi Akhbar al-Bashar (The Concise History of Humanity or Chronicles), a universal history
1345 CE: Tommaso del Garbo mentioned Galen’s “seeds of plague” in his work Commentaria non-parum utilia in libros Galeni (Helpful commentaries on the books of Galen)
1354 CE: Ibn Battuta & Ibn Juzayy wrote الرحلة (Rihla or The Travels), describing the medieval Islamic world
1369 CE: Ibn Khatima & Ibn al-Khatib hypothesized that “minute bodies” cause infectious diseases, and described how garments, vessels, and earrings can transmit them
1377 CE: Ibn Khaldun wrote the Muqaddimah (Prolegomena or Introduction), the first book of the Kitāb al-ʻIbar (Book of Lessons): an early view of universal history that introduced the scientific method to the social sciences, and included an outline of the labor theory of value, an early example of political economy
1378 CE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
1429 CE: Jamshīd al-Kāshī (a.k.a. Al-Kashi) wrote many works on astronomy and mathematics, including calculating 2π to 9 sexagesimal digits, and converting them to 16 decimals, as 6.2831853071795865, i.e. π = 3.1415926535897936 (the modern value to 16 digits is 3.1415926535897932)
1437 CE: Ulugh Beg published Zīj-i Sulṭānī, the most accurate star catalog to date

Printing Press

1440 CE: Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press
1455 CE: Johannes Gutenberg published the Gutenburg Bible
14?? CE: Johannes Gutenberg published Das Werk der Bücher (The Work of Books)
1456 CE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
1470 CE: Scribes copied Quintillian’s Institutio Oratoria (Institutes of Oratory) into New Latin, combining two Koine Greek words (ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία, “enkyklios paedia”) into one: encyclopaedia
1474 CE: Piero della Francesca wrote De prospectiva pingendi (On the Perspective of Painting)
1485 CE: Piero della Francesca wrote De quinque corporibus regularibus (On the five regular solids)
1489 CE: Poliziano (a.k.a. Politianus) published Miscellanea, an influential series of discursive essays on philology and criticism
1494 CE: Luca Pacioli published Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalita (Summary of arithmetic, geometry, proportions and proportionality), explaining double-entry bookkeeping among other accounting practices

1500s

1500 CE: The human population of Earth exceeded five hundred million people
1501 CE: Giorgio Valla published De expetendis et fugiendis rebus (On Desired & Avoided Affairs), an encyclopedia containing newly discovered and translated ancient Greek mathematical texts
1503 CE: Gregor Reisch published the Margarita Philosophica, an encyclopedia explaining the 7 liberal arts
1505 CE: Leonardo da Vinci published Codex on the Flight of Birds
1507 CE: Martin Waldseemüller published Cosmographiae Introductio (Introduction to Cosmography), containing the first world map to mention America
1509 CE: Luca Pacioli & Leonardo da Vinci published Divina proportione (Divine proportion)
1525 CE: Antonio Pigafetta published Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo (Report of the first trip around the world) & Regole sull’arte del navigare (Rules on the art of sailing), describing Ferdinand Magellan’s circumnavigation of Earth
1526 CE: Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés published La Natural hystoria de las Indias (The Natural History of the Indies), introducing Europeans to the hammock, pineapple, tobacco, and barbecue
1531 CE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
1532 CE: Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince published
1535 CE: Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés published Historia general de las Indias (General history of the Indies)
1537 CE: Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia published Nova Scientia (A New Science), on ballistics
1543 CE: Andreas Vesalius published De humani corporis fabrica (On the fabric of the human body), including Leonardo da Vinci’s work on anatomy & physiology
1543 CE: Nicolaus Copernicus published De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (Revolutions of heavenly spheres), promoting heliocentrism
1543 CE: Robert Recorde published The Ground of Arts, the first English book on algebra
1545 CE: Conrad Gessner published Bibliotheca universalis (Universal Library), a bibliography listing all known books printed in Latin, Greek, or Hebrew
1545 CE: Gerolamo Cardano published Artis magnae, sive de regulis algebraicis (The Great Art or About Algebraic Rules) a.k.a. Ars Magna, with solutions to the cubic & quartic equations, demonstrating negative numbers, and acknowledging imaginary numbers
1546 CE: Girolamo Fracastoro published De Contagione et Contagiosis Morbis (The contamination and contagious sickness), proposing that transferable seed-like entities (seminaria morbi) cause epidemic diseases, and can infect by direct or indirect contact, even over long distances; also categorizing diseases based on how they were transmitted and how long they could lie dormant
1548 CE: Conrad Gessner published Pandectae
1551 CE: Conrad Gessner published Historia animalium (History of the Animals) Volume 1: Live-bearing four-footed animals (viviparous quadrupeds)
1554 CE: Conrad Gessner published Historia animalium (History of the Animals) Volume 2: Egg-laying (oviparous) quadrupeds (reptiles and amphibia)
1555 CE: Conrad Gessner published Historia animalium (History of the Animals) Volume 3: Birds
1557 CE: Robert Recorde published The Whetstone of Witte, the first English book to use plus and minus signs, and introducing the equals sign
1558 CE: Conrad Gessner published Historia animalium (History of the Animals) Volume 4: Fish and aquatic animals
1560 CE: Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia posthumously published General Trattato di Numeri et Misure (General Treatise on Number and Measure)
1570 CE: Abraham Ortelius published Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the Orb of the World), the first modern atlas
1570 CE: Gerolamo Cardano published Opus novum, De Proportionibus numerorum, motuum, ponderum, sonorum, aliarumque rerum mensurandarum. Item de aliza regula (A new work on the proportions of numbers, motions, weights, sounds, and other things to be measured. Also about aliza rule), introducing the binomial theorem, and Cardan’s movement which was used to convert circular motion into linear motion in the first high speed printing presses
1572 CE: Rafael Bombelli published L’Algebra, describing imaginary numbers
1572 CE: Light from a supernova reached Earth from over 8,000 light years away
1573 CE: Tycho Brahe published De nova stella (The new star)
1573 CE: Benedetto Cotrugli posthumously published Della mercatura e del mercante perfetto (Of the market and the perfect merchant), written in 1458
1582 CE: Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar
1585 CE: Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma’ruf compiled Sidrat al-muntah al-afkar fi malkūt al-falak al-dawār– al-zij al-Shāhinshāhi (The tree of ultimate knowledge in the Kingdom of the Revolving Spheres), a star catalog that improved on Ulugh Beg’s, among many other works by the time he died
1587 CE: Conrad Gessner posthumously published Historia animalium (History of the Animals) Volume 5: Snakes and scorpions
1588 CE: Tycho Brahe published De Mundi Aetherei Recentioribus Phaenomenis Liber Secundus (Second Book About Recent Phenomena in the Celestial World)
1591 CE: François Viète published In artem analyticem isagoge (Introduction to the art of analysis), a.k.a. Algebra Nova (New Algebra), introducing modern algebra notation, using letters to represent variables
1593 CE: Galileo Galilei invented the modern thermometer
1594 CE: Philip II of Spain established the eight-hour work day in the Spanish Empire
1596 CE: Abraham Ortelius published a new edition of Thesaurus geographicus (Geographic treasure), and proposed continental drift
1596 CE: John Harington published A New Discourse of a Stale Subject, Called the Metamorphosis of Ajax, describing an early flush toilet
1596 CE: Johannes Kepler published Mysterium Cosmographicum (The Cosmographic Mystery), defending heliocentrism
1598 CE: Galileo Galilei improved the military compass
1598 CE: Tycho Brahe published Astronomiae instauratae mechanica or Instruments for the restoration of astronomy
1599 CE: Nurhaci adapted Mongolian script into the Manchu alphabet

1600s

1600 CE: William Gilbert published De Magnete, Magneticisque Corporibus, et de Magno Magnete Tellure (On the Magnet and Magnetic Bodies, and on That Great Magnet the Earth), describing experiments in magnetism and static electricity
1603 CE: Tycho Brahe posthumously published Astronomiae Instauratae Progymnasmata (Introduction to the New Astronomy)
1604 CE: Johannes Kepler published Astronomiae Pars Optica (Some Astronomical Optics), the foundation of modern optics
1604 CE: Light from a supernova reached Earth from less than 20,000 light years away
1606 CE: Johannes Kepler published De Stella Nova in Pede Serpentarii (On the New Star in the Foot of the Serpent Handler), describing a supernova he observed in 1604 CE
1607 CE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
1608 CE: Hans Lipperhey filed a patent for a refracting telescope
1609 CE: Johannes Kepler published Astronomia nova (New Astronomy), the foundation of planetary motion, describing orbits as eccentric
1609 CE: Galileo Galilei improved the telescope to be useful
1610 CE: Galileo Galilei published Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger)
1611 CE: Johannes Kepler invented the Keplerian telescope
1613 CE: Galileo Galilei published Letters on Sunspots
1614 CE: Simon Marius published Mundus Iovialis (The Jovian World), describing the planet Jupiter and naming its four largest moons
1619 CE: Willem Boreel described Cornelis Drebbel’s compound microscope
1619 CE: Johannes Kepler published Harmonice Mundi (The Harmony of the World), describing his 3rd law of planetary motion

Science

1620 CE: Francis Bacon published Novum Organum (New Organ), describing the Baconian method, establishing the modern scientific method
1624 CE: Vincent of Beauvais published the Speculum Maius (Great Mirror), an encyclopedia
1624 CE: Galileo Galilei improved the compound microscope
1627 CE: Johannes Kepler published the Rudolphine Tables, a star catalogue containing observations by Tycho Brahe
1628 CE: William Harvey published Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus (Anatomical Account of the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals), describing how the heart pumps blood through the body
1632 CE: Galileo Galilei published his Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo (Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems), comparing heliocentrism & geocentrism
1632 CE: Leonardo da Vinci posthumously published Trattato della pittura (A Treatise on Painting)
1636 CE: Pierre de Fermat circulated his manuscript Methodus ad disquirendam maximam et minimam et de tangentibus linearum curvarum (A method for discussing maximum and minimum and the tangents of curves), contributing to analytic geometry and differential calculus, which René Descartes read
1637 CE: René Descartes published Discours de la Méthode Pour bien conduire sa raison, et chercher la vérité dans les sciences (Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One’s Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences), where he said “je pense, donc je suis” (“I think, therefore I am”)
1637 CE: René Descartes published La Géométrie, contributing to analytic geometry
1638 CE: Galileo Galilei published Two New Sciences, on kinematics and the strength of materials
1639 CE: William Gascoigne invented the telescopic sight and telescope micrometer
1639 CE: Blaise Pascal published Essai pour les coniques (Essay on conics), stating Pascal’s theorem
1639 CE: Bernabé Cobo wrote Historia de la fundación de Lima (History of the foundation of Lima)
1641 CE: René Descartes published Meditationes de Prima Philosophia (Meditations on First Philosophy), shifting the debate from “What is true?” to “Of what can I be certain?”
1642 CE: Blaise Pascal invented a mechanical calculator
1644 CE: René Descartes published Principia Philosophiæ (Principles of Philosophy), where he said “cogito, ergo sum” (“I think, therefore I am”)
1646 CE: Thomas Browne published Pseudodoxia Epidemica (a.k.a. Vulgar Errors)
1647 CE: Blaise Pascal published Experiences nouvelles touchant le vide (New experiments with the vacuum)
1648 CE: Blaise Pascal published Récit de la grande expérience de l’équilibre des liqueurs (Account of the great experiment on equilibrium in liquids)
1648 CE: Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn discovered the similarity among Indo-European languages, and supposed the existence of a primitive common language
1649 CE: René Descartes published Les Passions de l’âme (Passions of the Soul), on emotion
1653 CE: Bernabé Cobo wrote Historia general de las Indias (General history of the Indies)
1654 CE: Pierre de Fermat and Blaise Pascal corresponded about the problem of points, introducing probability theory
1657 CE: Christiaan Huygens wrote Van Rekeningh in Spelen van Gluck (Of Account in Games of Luck), developing probability theory
1657 CE: Frans van Schooten published a translation of Christiaan Huygens’ Van Rekeningh in Spelen van Gluck (Of Account in Games of Luck), titled De Ratiociniis in Ludo Aleae (The Reasons About Gambling)
1658 CE: Athanasius Kircher wrote Scrutinium pestis physico-medicum, inventing the germ theory of disease
1659 CE: Christiaan Huygens wrote De vi centrifuga, describing centrifugal force and centripetal forces
1660 CE: Joost van Breen invented the spiegelboog (“mirror bow”), a reflecting cross staff, which is useful for celestial navigation, specifically finding longitude, i.e. one’s east-west position on Earth
1661 CE: Robert Boyle published The Sceptical Chymist
1661 CE: Frans van Schooten published the 2nd edition of a Latin translation of René Descartes’ La Géométrie, with helpful commentary, that Leibniz & Newton studied
1662 CE: Pierre de Fermat wrote a letter to Marin Cureau de la Chambre stating the principle of least time
1663 CE: Gerolamo Cardano posthumously published Liber de ludo aleae (Book on Games of Chance), exploring probability
1663 CE: Blaise Pascal published Traitez de l’Equilibre des Liqueurs (Treatise on the Equilibrium of Fluids), establishing his principle of transmission of fluid-pressure

Cell Biology

1665 CE: Robert Hooke published Micrographia, coining the biological term cell
1665 CE: Blaise Pascal posthumously published Traité du triangle arithmétique (Treaty of the arithmetic triangle), describing Pascal’s triangle
1666 CE: Robert Hooke described a reflecting instrument, which is useful for celestial navigation, specifically finding longitude, i.e. one’s east-west position on Earth
1667 CE: Isaac Barrow published Lectiones Opticae et Geometricae (Optics & Geometrics Lessons), demonstrating the fundamental theorem of calculus
1668 CE: Francesco Redi published Esperienze Intorno alla Generazione degli Insetti (Experiments on the Generation of Insects), disproving spontaneous generation by an experiment using a sealed jar
1669 CE: Nicolas Steno published De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus (Preliminary discourse to a dissertation on a solid body naturally contained within a solid), defining stratigraphy, and founding geology, paleontology, and crystallography
1672 CE: Giovanni Domenico Cassini published Observations astronomiques faites en divers endroits du royaume, pendant l’année 1672 (Astronomical observations made in various places of the kingdom, during the year 1672), computing the parallax of Mars with Jean Richer, and then the distance from the Earth to the Sun
1673 CE: Christiaan Huygens published Horologium Oscillatorium (The Pendulum Clock), describing his invention of the most accurate timepiece to date and until the 1930s
1674 CE: Anton van Leeuwenhoek discovered protists
1677 CE: Anton van Leeuwenhoek discovered spermatozoa
1679 CE: Jean Richer published Observations Astronomiques Et Physiques Faites En L’Isle De Caienne (Astronomical and Physical Observations Made in the Island of Caïenne by M. Richer, of the Royal Academy of Sciences), founding gravimetry
1679 CE: Pierre de Fermat posthumously published Ad Locos Planos et Solidos Isagoge (Introduction to Plane and Solid Loci), earlier circulated as Methodus ad disquirendam maximam et minimam et de tangentibus linearum curvarum (A method for discussing maximum and minimum and the tangents of curves), which contributed to analytic geometry and differential calculus
1681 CE: Thomas Burnet published Sacred Theory of the Earth
1682 CE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
1682 CE: Anton van Leeuwenhoek discovered the banded pattern of muscular fibers
1683 CE: Anton van Leeuwenhoek discovered bacteria
1683 CE: Isaac Barrow published Lectiones Mathematicae (Mathematics Lessons)

Calculus

1684 CE: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz published Nova Methodus pro Maximis et Minimis (New method for maximums and minimums), introducing infinitesimal calculus
1684 CE: Isaac Newton sent Edmond Halley the manuscript De motu corporum in gyrum (On the motion of bodies in an orbit)
1685 CE: Jacob Bernoulli published Quæstiones nonnullæ de usuris, cum solutione problematis de sorte alearum (Some questions about interest, with a solution of a problem about games of chance), where he derived the mathematical constant e while studying compound interest
1686 CE: Edmond Halley published An Historical Account of the Trade Winds, and Monsoons, Observable in the Seas between and Near the Tropicks, with an Attempt to Assign the Phisical Cause of the Said Winds, identifying solar heating as the cause of atmospheric motions, establishing the relationship between barometric pressure and height above sea level, and contributing to the field of information visualization

Principia

1687 CE: Isaac Newton published the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) 1st edition, introducing Newton’s laws of motion and universal gravitation, and founding classical mechanics
1689 CE: John Locke published Two Treatises of Government, attacking absolute monarchy, and promoting natural rights and the social contract
1690 CE: John Locke published An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, promoting empiricism, and proposing a theory of personal identity
1690 CE: Christiaan Huygens published Traité de la Lumière (Treatise on Light), proposing the wave theory of light
1690 CE: Nicholas Barbon published A Discourse of Trade, criticizing mercantilism and laying the foundation for classical economics by describing supply and demand
1693 CE: John Locke published Some Thoughts Concerning Education
1693 CE: Edmond Halley published An Estimate of the Degrees of the Mortality of Mankind, an article on life annuities that influenced actuarial science & demography
1696 CE: Nicholas Barbon published A Discourse Concerning Coining the New Money Lighter, advocating the use of paper money and credit
1698 CE: Jean Bouguer published Traité complet de la navigation (Complete Treaty of Navigation)
1699 CE: Isaac Newton invented the octant, which is useful for celestial navigation, specifically finding longitude, i.e. one’s east-west position on Earth

1700s

1700 CE: Bartolomeo Cristofori invented the piano
1703 CE: Christiaan Huygens posthumously published De motu corporum ex percussione, describing elastic collision
1704 CE: John Harris published his Lexicon Technicum (Technical Dictionary), the first alphabetical encyclopedia in English
1704 CE: Isaac Newton published Opticks
1705 CE: John Law published Money and Trade Considered: With a Proposal for Supplying the Nation with Money
1705 CE: Edmond Halley published Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets, predicting Halley’s Comet’s return in 1758
1706 CE: John Locke posthumously published Of the Conduct of the Understanding, a handbook for autodidacts
1707 CE: William Whiston published Arithmetica Universalis (Universal Arithmetic), based on Isaac Newton’s lecture notes without his permission
1713 CE: Isaac Newton published the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) 2nd edition
1713 CE: Jacob Bernoulli published Ars Conjectandi (The Art of Conjecturing), deriving the law of large numbers (LLN), and presenting Bernoulli numbers
1722 CE: René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur published L’art de convertir le fer forgé en acier, et l’art d’adoucir le fer fondu, ou de faire des ouvrages de fer fondu aussi finis que le fer forgé (The art of converting wrought iron into steel, and the art of softening molten iron, or making works of molten iron as finished as wrought iron), describing how iron becomes steel
1725 CE: John Flamsteed posthumously published Historia Coelestis Britannica, the most accurate star catalogue to date
1726 CE: Isaac Newton published the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) 3rd edition
1726 CE: Leonhard Euler published De Sono (On Sound)
1727 CE: Pierre Bouguer published On the masting of ships, On the best method of observing the altitude of stars at sea, and On the best method of observing the variation of the compass at sea
1728 CE: Ephraim Chambers published Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, one of the first general encyclopedias produced in English
1728 CE: James Bradley published an account of a new discovered motion of the fix’d stars, describing the aberration of light, and confirming the heliocentric model proposed by Aristarchus, Copernicus, & Kepler
1729 CE: Pierre Bouguer published Essai d’optique sur la gradation de la lumière (Optical test on the dimming of light)
1729 CE: John Flamsteed posthumously published Atlas Coelestis, the first celestial atlas produced using the telescope
1731 CE: John Hadley & Thomas Godfrey implemented the sextant, which is useful for celestial navigation, specifically finding longitude, i.e. one’s east-west position on Earth
1734 CE: René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur published Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire des insectes (Memories to serve in the history of insects)
1735 CE: Carl Linnaeus published Systema Naturae 1st edition, introducing Linnaean taxonomy
1736 CE: Leonhard Euler published Mechanica (Mechanics)
1736 CE: Leonhard Euler published Solutio problematis ad geometriam situs pertinentis (Solution to the geometry of position), founding graph theory
1736 CE: John Harrison demonstrated H1, the first marine chronometer, helpful for finding longitude and thus navigation
1738 CE: Daniel Bernoulli published Hydrodynamica (Hydrodynamics), describing Bernoulli’s principle and the kinetic theory of gases
1738 CE: Daniel Bernoulli published Specimen theoriae novae de mensura sortis (Exposition of a New Theory on the Measurement of Risk), recognizing that people maximize utility
1744 CE: Leonhard Euler published Methodus inveniendi lineas curvas (A method for finding curved lines)
1745 CE: Jacques de Vaucanson invented the automated loom
1746 CE: Pierre Bouguer published Traité du navire (Ship Treaty), becoming the “father of naval architecture”
1748 CE: Leonhard Euler published Introductio in analysin infinitorum (Introduction to the analysis of the infinite)
1748 CE: Pierre Bouguer invented the heliometer, which makes precise measurements between objects seen through a telescope
1748 CE: James Bradley published an apparent motion observed in some of the fixed stars, describing the nutation of the Earth’s axis
1749 CE: Pierre Bouguer published La figure de la terre (The figure of the Earth)
1749 CE: Roger Joseph Boscovich published De determinanda orbita planetae ope catoptricae ex datis vi celeritate & directione motus in dato puncto (On determining the orbits of a planet by the aid of catoptrics/reflections from given force speed and direction of motion in a given point)
1750 CE: John Michell published A Treatise of Artificial Magnets, describing a method of producing artificial magnets
1751-1759 CE: Denis Diderot & Jean le Rond d’Alembert published Encyclopédie, the first general encyclopedia to describe the mechanical arts
1752 CE: Benjamin Franklin published The Kite Experiment, describing how to build a kite to obtain electricity from a thunder cloud, and asserting that static electricity and lightning are examples of the same phenomenon, leading him to invent the lightning rod
1753 CE: Carl Linnaeus published Species Plantarum, introducing modern botanical nomenclature
1753 CE: Roger Joseph Boscovich published De lunae atmosphaera (On the atmosphere of the moon), arguing that the Moon does not have one
1754 CE: Jean-Jacques Rousseau published Discourse on Inequality
1755 CE: Leonhard Euler published Institutiones calculi differentialis (Foundations of differential calculus)
1755 CE: Leonhard Euler published Élémens de la trigonométrie sphéroïdique tirés de la méthode des plus grands et plus petits (Elements of spheroidal trigonometry taken from the method of maxima and minima), describing the geodesic problem
1755 CE: Benjamin Franklin published Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc., an influential study of demography predicting exponential population growth in the 13 colonies
1756 CE: Émilie du Châtelet posthumously published a French translation of Newton’s Principia, Principes mathématiques de la philosophie naturelle par feue Madame la Marquise du Châtelet (Mathematical principles of natural philosophy by the late Madame la Marquise du Châtelet), including an analysis of Willem ‘s Gravesande’s 1722 experiment proving the law of conservation of energy
1757 CE: Leonhard Euler published Principes généraux de l’état d’équilibre d’un fluide (General principles of the equilibrium state of a fluid)
1758 CE: Joseph-Louis Lagrange et al. published Miscellanea Taurinensia (Turin Miscellanea), describing sound propagation & string vibration
1758 CE: Carl Linnaeus published Systema Naturae 10th edition, introducing binomial nomenclature for animals
1758 CE: Roger Joseph Boscovich published Philosophiæ naturalis theoria redacta ad unicam legem virium in natura existentium (Theory of Natural philosophy derived to the single Law of forces which exist in Nature), promoting atomic theory
1759 CE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
1759 CE: John Harrison invented H3, demonstrating the bimetallic strip and caged roller bearing
1759 CE: John Harrison invented H4, a handheld marine chronometer
1759 CE: Adam Smith published The Theory of Moral Sentiments
1759 CE: John Smeaton published An Experimental Enquiry Concerning the Natural Powers of Water and Wind to Turn Mills and Other Machines Depending on Circular Motion
1759 CE: John Smeaton completed Smeaton’s Tower, reintroducing hydraulic lime as a building material, previously used by the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations

Metal Lathe

1760 CE: Jacques de Vaucanson invented the metal lathe, photo here
1760 CE: John Michell published Conjectures concerning the Cause and Observations upon the Phaenomena of Earthquakes, describing earthquakes as waves in the Earth
1762 CE: John Harrison’s son demonstrated the H4 on a transatlantic voyage
1762 CE: Jean-Jacques Rousseau published Du contrat social (The Social Contract)
1762 CE: Jean-Jacques Rousseau published Émile, ou De l’éducation (Emile, or On Education)
1765 CE: James Watt increased the efficiency of the steam engine with a condenser and steam jacket
1765 CE: Leonhard Euler wrote his Vollständige Anleitung zur Algebra (Complete Guide to Algebra), a.k.a. Elements of Algebra
1765 CE: Suzuki Harunobu produced Nishiki-e (“brocade picture”), full-color woodblock prints
1765 CE: Alexander Cumming invented the barograph, a barometer that records air pressure graphically over time
1765 CE: Leonhard Euler published De motu rectilineo trium corporum se mutuo attrahentium (The rectilinear motion of the three bodies attracting one another), describing the three collinear Lagrange points
1766 CE: Daniel Bernoulli published An attempt at a new analysis of the mortality caused by smallpox and of the advantages of inoculation to prevent it
1766 CE: Henry Cavendish published On Factitious Airs, describing hydrogen
1766 CE: John Michell published Proposal of a Method for measuring Degrees of Longitude upon Parallels of the Equator
1766 CE: Benjamin Franklin published On the Price of Corn, and Management of the poor
1767 CE: John Michell published An Inquiry into the Probable Parallax and Magnitude of the Fixed Stars, inspiring William Herschel
1767 CE: John Michell published On the Twinkling of the Fixed Stars
1767 CE: Joseph Priestley published The History and Present State of Electricity
1768 CE: Leonhard Euler published Lettres à une princesse d’Allemagne sur divers sujets de physique et de philosophie (Letters to a German Princess, On Different Subjects in Physics and Philosophy)
1768 CE: William Smellie edited the Encyclopædia Britannica 1st edition
1769 CE: David Rittenhouse accurately calculated the distance from the Earth to the Sun to be 93 million miles, based on observing the transit of Venus
1769 CE: Benjamin Franklin published Experiments and Observations on Electricity, including his 1758 letter to John Lining Cooling by Evaporation
1770 CE: Leonhard Euler published Institutionum calculi integralis (Foundations of integral calculus)
1770 CE: Alexander Cumming invented the microtome, and John Hill published The Construction of Timber from its Early Growth describing the device, which cuts thin slices of material for microscopy
1770 CE: Benjamin Franklin & Timothy Folger named the Gulf Stream ocean current and published a chart showing its course in the North Atlantic
1772 CE: Joseph-Louis Lagrange published Essai sur le Probléme des trois corps (Essay on the three body problem), describing all 5 Lagrange points of equilibrium between orbiting bodies
1772 CE: Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to Joseph Priestley describing a list of pros and cons
1772 CE: Joseph Priestley published Directions for Impregnating Water with Fixed Air, describing a method of producing carbonated water
1773 CE: Joseph-Louis Lagrange published Mémoire sur l’utilité de la méthode (Dissertation on the usefulness of the method), exploring probability density functions
1773 CE: Joseph-Louis Lagrange published Sur l’attraction des sphéroïdes elliptiques (On the attraction of elliptical spheroids), describing Gauss’s law of electromagnetism
1774 CE: Pierre-Simon Laplace published Mémoire sur la probabilité des causes par les événements (Memoir on the probability of causes by events)

Flush Toilet

1775 CE: Alexander Cumming patented improvements to the flush toilet, including the S-bend to prevent odor, and a mechanism to flush and refill with one handle
1775 CE: Joseph Priestley published An Account of further Discoveries in Air, describing his discovery of oxygen
1776 CE: Adam Smith published Wealth of Nations
1776 CE: Thomas Paine published Common Sense, advocating independence from Britain
1776 CE: Johann Reinhold Forster & Georg Forster published Characteres generum plantarum, quas in Itinere ad Insulas Maris Australis, Collegerunt, Descripserunt, Delinearunt (Characteristics of the types of plants collected, described, and delineated during a voyage to islands of the South Seas), describing botanical discoveries made on James Cook’s second voyage
1777 CE: Jesse Ramsden published Description of an Engine for dividing Mathematical Instruments, describing his dividing engine
1777 CE: Georg Forster published A Voyage Round the World, describing James Cook’s second voyage
1778 CE: Joseph Bramah patented improvements to the flush toilet, including a hinged flap to prevent water from freezing, and a float valve system for the flush tank
1778 CE: Antoine Lavoisier published Considérations générales sur la nature des acides (General considerations on the nature of acids), recognizing oxygen and naming it later that year
1778 CE: Johann Reinhold Forster published Observations Made During a Voyage Round the World, describing James Cook’s second voyage
1781 CE: Charles Messier published his Catalogue des Nébuleuses & des amas d’Étoiles (Catalog of Nebulae & Star Clusters), an astronomical catalog of what we now call the Messier objects
1783 CE: Antoine Lavoisier published Réflexions sur le phlogistique (Reflections on Phlogiston), recognizing and naming hydrogen, and establishing a scientific theory of combustion
1783 CE: John Michell published On the Means of Discovering the Distance, Magnitude, &c. of the Fixed Stars, in Consequence of the Diminution of the Velocity of Their Light, in Case Such a Diminution Should be Found to Take Place in any of Them, and Such Other Data Should be Procured from Observations, as Would be Farther Necessary for That Purpose, proposing black holes
1783 CE: Antoine Lavoisier & Pierre-Simon Laplace published Memoir on Heat
1785 CE: David Rittenhouse invented the first man-made diffraction grating
1785 CE: Erasmus Darwin published A System of Vegetables
1785 CE: Charles-Augustin de Coulomb published Premier Mémoire sur l’Électricité et le Magnétisme (First Memoir on Electricity and Magnetism), describing Coulomb’s inverse-square law of electrostatic force
1786 CE: William Herschel published Catalogue of One Thousand New Nebulae and Clusters of Stars
1786 CE: Henry Cavendish published Experiments on Air, determining that air consists of nitrogen and oxygen in a ratio of 4:1, with other gases in a ratio of 1:120 with nitrogen (later determined to be mostly argon)
1786 CE: Benjamin Franklin published Maritime Observations
1787 CE: Erasmus Darwin published The Families of Plants
1787 CE: Mary Wollstonecraft published Thoughts on the Education of Daughters
1787 CE: Antoine Lavoisier, Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau, Claude Louis Berthollet, and Antoine-François de Fourcroy published Méthode de nomenclature chimique (Method of Chemical Nomenclature), introducing chemistry terminology modeled after Linnaeus’ taxonomy (e.g. “copper sulfate” instead of “vitriol of Venus”)
1788 CE: James Hutton published Theory of the Earth, showing that the Earth is the product of natural forces, laying the foundations for modern geology
1788 CE: Joseph-Louis Lagrange published Mécanique analytique (Analytical mechanics), employing infinitesimal numbers, and using generalized coordinates to deduce the mechanics of both solids and fluids, also presenting the method of Lagrange multipliers and principle of least action
1789 CE: Erasmus Darwin anonymously published The Loves of the Plants
1789 CE: Antoine Lavoisier published Traité Élémentaire de Chimie (Elementary Treatise on Chemistry), the first modern chemistry textbook, promoting conservation of mass
1789 CE: William Herschel published Catalogue of a Second Thousand New Nebulae and Clusters of Stars
1790 CE: Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of Men, advocating republicanism
1790 CE: José Antonio de Alzate y Ramírez patented the modern ballcock, a mechanism for automatically filling water tanks like those in flush toilets
1791 CE: Erasmus Darwin published The Botanic Garden
1791 CE: Thomas Paine published Rights of Man, advocating republicanism
1792 CE: Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, an early work of feminist philosophy
1793 CE: Thomas Young explained how the human eye focuses on objects at different distances
1794 CE: Thomas Paine published The Age of Reason, promoting natural theology
1794 CE: Joseph Proust published Recherches sur le Bleu de Prusse (Research on Prussian Blue), describing the law of definite proportions in chemical compounds
1794 CE: Elizabeth Fulhame published An Essay On Combustion with a View to a New Art of Dying and Painting, wherein the Phlogistic and Antiphlogistic Hypotheses are Proved Erroneous, describing catalysis, reduction–oxidation (redox), and photoreduction
1795 CE: The Constitution of the Year III of the French Revolution states that “All elections are to be held by secret ballot”
1796 CE: Renatus Gotthelf Löbel edited the Conversations-Lexikon (Conversation Dictionary), an encyclopedia later called the Brockhaus Enzyklopädie
1796 CE: Erasmus Darwin published Zoonomia
1796 CE: Priscilla Wakefield published An Introduction to Botany, in a Series of Familiar Letters
1796 CE: Pierre-Simon Laplace published Exposition du système du monde (World System Exhibition)
1797 CE: Thomas Paine published Agrarian Justice, advocating for a basic income
1797 CE: Joseph-Louis Lagrange published Théorie des fonctions analytiques (Analytic function theory), using the generality of algebra to explore differential calculus
1798 CE: Edward Jenner published Inquiry into the Variolae vaccinae known as the Cow Pox, describing the smallpox vaccine
1798 CE: Thomas Robert Malthus published An Essay on the Principle of Population
1798 CE: Priscilla Wakefield published Reflection on the Present Condition of the Female Sex; with Suggestions for its Improvement, promoting feminist economics
1798 CE: Henry Cavendish published Experiments to Determine the Density of Earth, describing the Cavendish experiment to measure the force of gravity, using a torsion balance invented by John Michell, and measuring the gravitational constant to within 2% of its modern value
1798 CE: Pierre-Simon Laplace published volumes 1 & 2 of Traité de mécanique céleste (Treatise of celestial mechanics)

1800s

1800 CE: Alessandro Volta published a description of an electric battery
1800 CE: Henry Maudslay developed the first industrially practical screw-cutting lathe, allowing interchangeable nuts & bolts
1801 CE: Carl Friedrich Gauss published Disquisitiones Arithmeticae (Arithmetical Investigations), modernizing number theory and developing modular arithmetic
1801 CE: William Smith published Delineation of the Strata of England
1801 CE: Thomas Young published On the mechanics of the eye, describing astigmatism for the first time
1802 CE: Thomas Young published Bakerian Lecture: On the Theory of Light and Colours, hypothesizing that colour perception depends on 3 kinds of nerve fibers in the retina
1802 CE: John Dalton published On the Expansion of Elastic Fluids by Heat, introducing his law of partial pressures
1802 CE: William Herschel published Catalogue of 500 new Nebulae, nebulous Stars, planetary Nebulae, and Clusters of Stars; with Remarks on the Construction of the Heavens
1802 CE: Pierre-Simon Laplace published volume 3 of Traité de mécanique céleste (Treatise of celestial mechanics)
1803 CE: William Herschel published Account of the Changes that have happened, during the last Twenty-five Years, in the relative Situation of Double-stars; with an Investigation of the Cause to which they are owing
1803 CE: Erasmus Darwin posthumously published The Temple of Nature
1803 CE: Thomas Young demonstrated the double-slit experiment
1804 CE: Thomas Young published Experiments and Calculations Relative to Physical Optics
1804 CE: Joseph Marie Jacquard invented the Jacquard Loom
1804 CE: The French Consulate established the Napoleonic Code, a major step in replacing feudal laws
1804 CE: The human population of Earth exceeded one billion people
1805 CE: Thomas Young published An Essay on the Cohesion of Fluids
1805 CE: John Dalton published On the Absorption of Gases by Water and other Liquids, introducing his law of multiple proportions
1805 CE: Pierre-Simon Laplace published volume 4 of Traité de mécanique céleste (Treatise of celestial mechanics)
1807 CE: Thomas Young published A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts
1807 CE: François Budan de Boislaurent published a Nouvelle méthode pour la résolution des équations numériques (New method for solving numerical equations), formulating Budan’s theorem
1807 CE: Alexander von Humboldt published Essay on the Geography of Plants
1807 CE: Nicéphore & Claude Niépce patented the Pyréolophore, an internal combustion engine (ICE)
1808 CE: Thomas Young published Functions of the Heart and Arteries
1808 CE: John Dalton published A New System of Chemical Philosophy, introducing atomic theory to chemistry
1809 CE: Carl Friedrich Gauss published Theoria motus corporum coelestium in sectionibus conicis solem ambientum (Theory of motion of the celestial bodies moving in conic sections around the Sun), introducing the Gaussian gravitational constant

1810s

1810 CE: George Cayley published On Aerial Navigation
1810 CE: Bernard Bolzano published Beyträge zu einer begründeteren Darstellung der Mathematik (Contributions to a more justified representation of mathematics)
1810 CE: Alexander von Humboldt published Vues des cordillères et monuments des peuples indigènes de l’Amerique (Views of the cordilleras and monuments of the indigenous peoples of America)
1811 CE: Georges Cuvier & Alexandre Brongniart published Description Geologiques des Environs de Paris (Geological Description of the Surroundings of Paris)
1811 CE: Amedeo Avogadro published Essai d’une manière de déterminer les masses relatives des molécules élémentaires des corps, et les proportions selon lesquelles elles entrent dans ces combinaisons (Essay on a manner of Determining the Relative Masses of the Elementary Molecules of Bodies and the Proportions by Which They Enter These Combinations), which contains Avogadro’s law
1811 CE: Caspar Wistar published A System of Anatomy
1811 CE: Alexander von Humboldt published his Essai politique sur le royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne (Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain)
1812 CE: Pierre-Simon Laplace published Théorie analytique des probabilités (Analytic Theory of Probability), exploring statistics and probability
1813 CE: Thomas Young introduced the term Indo-European language
1813 CE: Thomas Young published System of Practical Nosology
1813 CE: Jöns Jacob Berzelius published Essay on the Cause of Chemical Proportions, and on some Circumstances relating to them: together with a short and easy Method of expressing them, supporting atomic theory and Proust’s law of definite proportions, and introducing modern chemical notation
1813 CE: Mathieu Orfila published Traité des poisons (Treatise on poisons)
1814 CE: Joseph von Fraunhofer invented the modern spectroscope
1814 CE: Pierre-Simon Laplace published Essai philosophique sur les probabilités (Philosophical essay on probability), exploring generating functions and probability theory, demonstrating the Laplace transform and inductive reasoning
1815 CE: Thomas Young published A Practical and Historical Treatise on Consumptive Diseases
1815 CE: William Smith published A Delineation of the Strata of England and Walse with part of Scotland, an influential geological map
1815 CE: The Mount Tambora volcano erupted in present day Indonesia, causing the Year Without a Summer in 1816
1815 CE: Alexander von Humboldt published Personal narrative of travels to the equinoctial regions of America, during the years 1799–1804
1816 CE: Bernard Bolzano published Der binomische Lehrsatz (The binomial theorem)
1816 CE: Priscilla Wakefield published An Introduction to the Natural History and Classification of Insects, in a Series of Letters
1816 CE: Franz Bopp published On the conjugational system of the Sanskrit language compared with that of Greek, Latin, Persian and Germanic, now called Indo-European languages
1817 CE: Bernard Bolzano published Rein analytischer Beweis (Purely analytical proof), rigorously defining mathematical limits
1817 CE: David Ricardo published On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, advancing a labor theory of value and describing comparative advantage
1818 CE: Augustin-Jean Fresnel deposited Mémoire sur la diffraction de la lumière (Memoir on the diffraction of light)
1818 CE: Friedrich Bessel published observationibus viri incomparabilis James Bradley (on the observations of the incomparable James Bradley)
1819 CE: William Smith published Strata Identified by Organized Fossils

1820s

1820 CE: Joseph Fourier published Sur l’usage du théorème de Descartes dans la recherche des limites des racines (On the use of Descartes’ theorem in the search for the limits of roots), introducing Fourier’s theorem on polynomial real roots
1821 CE: Joseph von Fraunhofer developed a diffraction grating
1821 CE: Augustin-Louis Cauchy published Cours d’Analyse (Analysis Course), rejecting the generality of algebra and promoting infinitesimals instead, introduced rigorous analysis, and defined limits
1821 CE: James Mill published Elements of Political Economy
1821 CE: Michael Faraday demonstrated the homopolar motor, a type of direct current electric motor
1821 CE: Carl Friedrich Gauss invented the heliotrope
1822 CE: Augustin-Jean Fresnel published De la Lumière (On Light)
1822 CE: Augustin-Jean Fresnel published Mémoire sur un nouveau système d’éclairage des phares (Memoir upon a new system of lighthouse illumination)
1822 CE: Joseph Fourier published Théorie analytique de la chaleur (The Analytical Theory of Heat), introducing the heat equation, Fourier transform (FT), and asserting the importance of dimensional homogeneity
1823 CE: Augustin-Louis Cauchy published Le Calcul infinitésimal (Infinitesimal Calculus)
1823 CE: Siméon Denis Poisson published Mémoire sur la théorie du magnétisme en mouvement (Memoir on the theory of magnetism in motion), introducing Poisson’s equation for electrostatic and gravitational fields
1824 CE: Joseph Fourier published Remarques générales sur les températures du globe terrestre et des espaces planétaires (General notes on temperatures of the globe and planetary spaces), describing the greenhouse effect
1824 CE: Joseph Aspdin patented Portland cement
1824 CE: William Buckland published Notice on the Megalosaurus or great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield, the first correct identification of a dinosaur
1825 CE: Friedrich Bessel published Über die Berechnung der geographischen Längen und Breiten aus geodätischen Vermessungen (The calculation of longitude and latitude from geodesic measurements), solving the geodesic problem
1825 CE: Nicéphore Niépce made the earliest surviving photocopy
1825 CE: Pierre-Simon Laplace published volume 5 of Traité de mécanique céleste (Treatise of celestial mechanics)
1825 CE: Gideon Mantell published Notice on the Iguanodon, a newly discovered fossil reptile, from the sandstone of Tilgate forest, in Sussex, describing Mary Ann Mantell’s discovery of the second known dinosaur
1825 CE: Augustin-Louis Cauchy published Mémoire sur les intégrales définies, prises entre des limites imaginaires (A Memorandum on definite integrals taken between imaginary limits), introducing Cauchy’s integral theorem and complex analysis
1826 CE: Augustin-Louis Cauchy published Sur un nouveau genre de calcul analogue au calcul infinitésimal (On a new type of calculus analogous to the infinitesimal calculus), defining the residue of a complex function
1827 CE: Nicéphore Niépce took the earliest surviving photograph
1827 CE: Joseph Fourier published Mémoire sur la température du globe terrestre et des espaces planétaires (Memoir on the temperature of the terrestrial globe and planetary spaces)
1827 CE: Augustin-Jean Fresnel published Mémoire sur la double réfraction (Memoir on double refraction)
1827 CE: Georg Ohm published Die galvanische Kette, mathematisch bearbeitet (The Galvanic Circuit Investigated Mathematically), describing Ohm’s law
1828 CE: Carl Friedrich Gauss published Bestimmung des Breitenunterschiedes zwischen den Sternwarten von Göttingen und Altona durch Beobachtungen am Ramsdenschen Zenithsector (Determination of the difference in latitude between the observatories of Göttingen and Altona through observations at Ramsden’s zenith sector), approximating the geoid
1828 CE: Carl Friedrich Gauss published his Theorema Egregium (Remarkable Theorem) describing Gaussian curvature
1828 CE: Augustin-Louis Cauchy published Leçons sur les applications de calcul infinitésimal; La géométrie (Lessons on infinitesimal computing applications; Geometry)
1829 CE: Augustin-Louis Cauchy published Leçons sur le calcul différentiel, defining a complex function of a complex variable
1829 CE: Jacques Charles François Sturm published Analyse d’un mémoire sur la résolution des équations numériques (Analysis of a memoir on the solution of equations with numerical coefficients), formulating Sturm’s theorem concerning real-root isolation
1829 CE: Jacques Charles François Sturm published Extrait d’un mémoire sur l’intégration d’un système d’équations différentielles linéaires (Abstract of a memoir on the integration of a system of linear differential equations)
1829 CE: Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet published Sur la convergence des séries trigonométriques qui servent à représenter une fonction arbitraire entre des limites données (On the convergence of trigonometric series that serve to represent an arbitrary function between given limits) showing for which functions the convergence of the Fourier series holds, under certain conditions, and giving the modern definition of a function
1829 CE: Siméon Denis Poisson published Mémoire sur l’équilibre et le mouvement des corps élastiques (Memory on the balance and movement of elastic bodies)

1830s

1831 CE: Alexander von Humboldt published Fragments de géologie et de climatologie asiatiques (Fragments of Asian geology and climatology)
1831 CE: Augustin-Louis Cauchy published Sur la mecanique celeste et sur un nouveau calcul qui s’applique a un grand nombre de questions diverses etc (On Celestial Mechanics and on a new calculation which is applicable to a large number of diverse questions), introducing Cauchy’s integral formula
1831 CE: Augustin-Louis Cauchy published Mémoire sur les rapports qui existent entre le calcul des Résidus et le calcul des Limites, et sur les avantages qu’offrent ces deux calculs dans la résolution des équations algébriques ou transcendantes (Memorandum on the connections that exist between the residue calculus and the limit calculus, and on the advantages that these two calculi offer in solving algebraic and transcendental equations), introducing the residue theorem
1832 CE: Jöns Jacob Berzelius published Isomeri, dess distinktion från dermed analoga förhållanden (Isomerism, its distinction from thus analogous conditions), coining the term polymer
1833 CE: Charles Lyell published Principles of Geology
1833 CE: William Rowan Hamilton published Introductory Lecture on Astronomy, introducing Hamiltonian mechanics as a reformulation of Lagrangian mechanics
1833 CE: Siméon Denis Poisson published his Traité de mécanique (Treatise on Mechanics), introducing the Poisson bracket
1835 CE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
1835 CE: Jacques Charles François Sturm published Mémoire sur la résolution des équations numériques (Memoir on the solution of equations with numerical coefficients)
1837 CE: Bernard Bolzano published his Wissenschaftslehre (Theory of Science)
1837 CE: Siméon Denis Poisson published Recherches sur la probabilité des jugements en matière criminelle et en matière civile (Research on the probability of judgments in criminal and civil matters), describing the Poisson distribution
1838 CE: Christoph Gudermann introduced the concept of uniform convergence
1838 CE: Friedrich Bessel published On the parallax of 61 Cygni, estimating the distance to 61 Cygni at 10.3 light years (within 10% of the correct value, 11.4 light years)
1838 CE: Gerardus Johannes Mulder published Sur la composition de quelques substances animales (On the composition of some animal substances), using the term protein coined by Berzelius, and noting that nearly all proteins have the same empirical formula, C₄₀₀H₆₂₀N₁₀₀O₁₂₀P₁S₁
1839 CE: Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet proved the first class number formula, for quadratic forms
1839 CE: Michael Faraday published the final installment of Experimental Researches in Electricity, describing his law of electromagnetic induction
1839 CE: Edmond Becquerel published Mémoire sur les effets électriques produits sous l’influence des rayons solaires (Memoir on the electrical effects produced under the influence of solar rays), describing the photovoltaic effect (i.e. solar panels)

1840s

1840 CE: Louis Agassiz published Études sur les glaciers (Studies on Glaciers)
1840 CE: Carl Friedrich Gauss published Dioptrische Untersuchungen (Dioptric examinations), describing Gaussian optics
1841 CE: William Thomson published On the uniform motion of heat in homogeneous solid bodies, and its connection with the mathematical theory of electricity
1841 CE: Jöns Jacob Berzelius published Årsberättelse om Framstegen i Fysik och Kemi afgifven den 31 Mars 1840. Första delen (Annual Report on Progress in Physics and Chemistry submitted March 31, 1840. First part), describing and coining the term allotropy
1841 CE: James Prescott Joule published On the Heat evolved by Metallic Conductors of Electricity, and in the Cells of a Battery during Electrolysis, stating Joule’s first law that an electrical conductor generates heat proportional to its resistance multiplied by the current squared (P = I² R)
1842 CE: Christian Doppler published Über das farbige Licht der Doppelsterne und einiger anderer Gestirne des Himmels (On the coloured light of binary stars and some other stars of the heavens)
1842 CE: Charles Darwin published The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs
1842 CE: Edwin Chadwick published his Report on The Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain, an influential work on sanitation and public health
1843 CE: John Stuart Mill published A System of Logic, describing Mill’s Methods of inductive reasoning
1843 CE: Ada Lovelace published Sketch of The Analytical Engine, with notes upon the Memoir by the Translator, translating Luigi Menabrea’s description of Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine and adding copious detailed notes, including the first computer algorithm
1843 CE: James Prescott Joule published On the Calorific Effects of Magneto-Electricity, and on the Mechanical Value of Heat, stating that heat is energy, arguing for conservation of energy and against caloric theory
1844 CE: Hermann Grassmann published Die Lineale Ausdehnungslehre (The Theory of Linear Extension), introducing linear algebra
1844 CE: Charles Goodyear patented vulcanization: heat rubber to harden it, with sulfur maybe
1844 CE: Friedrich Bessel published On the variations of the proper motions of Procyon and Sirius, predicting the existence of Sirius B
1845 CE: Alexander von Humboldt published Kosmos – Entwurf einer physischen Weltbeschreibung (Cosmos: A Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe), volume 1
1845 CE: Jean-Baptiste Boussingault published Traité d’économie rurale (Rural economy treatise)
1846 CE: Julius Bodo Unger published Das Guanin und seine Verbindungen (Guanine and its compounds)
1846 CE: Adolphe Sax patented the Saxophone
1847 CE: Hermann von Helmholtz published Über die Erhaltung der Kraft (On the Conservation of Force), arguing for conservation of energy and against vital forces
1847 CE: Augustus de Morgan published Formal Logic, introducing De Morgan’s laws

Anesthesia

1847 CE: John Snow published On the Inhalation of the Vapor of Ether, one of the first studies of anesthesia
1848 CE: Louis Pasteur published Mémoire sur la relation qui peut exister entre la forme cristalline et la composition chimique, et sur la cause de la polarisation rotatoire (Memoir on the relationship that can exist between crystalline form and chemical composition, and on the cause of rotary polarization), demonstrating molecular chirality and explaining isomers
1848 CE: John Stuart Mill published Principles of Political Economy
1848 CE: Jean Laurent Palmer developed the handheld micrometer calipers, still in use today
1849 CE: John Snow published On the Mode of Communication of Cholera, a key event in epidemiology
1849 CE: Crawford Long published An account of the first use of Sulphuric Ether by Inhalation as an Anaesthetic in Surgical Operations, describing anesthesia
1849 CE: Alexander von Humboldt published Aspects of nature, in different lands and different climates with scientific elucidations
1849 CE: Léon Foucault published Lumière électrique (Electric light), describing experiments with absorption and emission lines
1849 CE: George Stokes published On the critical values of the sums of periodic series
1849 CE: George Stokes published Discussion of a differential equation relating to the breaking of railway bridges
1849 CE: George Stokes published On the variation of gravity at the surface of the Earth, describing Stokes’ gravity formula

1850s

1850 CE: Rudolf Clausius published Ueber die bewegende Kraft der Wärme und die Gesetze, welche sich daraus für die Wärmelehre selbst ableiten lassen (On the moving Force of Heat and the Laws, that can be derived from it for the Theory of Heat itself), stating the second law of thermodynamics
1850 CE: Alexander von Humboldt published Views of nature, or, Contemplations on the sublime phenomena of creation: with scientific illustrations (1850)
1850 CE: August Schleicher completed Die Sprachen Europas in systematischer Uebersicht (The Languages of Europe in Systematic Perspective), comparing language evolution with biology
1850 CE: Léon Foucault published Lumière électrique (Electric light), describing experiments with absorption and emission lines
1850 CE: Hermann von Helmholtz published Vorläufiger Bericht über die Fortpflanzungs-Geschwindigkeit der Nervenreizung (Preliminary report on the rate of propagation of nerve stimulus), describing how he measured the speed of nerve signals at 24.6-38.4 m/s
1851 CE: Hermann von Helmholtz invented the ophthalmoscope, allowing people to examine the inside of the human eye
1851 CE: Bernard Bolzano published Paradoxien des Unendlichen (The Paradoxes of the Infinite)
1851 CE: William Thomson published On the dynamical theory of heat; with numerical results deduced from Mr. Joule’s equivalent of a thermal unit and M. Regnault’s observations on steam, stating the second law of thermodynamics
1851 CE: Ferdinand Cohn published Zur Naturgeschichte des Protococcus Pluvialis (On the Natural History of Protococcus pluvialis)
1851 CE: Ferdinand Cohn published Die Menschheit und die Pflanzenwelt (Humanity and the flora)
1851 CE: Hippolyte Fizeau published Sur les hypothèses relatives à l’éther lumineux (On the Hypotheses Relating to the Luminous Aether), describing an experiment to measure the speed of light in water
1851 CE: Léon Foucault demonstrated that a pendulum will rotate, providing evidence of Earth’s rotation
1851 CE: George Stokes published On the effect of internal friction of fluids on the motion of pendulums, introducing Stokes’ law describing friction on solid objects passing through viscous fluids (a.k.a. drag)
1852 CE: George Stokes published On the change of refrangibility of light, describing the Stokes shift
1852 CE: Léon Foucault published Sur les phénomènes d’orientation des corps tournants entraînés par un axe fixe à la surface de la terre – Nouveaux signes sensibles du mouvement diurne (On the phenomena of the orientation of rotating bodies carried along by an axis fixed to the surface of the earth – New perceptible signs of the daily movement), naming the gyroscope and providing evidence of Earth’s rotation
1852 CE: Florence Nightingale published Cassandra, an influential work on feminism
1852 CE: George Jennings patented improvements to the flush toilet, including a one-piece pan and trap
1852 CE: Franz Bopp completed his Vergleichende Grammatik des Sanskrit, Zend, Griechischen, Lateinischen, Litthauischen, Altslawischen, Gotischen und Deutschen (Comparative Grammar of Sanskrit, Zend [Avestan], Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Old Slavonic, Gothic and German), or Comparative Grammar for short, on the similarities between the Indo-European languages
1853 CE: August Schleicher published Die ersten Spaltungen des indogermanischen Urvolkes (The first divisions of the Indo-European indigenous people), representing languages as a family tree
1853 CE: Hermann Grassmann published a theory of how colors mix, still taught as Grassmann’s law
1853 CE: Léon Foucault published Sur les vitesses relatives de la lumière dans l’air et dans l’eau (On the relative speeds of light in air and in water), providing evidence against the corpuscular theory of light
1853 CE: William Rowan Hamilton published Lectures on Quaternions, which are useful for calculations involving three-dimensional rotations
1853 CE: Edmond Becquerel published Researches on the electrical conductibility of gases at high temperatures, describing thermionic emission
1854 CE: George Boole published The Laws of Thought, founding Boolean algebra
1854 CE: Karl Weierstrass published Zur Theorie der Abelschen Funktionen (The Theory of Abelian Functions)
1854 CE: William Thomson published On the theory of the electric telegraph
1854 CE: Ferdinand Cohn published Der Haushalt der Pflanzen (The Household Plants)
1854 CE: Ferdinand Cohn published Untersuchungen über die Entwicklungsgeschichte der Mikroskopischen Algen und Pilze (Investigations into the History of the Development of Microscopic Algae and Fungi)
1854 CE: Filippo Pacini published Osservazioni microscopiche e deduzioni patologiche sul cholera asiatico (Microscopical observations and pathological deductions on Asiatic cholera)
1854 CE: Rudolf Clausius published Ueber eine veränderte Form des zweiten Hauptsatzes der mechanischen Wärmetheoriein (On a modified Form of the second Law of the mechanical Theory of Heat), restating the second law of thermodynamics as “Heat can never pass from a colder to a warmer body without some other change, connected therewith, occurring at the same time.”
1855 CE: William Thomson published On the peristaltic induction of electric currents in submarine telegraph wires
1855 CE: A. W. Hofmann published On Insolinic Acid, describing aromatic compounds
1855 CE: John Snow published On the Mode of Communication of Cholera 2nd edition, a key event in epidemiology
1855 CE: William Nicholson proposed using secret ballots in Victoria, Australia
1855 CE: Léon Foucault described eddy currents in copper exposed to a magnet

Telegraph

1856 CE: David Edward Hughes patented an Improvement in telegraphs
1856 CE: Karl Weierstrass published Theorie der Abelschen Funktionen (Theory of Abelian Functions)
1856 CE: William Thomson published On the thermal effects of fluids in motion, describing the Joule–Thomson effect and promoting the kinetic theory of gases
1856 CE: Henry Samuel Chapman drafted the “Victorian” or “Australian” voting system using secret ballots
1856 CE: George Stokes published On the numerical calculation of a class of definite integrals and infinite series
1857 CE: James Clerk Maxwell published Experiments on Colour, as perceived by the Eye, with Remarks on Colour-Blindness
1857 CE: August Kekulé published Über die s. g. gepaarten Verbindungen und die Theorie der mehratomigen Radicale (On the s. g. paired compounds and the theory of polyatomic radicals), describing carbon as tetravalent
1857 CE: Abel Niépce de Saint-Victor published Mémoire sur une nouvelle action de la lumière (Thesis on a new action of light)
1857 CE: Alfred Russel Wallace published Proceedings of Natural-History Collectors in Foreign Countries, describing the Wallace Line between Bali and Lombok
1857 CE: Rudolf Clausius published Über die Art der Bewegung, die wir Wärme nennen (On the Kind of Movement we call Heat), introducing the concept of the mean free path of a particle
1858 CE: Abel Niépce de Saint-Victor published Deuxième mémoire sur une nouvelle action de la lumière (Second thesis on a new action of light)
1858 CE: Hermann von Helmholtz published Über Integrale der hydrodynamischen Gleichungen, welche den Wirbelbewegungen entsprechen (On Integrals of the hydrodynamic Equations, which correspond to the vortex movements), introducing Helmholtz’ theorems for vortex dynamics in inviscid fluids
1858 CE: Stanislao Cannizzaro published Sunto di un corso di Filosofia chimica (Sketch of a course of chemical philosophy), distinguishing between atomic and molecular weights as Avogadro hypothesized
1858 CE: August Kekulé published Ueber die Constitution und die Metamorphosen der chemischen Verbindungen und über die chemische Natur des Kohlenstoffs (About the constitution and metamorphoses of chemical compounds, and about the chemical nature of carbon), announcing that carbon atoms can bond with each other
1858 CE: Archibald Scott Couper published On a new chemical theory, proposing that carbon atoms can bond with each other
1858 CE: Léon Foucault published Description des procédés employes pour reconnaitre la configuration des surfaces optiques (Description of the methods used to recognize the configuration of optical surfaces), describing the Foucault knife-edge test for measuring the shape of concave mirrors
1858 CE: Alfred Russel Wallace published On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely From the Original Type
1859 CE: Léon Foucault published Mémoire sur la construction des télescopes en verre argenté (Memoir on the construction of reflecting telescopes)
1859 CE: Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, describing his theories of common descent and natural selection
1859 CE: David Edward Hughes patented an Improvement in electro-magnetic telegraphs for duplex communication
1859 CE: David Edward Hughes patented an Improvement in telegraphfng-machlnes for the printing telegraph
1859 CE: Thomas Sutton developed a panoramic camera with a wide-angle lens
1859 CE: John Stuart Mill published On Liberty
1859 CE: Florence Nightingale published Notes on Nursing: What Nursing Is, What Nursing is Not, establishing the field of nursing as a profession, and promoting hygiene

1860s

1860 CE: James Clerk Maxwell published Illustrations of the dynamical theory of gases in two parts, deriving the Maxwell distribution via heuristics, the first statistical law in physics
1861 CE: Thomas Sutton invented the single lens reflex (SLR) camera
1861 CE: Thomas Sutton & James Clerk Maxwell demonstrated color photography
1861 CE: James Clerk Maxwell published On Physical Lines of Force, deriving Maxwell’s equations of electromagnetism
1861 CE: Florence Nightingale published Notes on Nursing for the Labouring Classes
1861 CE: Ignaz Semmelweis published Etiology, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever on obstetrics, promoting hand washing
1861 CE: August Schleicher published Compendium der vergleichenden Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen (Compendium of the comparative grammar of the Indo-European languages)
1862 CE: Hermann Grassmann set out the first axiomatic presentation of arithmetic, using mathematical induction
1862 CE: Léon Foucault measured the speed of light at 298,000 km/s, within 1% of the currently accepted value
1863 CE: Charles Lyell published Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man
1863 CE: Hermann von Helmholtz published Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen als physiologische Grundlage für die Theorie der Musik (On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music), describing Helmholtz resonance
1863 CE: Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet & Richard Dedekind published their Vorlesungen über Zahlentheorie (Lectures on Number Theory) stating Dirichlet’s theorem on arithmetic progressions and creating analytic number theory
1865 CE: James Clerk Maxwell published A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field, proposing that electricity and magnetism are waves moving at light speed, and predicting radio
1865 CE: A. W. Hofmann published An Introduction to Modern Chemistry
1865 CE: August Kekulé published Sur la constitution des substances aromatiques (On the constitution of aromatic substances), describing the chemical structure of benzene
1865 CE: Rudolf Clausius published Ueber verschiedene für die Anwendung bequeme Formen der Hauptgleichungen der mechanischen Wärmetheorie (On various convenient forms of the main equations of the mechanical theory of heat), coining the term entropy and describing it mathematically, simply stated “The energy of the universe is constant. The entropy of the universe tends to a maximum.”
1866 CE: Gregor Mendel published Versuche über Pflanzenhybriden (Experiments on Plant Hybridization)
1866 CE: Ernst Haeckel published Generelle Morphologie der Organismen (General Morphology of Organisms)
1866 CE: Joseph Bell published Manual of the Operations of Surgery

Antiseptics

1867 CE: Joseph Lister published On the Antiseptic Principle in the Practice of Surgery
1867 CE: Hermann von Helmholtz published Handbuch der Physiologischen Optik (Handbook of Physiological Optics), describing unconscious inference
1867 CE: Hermann Hankel published Vorlesungen über die complexen Zahlen und ihre Functionen (Lectures on complex numbers and their functions)
1867 CE: William Thomson & Peter Tait published their Treatise on Natural Philosophy (a.k.a. T & T from the authors’ initials), founding the study of mechanics
1867 CE: James Clerk Maxwell published On the dynamical theory of gases
1868 CE: James Clerk Maxwell published On governors, establishing the theoretical basis for control engineering
1868 CE: Edmond Becquerel published La lumière: ses causes et ses effets (Light: its causes and effects)
1869 CE: Dmitri Mendeleev presented The Dependence between the Properties of the Atomic Weights of the Elements, describing his periodic table of the elements, which he saw in a dream
1869 CE: Alfred Russel Wallace published The Malay Archipelago, describing the Wallace Line between Bali and Lombok

1870s

1870 CE: Charles Sanders Peirce published Logic of Relatives, extending the theory of relations
1870 CE: Benjamin Peirce published Linear Associative Algebra, coining the terms idempotent and nilpotent
1870 CE: Alfred Russel Wallace published Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection
1871 CE: Florence Nightingale published Introductory Notes on Lying-In Institutions
1871 CE: James Clerk Maxwell published his Theory of Heat, describing his thermodynamic relations
1871 CE: Charles Darwin published The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
1871 CE: Friedrich Miescher published Ueber die chemische Zusammensetzung der Eiterzellen (On the chemical composition of pus cells), describing nucleic acids
1872 CE: The Ballot Act 1872 required secret ballots for UK parliamentary and local government elections
1872 CE: James Clerk Maxwell published On the Theory of Colour Vision
1872 CE: Ferdinand Cohn published Neue Untersuchungen über Bakterien (New Studies on Bacteria)
1872 CE: August Kekulé published Ueber einige Condensationsproducte des Aldehyds (On some condensation products of aldehydes)
1872 CE: Ludwig Boltzmann published Weitere Studien über das Wärmegleichgewicht unter Gasmolekülen (Further studies on the heat balance among gas molecules), introducing the Boltzmann equation and H-theorem, using statistical mechanics to derive the second law of thermodynamics
1873 CE: James Clerk Maxwell published A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism
1873 CE: James Clerk Maxwell published Molecules
1874 CE: Georg Cantor published Ueber eine Eigenschaft des Inbegriffes aller reellen algebraischen Zahlen (On a Property of the Collection of All Real Algebraic Numbers), founding set theory
1874 CE: Theodor Billroth published Untersuchungen über die Vegetationsformen von Coccobacteria septica (Investigations of the Vegetal Forms of Coccobacteria septica), describing streptococcus
1876 CE: Hermann von Helmholtz published On the Limits of the Optical Capacity of the Microscope
1876 CE: Robert Koch published Die Ätiologie der Milzbrand-Krankheit, Begründet auf die Entwicklungsgeschichte des Bacillus Anthracis (The Etiology of Anthrax Disease, Based on the Developmental History of Bacillus Anthracis), linking a microorganism with a disease for the first time
1876 CE: Oliver Heaviside published On the Extra Current, introducing the telegrapher’s equations
1877 CE: Robert Koch published Verfahren zur Untersuchung, zum Konservieren und Photographieren der Bakterien (Methods of Examining, Preserving and Photographing Bacteria), with the first photograph of a bacterium
1877 CE: Ulisse Dini published Fondamenti per la teoria delle funzioni di variabili reali (Foundations for the Theory of Functions of Real Variables), contributing to real analysis
1877 CE: Ludwig Boltzmann published Über die beziehung dem zweiten Haubtsatze der mechanischen Wärmetheorie und der Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung respektive den Sätzen über das Wärmegleichgewicht (On the relationship between the second main theorem of the mechanical theory of heat and the theory of probability and the theorems on the heat balance), using probability theory to derive the second law of thermodynamics
1877 CE: Charles Sanders Peirce published The Fixation of Belief, founding pragmatism
1878 CE: Thomas Young coined the term “energy” in its modern usage
1878 CE: Louis Pasteur published Les Microbes organisés, leur rôle dans la Fermentation, la Putréfaction et la Contagion (Organized Microbes, their role in Fermentation, Putrefaction, and Contagion), confirming the germ theory of disease

Statistics

1878 CE: Charles Sanders Peirce published Illustrations of the Logic of Science, formulating modern statistics
1878 CE: Eadweard Muybridge photographed The Horse in Motion, the first real-time motion picture sequence
1878 CE: Albrecht Kossel & Albert Neumann published Ueber das Thymin, ein Spaltungsproduct der Nucleïnsäure (On thymine, a cleavage product of nucleic acid)
1878 CE: Josiah Willard Gibbs published On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances, founding chemical thermodynamics, including chemical potential, transport phenomena, and the phase rule
1878 CE: Charles Sanders Peirce published How To Make Our Ideas Clear, stating his pragmatic maxim
1879 CE: Emile Berliner patented an Improvement in electrical-contact telephones, the carbon microphone
1879 CE: Gottlob Frege published Begriffsschrift (concept-script)

1880s

1880 CE: Thomas Crapper invented the U-bend which does not jam, unlike the S-bend, improving the flush toilet
1880 CE: Alexander Ogston published Über abscesse (On Abscesses), identifying microorganisms as the cause of infection, and describing staphylococcus aureus
1880 CE: Oliver Heaviside patented the coaxial cable
1881 CE: Alexander Ogston published Report upon Micro-Organisms in Surgical Diseases
1881 CE: Charles Sanders Peirce published A Boolean Algebra with One Constant
1881 CE: Charles Sanders Peirce published On the Logic of Number, describing Peano axioms
1881 CE: Charles Sanders Peirce published A Theory of Probable Inference, formulating modern statistics
1881 CE: Simon Newcomb published Note on the frequency of use of the different digits in natural numbers, discovering Benford’s law
1881 CE: Robert Koch published Zur Untersuchung von Pathogenen Organismen (Methods for the Study of Pathogenic Organisms)
1882 CE: Robert Koch published Die Aetiologie der Tuberculose (The Etiology of Tuberculosis)
1882 CE: Ferdinand Cohn published The Cell-State
1882 CE: Bernabé Cobo posthumously published Historia de la fundación de Lima (History of the foundation of Lima)
1883 CE: Georg Cantor published Ueber unendliche, lineare Punktmannichfaltigkeiten (5) (On infinite, linear point manifolds (5)), later republished as Grundlagen einer allgemeinen Mannigfaltigkeitslehre (Basics of a general theory of diversity)
1883 CE: A. F. W. Schimper published Über die Entwicklung der Chlorophyllkörner und Farbkörper (On the development of chlorophyll grains and color bodies)
1883 CE: The volcanic island of Krakatoa erupted
1883 CE: Osborne Reynolds published An experimental investigation of the circumstances which determine whether the motion of water shall be direct or sinuous, and of the law of resistance in parallel channels, describing Reynolds numbers and the causes of laminar and turbulent flow
1884 CE: Thomas Twyford invented the one-piece ceramic flush toilet
1884 CE: Gottlob Frege published The Foundations of Arithmetic
1884 CE: Charles Sanders Peirce & Joseph Jastrow published On Small Differences in Sensation, introducing blinded, randomized controlled experiments with repeated measures design
1884 CE: Robert Koch published Sechster Bericht der deutschen wissenschaftlichen Commission zur Erforschung der Cholera (Sixth report of the German scientific commission for research on cholera)
1884 CE: John Henry Poynting published On the Transfer of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field, describing his theorem of electromagnetic energy transfer and corresponding vector
1885 CE: Charles Sanders Peirce published On the Algebra of Logic: A Contribution to the Philosophy of Notation, stating Peirce’s law
1885 CE: Charles Sanders Peirce wrote a letter to Allan Marquand describing how electrical switches could carry Boolean calculations
1885 CE: Albrecht Kossel published Ueber eine neue Base aus dem Thierkörper (On a new base from the animal body), describing adenine
1885 CE: Osborne Reynolds published On the dilatancy of media composed of rigid particles in contact, with experimental illustrations, describing Reynolds dilatancy
1886 CE: Osborne Reynolds published On the Theory of Lubrication and Its Application to Mr. Beauchamp Tower’s Experiments, Including an Experimental Determination of the Viscosity of Olive Oil, describing Reynolds equation of lubrication theory
1886 CE: Louis Pasteur published Traitement de la Rage (Treatment of Rabies)
1886 CE: Charles Martin Hall patented his Process of reducing aluminium from its fluoride salts by electrolysis, dramatically reducing the cost of aluminum production

Telephone

1887 CE: Alexander Graham Bell patented Transmitting and recording sounds by radiant energy
1887 CE: Alexander Graham Bell patented Reproducing sounds from phonograph records
1887 CE: Julius Richard Petri published Eine kleine Modification des Koch’schen Plattenverfahrens (A small modification of Koch’s plate method), describing the Petri dish
1887 CE: Edward W. Morley & Albert A. Michelson conducted the Michelson–Morley experiment, finding the speed of light consistent in all directions despite the motion of the Earth, unknowingly disproving luminiferous aether
1887 CE: Heinrich Hertz published On Electromagnetic Effects Produced by Electrical Disturbances in Insulators, proving by experiment Maxwell’s prediction of electromagnetic waves
1888 CE: Arthur & Oliver Heaviside published The Bridge System of Telephony, proposing the loading coil to reduce distortion in telegraphy
1888 CE: J. J. Thomson published Applications of dynamics to physics and chemistry, an early example of computational chemistry
1888 CE: Hermann Hellriegel published Untersuchungen über die Stickstoffnahrung der Gramineen und Leguminosen (Investigations into the Nitrogen assimilation of the Gramineae and Leguminosae), describing nitrogen fixation
1888 CE: John J. Loud patented the first ballpoint pen
1889 CE: Giuseppe Peano published Arithmetices principia, nova methodo exposita (Principles of arithmetic, presented by a new method), simplifying earlier work to formulate Peano axioms
1889 CE: William Stewart Halsted asked Goodyear to make rubber gloves, to prevent dermatitis from antiseptics
1889 CE: Oliver Heaviside published On the electromagnetic effects due to the motion of electrification through a dielectric, deriving the Lorentz force

1890s

1890 CE: Hermann Hellriegel published Ueber Stickstoffnahrung landwirtschaftlicher Kulturgewächse (On Nitrogen assimilation in agricultural crops), describing nitrogen fixation
1890 CE: James George Frazer published The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion
1890 CE: Bernabé Cobo posthumously published Historia del Nuevo mundo (History of the New World)
1891 CE: George Johnstone Stoney published Of the “Electron,” or Atom of Electricity
1891 CE: Pierre de Fermat posthumously published Oeuvres de Fermat (Works by Fermat) volume 1
1891 CE: The Austro-Hungarian Empire published the Codex Alimentarius Austriacus (Austrian Food Code), promoting food safety
1892 CE: Nikola Tesla presented Experiments with alternate currents of high potential and high frequency
1892 CE: Knut Wicksell published Value, Capital and Rent
1893 CE: J. J. Thomson published Notes on recent researches in electricity and magnetism, building upon Maxwell’s Treatise
1893 CE: Rudolf Diesel published Theorie und Konstruktion eines rationellen Wärmemotors zum Ersatz der Dampfmaschine und der heute bekannten Verbrennungsmotoren (Theory and construction of a rational heat motor with the purpose of replacing the steam engine and the internal combustion engines known today)
1893 CE: Oliver Heaviside published The Elements of Vectorial Algebra and Analysis, simplifying Maxwell’s equations with vector calculus
1894 CE: Heinrich Hertz published The Principles of Mechanics Presented in a New Form
1894 CE: Karl Weierstrass published Abhandlungen-1 (Treatises-1)
1894 CE: William Bateson published Materials for the Study of Variation, describing homeotic mutations, in which an expected body-part has been replaced by another
1894 CE: Albrecht Kossel & Albert Neumann published Darstellung und Spaltungsprodukte der Nucleïnsäure (Adenylsäure) (Preparation and cleavage products of nucleic acids (adenic acid)), describing cytosine
1894 CE: Pierre de Fermat posthumously published Oeuvres de Fermat (Works by Fermat) volume 2, mentioning Fermat’s factorization method, Fermat’s little theorem, and Pell’s equation
1895 CE: Karl Weierstrass published Abhandlungen-2 (Treatises-2)
1895 CE: Georg Cantor published Beiträge zur Begründung der transfiniten Mengenlehre 1 (Contributions to the foundation of the transfinite set theory 1)
1895 CE: J. J. Thomson published Elements of the mathematical theory of electricity and magnetism
1895 CE: Edward W. Morley published On the Densities of Hydrogen and Oxygen and on the Ratio of Their Atomic Weights as 1:15.879, and disproved integral atomic weights
1895 CE: Rudolf Diesel patented the Diesel engine
1895 CE: Osborne Reynolds published On the Dynamical Theory of Incompressible Viscous Fluids and the Determination of the Criterion, introducing Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations and Reynolds operators

Radio

1896 CE: Guglielmo Marconi patented Improvements in Transmitting Electrical impulses and Signals, and in Apparatus therefor, i.e. radio
1896 CE: Knut Wicksell published Studies in the theory of Public Finance
1896 CE: Scipione Riva-Rocci invented the sphygmomanometer, a noninvasive method for measuring blood pressure
1896 CE: Wilhelm Röntgen published Eine neue Art von Strahlen (A New Kind of Rays), describing X-rays
1896 CE: Henri Becquerel published Sur les radiations émises par phosphorescence (On the radiations emitted by phosphorescence), describing radioactive decay
1896 CE: Henri Becquerel published Sur les radiations invisibles émises par les corps phosphorescents (On invisible radiations emitted by phosphorescent bodies), reconsidering radioactive decay
1896 CE: Ludwig Boltzmann published Vorlesungen über Gastheorie (Lectures on Gas Theory) volume 1, developing statistical mechanics
1896 CE: Pierre de Fermat posthumously published Oeuvres de Fermat (Works by Fermat) volume 3, containing many of his letters
1897 CE: Georg Cantor published Beiträge zur Begründung der transfiniten Mengenlehre 2 (Contributions to the foundation of the transfinite set theory 2)
1897 CE: J. J. Thomson published Cathode Rays, describing electron beams and identifying the electron as a distinct particle
1898 CE: A. F. W. Schimper published Pflanzengeographie auf physiologischer Grundlage (Plant geography on a physiological basis)
1898 CE: Charles Sanders Peirce published The Logic of Relatives, devising existential graphs, a diagrammatic notation for predicate calculus
1898 CE: Knut Wicksell published Geldzins und Güterpreise (Interest and Prices)
1898 CE: Marie Curie published sur une nouvelle substance fortement redio-active, contenue dans la pechblende (on a new strongly radio-active substance, contained in pitchblende), describing the discovery of radium and coining the term radioactive
1898 CE: Martinus Beijerinck published Über oligonitrophile Mikroben (On oligonitrophilic microbes), identifying nitrogen fixation as a symbiotic relationship between bacteria and plants
1898 CE: Ludwig Boltzmann published Vorlesungen über Gastheorie (Lectures on Gas Theory) volume 2, further developing statistical mechanics
1898 CE: John Ambrose Fleming published Magnets and Electric Currents, introducing Fleming’s rules, i.e. the right-hand rule for electric generators and left-hand rule for electric motors
1899 CE: Rudolf Diesel patented improvements to the Diesel engine
1899 CE: David Hilbert published Grundlagen der Geometrie (Foundations of Geometry), proposing Hilbert’s axioms of Euclidean geometry
1899 CE: Ernest Rutherford published Uranium radiation and the electrical conduction produced by it, describing both alpha & beta radiation
1899 CE: Milton Reeves patented a variable transmission

1900s

1900 CE: Max Planck published Zur Theorie des Gesetzes der Energieverteilung im Normalspectrum (On the Theory of the Energy Distribution Law of the Normal Spectrum), originating quantum theory
1900 CE: Albert Einstein published Folgerungen aus den Capillaritätserscheinungen (Conclusions Drawn from the Phenomena of Capillarity)
1900 CE: Alberto Ascoli published Ueber ein neues Spaltungsprodukt des Hefenucleins (On a new cleavage product of nucleic acid from yeast), describing uracil
1900 CE: Paul Ulrich Villard published Sur la réflexion et la réfraction des rayons cathodiques et des rayons déviables du radium (On the reflection and refraction of cathode rays and deviable rays of radium), describing what we now call gamma rays
1900 CE: David Hilbert published Mathematical Problems
1900 CE: Louis Bachelier defended his doctoral thesis Théorie de la spéculation (The Theory of Speculation), on introducing the Bachelier model of Brownian motion
1901 CE: Carl Edvard Johansson patented Gauge Block Sets for Precision Measurement, a.k.a. “Jo blocks”, allowing precise measurements and standardizing the inch to 25.4 mm
1901 CE: Henri Becquerel published Contribution à l’étude du rayonnement du radium (Contribution to the study of radium radiation), identifying electrons as beta radiation
1901 CE: John Sealy Townsend published The conductivity produced in gases by the motion of negatively charged ions, describing Townsend discharge
1901 CE: Martinus Beijerinck published Über ein Contagium vivum fluidum als Ursache der Fleckenkrankheit der Tabaksblätter (About a contagium vivum fluidum as the cause of tobacco leaf blotch disease), identifying the first known virus
1901 CE: Edwin Bidwell Wilson published Vector Analysis based on Josiah Willard Gibbs lectures, standardizing vector notation
1902 CE: Karl Weierstrass published Theorie der Abelschen Transcendenten (Theory of Abelian Transcendents)
1902 CE: Josiah Willard Gibbs published Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics, coining the term “statistical mechanics” and introducing the concept of a statistical ensemble
1902 CE: Many astronomers photographed stars as faint as the 11th magnitude, and published the first volume of the Astrographic Catalogue
1903 CE: Konstantin Tsіolkovskіy published Exploration of Outer Space with Reaction Devices, describing his rocket equation
1903 CE: Karl Weierstrass published Abhandlungen-3 (Treatises-3)
1903 CE: Nicholas Johannsen published Der Kreislauf des Geldes und Mechanismus des Sozial-Lebens (The Circuit Theory of Money), an early work in monetary circuit theory
1903 CE: Nikolai Koltsov published Über formbestimmende elastische Gebilde in Zellen (On shape-determining elastic structures in cells), describing the cytoskeleton
1903 CE: Ernest Rutherford published The magnetic and electric deviation of the easily absorbed rays from radium, coining the term gamma ray
1903 CE: Jane Ellen Harrison published Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion
1903 CE: Osborne Reynolds published Papers on Mechanical and Physical Subjects, introducing the Reynolds transport theorem
1904 CE: Ludwig Pilgrim published Versuch einer rechnerischen Behandlung des Eiszeitproblems (Attempt to treat the ice age problem arithmetically), describing Earth’s axial tilt
1905 CE: Albert Einstein published 5 papers:
- On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light suggested quanta
- On the Motion of Small Particles Suspended in a Stationary Liquid, as Required by the Molecular Kinetic Theory of Heat proved atomic theory
- On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies introduced special relativity
- Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content? showed the equivalence of matter and energy, i.e. E=mc²
- A new determination of molecular dimensions
1905 CE: Konstantin Mereschkowski published The nature and origins of chromatophores in the plant kingdom
1905 CE: Max Weber published The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
1905 CE: William Bateson coined the term “genetics”
1905 CE: John Ambrose Fleming patented an Instrument for converting alternating electric currents into continuous currents, the Fleming valve, the first practical diode which he used to detect radio waves, and the first electronic device
1905 CE: Fritz Haber published Thermodynamik technischer Gasreaktionen: Sieben Vorlesungen (Thermodynamics of Technical Gas Reactions: Seven Lectures), describing the Haber process which produces ammonia from air, and today feeds half the world’s population with food grown using artificial fertilizer
1906 CE: Daniel Barringer & Benjamin Chew Tilghman presented Coon Mountain and its Crater, arguing that Meteor Crater is a meteorite impact crater
1906 CE: Orville & Wilbur Wright patented their Flying-machine
1906 CE: Willis Carrier patented modern air conditioning, which he invented in 1902 to control humidity for color printing
1906 CE: Jane Ellen Harrison published Primitive Athens as Described by Thucydides
1907 CE: Albert Einstein published On the Relativity Principle and the Conclusions Drawn from It, introducing the equivalence principle
1907 CE: Bertram Boltwood published On the Ultimate Disintegration Products of the Radio-active Elements. Part II. The disintegration products of uranium, describing radiometric dating

Assembly Line

1908 CE: Ford Motor Company first sold the Model T automobile, horses greatly outnumbered them
1908 CE: Georgy Voronoy published Nouvelles applications des paramètres continus à la théorie de formes quadratiques (New applications of continuous parameters to the theory of quadratic forms), formally defining Voronoi diagrams
1908 CE: Phoebus Levene & J. A. Mandel published Über die konstitution der thymo-nucleinsäure (On the constitution of thymo-nucleic acid), describing the components of DNA
1908 CE: Ernest Rutherford & Thomas Royds published Spectrum of the radium emanation, proving that helium nuclei are alpha radiation and describing half-life
1908 CE: Ernest Rutherford & Hans Geiger published An electrical method of counting the number of α particles from radioactive substances, describing a prototype for the Geiger counter
1908 CE: Lee de Forest patented the Audion, the first triode and first electronic amplifier
1908 CE: Arnold Sommerfeld published Ein Beitrag zur hydrodynamischen Erkläerung der turbulenten Flüssigkeitsbewegüngen (A Contribution to Hydrodynamic Explanation of Turbulent Fluid Motions), coining the term Reynolds number
1908 CE: Carl Bosch patented his Process of producing ammonia at scale using the Haber–Bosch process
1908 CE: Hans Geiger published On the Scattering of α-Particles by Matter
1909 CE: Hans Geiger & Ernest Marsden published On a Diffuse Reflection of the α-Particles, beginning the Geiger–Marsden experiments
1909 CE: E. M. Forster published The Machine Stops
1909 CE: Phoebus Levene & Walter Abraham Jacobs published papers describing the components of RNA:
- Über Inosinsäure (On inosic acid)
- Über die Pentose in den Nucleinsäuren (On the pentose in the nucleic acids)
- Über die Hefe-Nucleinsäure (On the yeast nucleic acid)
1909 CE: E. M. Forster published The Machine Stops, predicting the Internet and instant messaging (IM)

1910s

1910 CE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
1910 CE: Konstantin Mereschkowski published The Theory of Two Plasms as the Basis of Symbiogenesis, a New Study of the Origins of Organisms
1910 CE: Hans Geiger published The Scattering of the α-Particles by Matter
1911 CE: Albert Einstein published On the Influence of Gravitation on the Propagation of Light, allowing general relativity to be tested
1911 CE: Arthur Holmes published The Association of Lead with Uranium in Rock-Minerals, and Its Application to the Measurement of Geological Time, describing the first accurate uranium-lead radiometric dating
1911 CE: Willis Carrier published Rational Psychrometric Formulae, formalizing the relationship between relative humidity, absolute humidity, and dew-point temperature
1911 CE: Niels Bohr published Studier over Metallernes Elektrontheori (Studies on the Electron Theory of Metals), describing the Bohr–Van Leeuwen theorem that magnetism in solids is solely a quantum mechanical effect
1911 CE: Ernest Rutherford published The scattering of α and β particles by matter and the structure of the atom, hypothesizing the atomic nucleus and proposing his model of the atom
1911 CE: Hans Geiger & John Mitchell Nuttall published The ranges of the α particles from various radioactive substances and a relation between range and period of transformation, describing the Geiger–Nuttall law
1911 CE: Paul & Tatiana Ehrenfest published Begriffliche Grundlagen der statistischen Auffassung in der Mechanik (The Conceptual Foundations of the Statistical Approach in Mechanics), describing statistical mechanics
1912 CE: Automobiles roughly equaled the number of horses on U.S. streets
1912 CE: Henrietta Swan Leavitt & Edward Charles Pickering published Periods of 25 Variable Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud, describing the period-luminosity relation and providing astronomers with the first standard candle for measuring the distance to other galaxies
1912 CE: Victor Hess published Über Beobachtungen der durchdringenden Strahlung bei sieben Freiballonfahrten (On observations of penetrating radiation during seven free balloon trips), describing cosmic rays
1912 CE: Charles Galton Darwin published A theory of the absorption and scattering of the alpha rays
1912 CE: The Novarupta eruption occurred in present day Alaska, with a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 6
1913 CE: Arthur Holmes published The Age of the Earth
1913 CE: Niels Bohr published On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules, describing his model of the atom
1913 CE: J. J. Thomson published Rays of positive electricity, describing neon isotopes
1913 CE: Ernest Rutherford & John Mitchell Nuttall published Scattering of α-Particles by Gases, stating that atomic nuclei are electrically positive
1913 CE: Hans Geiger & Ernest Marsden published The Laws of Deflexion of α Particles through Large Angles, describing a Geiger–Marsden experiment to verify Rutherford’s 1911 equation
1913 CE: Rudolf Diesel published Die Entstehung des Dieselmotors (The Installation of Diesel Engines)
1913 CE: Henry Moseley published The attainment of high potentials by the use of Radium, describing the atomic battery
1913 CE: Henry Moseley published The high-frequency spectra of the elements, introducing Moseley’s law showing that atomic numbers are physical quantities
1915 CE: Albert Einstein published Die Feldgleichungen der Gravitation (The Field Equations of Gravitation)
1915 CE: Alfred Wegener published Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane (The Origin of Continents and Oceans), developing the theory of continental drift
1916 CE: Karl Schwarzschild published Über das Gravitationsfeld eines Massenpunktes nach der Einsteinschen Theorie (On the gravitational field of a mass point according to Einstein’s theory)
1916 CE: Karl Schwarzschild published Über das Gravitationsfeld einer Kugel aus inkompressibler Flussigkeit nach der Einsteinschen Theorie (On the gravitational field of a ball made of incompressible liquid according to Einstein’s theory)
1916 CE: Albert Einstein published Näherungsweise Integration der Feldgleichungen der Gravitation (Approximate Integration of the Gravitational Field Equations)
1916 CE: Albert Einstein published Die Grundlage der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie (The basis of General Relativity)
1916 CE: Albert Einstein published Über die spezielle und die allgemeine Relativitätstheorie (Relativity: The Special and the General Theory)
1916 CE: Gustav Cassel published The Present Situation of the Foreign Trade, describing purchasing power parity
1916 CE: Arnold Sommerfeld published Zur Quantentheorie der Spektrallinien (On the quantum theory of the spectral lines), introducing the fine-structure constant to explain the fine structure in the atomic spectral lines of the Michelson–Morley experiment
1917 CE: Albert Einstein published Kosmologische Betrachtungen zur allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie (Cosmological considerations on General Relativity)
1917 CE: Automobiles had practically eliminated horses on U.S. streets
1917 CE: D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson published On Growth and Form
1918 CE: Albert Einstein published Gravitationswellen (On Gravitational Waves), on gravitational waves
1918 CE: Emmy Noether published Invariante Variationsprobleme, describing Noether’s theorem which explains the connection between symmetry and conservation laws
1919 CE: Maynard Keynes published The Economic Consequences of the Peace
1919 CE: Ernest Rutherford published Collision of α particles with light atoms. IV. An anomalous effect in nitrogen, describing proton emission
1919 CE: Arnold Sommerfeld published Atombau und Spektrallinien (Atomic Structure and Spectral Lines)
1919 CE: The International Labour Organization (ILO) established the eight-hour work day and 48-hour workweek at the Hours of Work (Industry) Convention

1920s

1920 CE: H. G. Wells published The Outline of History
1920 CE: Frank Watson Dyson, Arthur Eddington & C. R. Davidson published A Determination of the Deflection of Light by the Sun’s Gravitational Field, from Observations Made at the Solar eclipse of May 29, 1919, confirming Einstein’s general theory of relativity
1920 CE: Arthur Eddington published The Internal Constitution of the Stars, anticipating the discovery of nuclear fusion
1920 CE: Ernest Rutherford published Bakerian Lecture. Nuclear Constitution of Atoms, naming the proton
1920 CE: Jessie Weston published From Ritual to Romance
1921 CE: Emmy Noether published Idealtheorie in Ringbereichen (Theory of Ideals in Ring Domains), contributing to abstract algebra
1921 CE: Max Weber posthumously published Economy and Society
1921 CE: Maynard Keynes published A Treatise on Probability, contributing to probability theory
1922 CE: Gago Coutinho modified the sextant for aeronautical navigation
1922 CE: Alexander Friedmann published Über die Krümmung des Raumes (On the curvature of space), hypothesizing that the universe is expanding
1922 CE: Henry Ford & Samuel Crowther published My Life and Work
1922 CE: Niels Bohr published The Theory of Spectra and Atomic Constitution; three essays
1922 CE: Erwin Schrödinger published Über eine bemerkenswerte Eigenschaft der Quantenbahnen eines einzelnen Elektrons (On a remarkable property of the quantum orbits of a single electron)
1923 CE: Harry Ricardo published The Internal Combustion Engine
1923 CE: John von Neumann published On the introduction of transfinite numbers
1923 CE: Maynard Keynes published A Tract on Monetary Reform, arguing against post-World War I deflation policies
1923 CE: Hilde Mangold published Über Induktion von Embryonalanlagen durch Implantation artfremder Organisatoren (Induction of Embryonic Primordia by Implantation of Organizers from a Different Species), describing gastrulation
1923 CE: Arthur Compton published A Quantum Theory of the Scattering of X-Rays by Light Elements, describing Compton scattering
1923 CE: J Harlen Bretz published The Channeled Scabland of the Columbia Plateau, hinting at the Missoula floods
1924 CE: Alexander Friedmann published Über die Möglichkeit einer Welt mit konstanter negativer Krümmung des Raumes (On the possibility of a world with constant negative curvature of space), proposing the Big Bang theory
1924 CE: Edmund Clifton Stoner published The distribution of electrons among atomic levels, inspiring the Pauli exclusion principle
1924 CE: Gustav Ising published Prinzip Einer Methode Zur Herstellung Von Kanalstrahlen Hoher Voltzahl (Principle of a method for the production of high-voltage canal jets), describing the linear particle accelerator (a.k.a. linac)
1924 CE: Harry Nyquist published Certain factors affecting telegraph speed, introducing the Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem
1924 CE: Albert Einstein translated and published Satyendra Nath Bose’s paper Planck’s Law and Hypothesis of Light Quanta as Plancks Gesetz und Lichtquantenhypothese, founding quantum statistics
1925 CE: Édouard Chatton published Pansporella perplex: Reflections on the Biology and Phylogeny of the Protozoa, distinguishing eukaryotes from prokaryotes
1925 CE: John von Neumann published Eine Axiomatisierung der Mengenlehre (An Axiomatization of Set Theory)
1925 CE: Werner Heisenberg published Über quantentheoretische Umdeutung kinematischer und mechanischer Beziehungen (Quantum theoretical re-interpretation of kinematic and mechanical relations), laying the groundwork for matrix mechanics
1925 CE: Max Born & Pascual Jordan published Zur Quantenmechanik (To Quantum Mechanics), developing matrix mechanics
1925 CE: Max Born, Werner Heisenberg & Pascual Jordan published Zur Quantenmechanik II (To Quantum Mechanics II), extending matrix mechanics to multiple dimensions
1925 CE: Wolfgang Pauli published Über den Zusammenhang des Abschlusses der Elektronengruppen im Atom mit der Komplexstruktur der Spektren (On the connection between the termination of the electron groups in the atom and the complex structure of the spectra), introducing electron spin and describing his exclusion principle
1925 CE: George Uhlenbeck & Samuel Goudsmit published Spinning Electrons and the Structure of Spectra, describing spin as physical rotation
1925 CE: Julius Edgar Lilienfeld patented a Method and apparatus for controlling electric currents, describing the field-effect transistor (FET)
1925 CE: Leo Szilard published Über die thermodynamischen Schwankungserscheinungen (On The Manifestation of Thermodynamic Fluctuations), connecting thermodynamics with information theory
1925 CE: Cecilia Payne published Stellar Atmospheres; A Contribution to the Observational Study of High Temperature in the Reversing Layers of Stars, proposing that stars mostly consist of hydrogen and helium
1926 CE: Max Born published Zur Quantenmechanik der Stoßvorgänge (On the Quantum Mechanics of Collision Processes), formulating the probability density function for ψ*ψ in the Schrödinger equation
1926 CE: Will Durant published The Story of Philosophy
1926 CE: Henry Ford & Samuel Crowther published Today and Tomorrow
1926 CE: Edwin Hubble published Extragalactic nebulae, providing evidence that the Universe is larger than our galaxy
1926 CE: Enrico Fermi published Sulla quantizzazione del gas perfetto monoatomico (On the Quantization of the Monoatomic Ideal Gas), formulating Fermi–Dirac statistics
1926 CE: Paul Dirac published On the Theory of Quantum Mechanics, introducing canonical quantization
1926 CE: Arthur Compton published X-Rays and Electrons
1926 CE: Erwin Schrödinger published Quantisierung als Eigenwertproblem (Quantization as an Eigenvalue Problem) in four parts, presenting the Schrödinger equation
1926 CE: Hans Busch published Berechnung der Bahn von Kathodenstrahlen im axialsymmetrischen elektromagnetischen Felde (Calculation of the trajectory of cathode rays in an axisymmetric electromagnetic field), describing the electromagnetic lens
1927 CE: Karl Weierstrass published Variationsrechnung (Calculus of Variations)
1927 CE: Alexander du Toit published A Geological Comparison of South America with South Africa, supporting the continental drift theory
1927 CE: Georges Lemaître published Un Univers homogène de masse constante et de rayon croissant rendant compte de la vitesse radiale des nébuleuses extra-galactiques (A homogeneous universe of constant mass and increasing radius accounting for the radial speed of extra-galactic nebulae), hypothesizing that the universe is expanding, and describing what would become Hubble’s law
1927 CE: Nikolai Koltsov presented Физико-химические основы морфологии (The physical-chemical basis of morphology), proposing that inherited traits would be inherited via a “giant hereditary molecule” made up of “two mirror strands that would replicate in a semi-conservative fashion using each strand as a template”, a.k.a. DNA
1927 CE: Philo Farnsworth patented his image dissector, an electronic video camera
1927 CE: Werner Heisenberg published Über den anschaulichen Inhalt der quantentheoretischen Kinematik und Mechanik (On the descriptive content of quantum theoretical kinematics and mechanics), describing his uncertainty principle
1927 CE: The human population of Earth exceeded two billion people
1927 CE: Jean Piaget published La causalite physique chez l’enfant (The child’s conception of physical causality), introducing his theory of cognitive development
1928 CE: Arthur Holmes published Radioactivity and Earth movements, proposing mantle convection
1928 CE: Frederick Griffith published The significance of pneumococcal types, providing the first clear suggestion that DNA carries genetic information
1928 CE: Philo Farnsworth demonstrated electronic television
1928 CE: Paul Dirac published The Quantum Theory of the Electron, applying special relativity to the Schrödinger equation to create the Dirac equation and predicting the positron
1928 CE: Hans Geiger & Walther Müller published Elektronenzählrohr zur Messung schwächster Aktivitäten (Electron counting tube for the measurement of the weakest radioactivities)
1928 CE: Hans Geiger & Walther Müller published Das Elektronenzählrohr (The electron counting tube)
1928 CE: Milutin Milanković published Through Distant Worlds and Times: Letters from a Wayfarer in the Universe
1928 CE: David Hilbert & Wilhelm Ackermann published Grundzüge der theoretischen Logik (Principles of Mathematical Logic), formalizing first-order logic and proposing the Entscheidungsproblem (decision problem)
1928 CE: Otto Frederick Rohwedder patented a Machine for slicing an entire loaf of bread at a single operation, and sliced bread entered the market
1928 CE: Marcellus Luther (“M. L.”) & Joseph (“Joe”) Jacobs incorporated the Jacobs Wind Electric Company producing wind turbines, using 3 blades to avoid the instability seen with 2 blades
1928 CE: Leo Szilard submitted a patent for the electron microscope
1928 CE: Leo Szilard submitted a patent for the linear particle accelerator (a.k.a. linac)
1928 CE: Rolf Widerøe published Über Ein Neues Prinzip Zur Herstellung Hoher Spannungen (On a new principle for producing high voltages), describing his implementation of Gustav Ising’s idea for a linear particle accelerator (a.k.a. linac), using a resonance accelerator to accelerate particles with radio waves instead of high voltage
1928 CE: John von Neumann published Zur Theorie der Gesellschaftsspiele (On the Theory of Parlor Games), anticipating game theory
1928 CE: Harry Nyquist published Certain topics in Telegraph Transmission Theory, contributing to the Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem
1928 CE: Harry Nyquist published Thermal Agitation of Electric Charge in Conductors, describing Johnson–Nyquist noise
1929 CE: Leo Szilard submitted a patent for the cyclotron particle accelerator
1929 CE: Hans Geiger & Walther Müller published Technische Bemerkungen zum Elektronenzählrohr (Technical notes on the electron counting tube)
1929 CE: Hans Geiger & Walther Müller published Demonstration des Elektronenzählrohrs (Demonstration of the electron counting tube)
1929 CE: Enrico Fermi published Introduzione alla fisica atomica (Introduction to Atomic Physics)
1929 CE: Edwin Hubble published A relation between distance and radial velocity among extra-galactic nebulae, providing evidence for Georges Lemaître’s hypothesis that the universe is expanding, and describing Hubble’s law
1929 CE: Alexander Fleming published On the antibacterial action of cultures of a penicillium, with special reference to their use in the isolation of B. influenzae, describing penicillin
1929 CE: Werner Heisenberg & Wolfgang Pauli published Zur Quantendynamik der Wellenfelder (On the Quantum Dynamics of Wave Fields), laying the foundation for relativistic quantum field theory (QFT)
1929 CE: Leo Szilard published Über die Entropieverminderung in einem thermodynamischen System bei Eingriffen intelligenter Wesen (On the reduction of entropy in a thermodynamic system by the intervention of intelligent beings), introducing Szilard’s engine which later inspired Claude Shannon

1930s

1929 CE: Werner Heisenberg & Wolfgang Pauli published Zur Quantendynamik der Wellenfelder II (On the Quantum Dynamics of Wave Fields II), laying the foundation for relativistic quantum field theory (QFT)
1929 CE: V. Gordon Childe published The Danube in Prehistory, defining archaeological culture
1930 CE: V. Gordon Childe published The Bronze Age, asserting that metal-smiths were the first full-time professionals who lived off the social surplus
1930 CE: Milutin Milanković published Mathematische Klimalehre und Astronomische Theorie der Klimaschwankungen (Mathematical climate theory and astronomical theory of climate fluctuations), describing Milankovitch cycles
1930 CE: Maynard Keynes published A Treatise on Money
1930 CE: Henry Ford & Samuel Crowther published Moving Forward
1930 CE: Bartel Leendert van der Waerden published Moderne Algebra, an influential textbook on abstract algebra based on lectures by Emil Artin & Emmy Noether
1930 CE: Paul Dirac published The Principles of Quantum Mechanics
1930 CE: Tullio Campagnolo patented the quick release skewer for easily attaching and removing a wheel from a bicycle
1930 CE: Albert Einstein & Leo Szilard patented the Einstein refrigerator, which uses no moving parts
1930 CE: Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin published The Stars of High Luminosity, cataloging variable stars to determine stellar evolution
1931 CE: Kurt Gödel published On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems I
1931 CE: Alfred Korzybski published A Non-Aristotelian System and its Necessity for Rigour in Mathematics and Physics coining “A map is not the territory”
1931 CE: Georges Lemaître published The Beginning of the World from the Point of View of Quantum Theory, proposing the Big Bang theory
1931 CE: Julius Edgar Lilienfeld patented an Electrolytic condenser, describing an electrolytic capacitor
1931 CE: Eugene Wigner published Gruppentheorie und ihre Anwendungen auf die Quantenmechanik der Atomspektren (Group Theory and its Application to the Quantum Mechanics of Atomic Spectra)
1931 CE: Ernst Ruska demonstrated an electron lens, and with Max Knoll invented the electron microscope
1931 CE: Carl Bosch published The Development of the Chemical High Pressure Method During the Establishment of the New Ammonia Industry, describing how to produce ammonia at scale using the Haber–Bosch process
1931 CE: Lillian Rosanoff Lieber published Non-Euclidean Geometry
1931 CE: Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar published The Maximum Mass of Ideal White Dwarfs, describing the Chandrasekhar limit
1932 CE: Lillian Rosanoff Lieber published Galois and the Theory of Groups
1932 CE: John von Neumann published Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik (Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics), arguing against hidden variables
1932 CE: Carl David Anderson published The Apparent Existence of Easily Deflectable Positives, providing evidence of the positron’s existence, confirming Dirac’s 1928 prediction
1932 CE: James Chadwick published The Existence of a Neutron, confirming Pauli’s 1930 prediction
1932 CE: Ernest Lawrence & M. Stanley Livingston published The Production of High Speed Light Ions Without the Use of High Voltages, describing the cyclotron particle accelerator
1932 CE: Harry Nyquist published Regeneration theory, describing the Nyquist stability criterion
1933 CE: Fritz Zwicky published Die Rotverschiebung von extragalaktischen Nebeln (On the Masses of Nebulae and of Clusters of Nebulae), where he used the virial theorem to infer the existence of unseen dark matter
1933 CE: Jean Brachet published Recherches sur la synthese de l’acide thymonucleique pendant le developpement de l’oeuf d’Oursin (Research on the synthesis of thymonucleic acid during the development of sea urchin egg), suggesting that RNA exists in animal cells, not just plant cells
1933 CE: Wolfgang Pauli published Handbuch der Physik, a quantum physics textbook
1933 CE: Enrico Fermi published Tentativo di una teoria dei raggi β (Attempt of a theory of β rays), describing his theory of beta decay
1933 CE: Paul Dirac published The Lagrangian in Quantum Mechanics
1933 CE: Ernst Ruska demonstrated an electron microscope with higher resolution than an optical microscope
1934 CE: Enrico Fermi published Radioattività indotta da bombardamento di neutroni (Radioactivity induced by neutron bombardment)
1934 CE: Benjamin Graham & David Dodd published Security Analysis, founding value investing
1934 CE: Milutin Milanković published Celestial Mechanics
1934 CE: Gerhard Gentzen published Investigations in Logical Deduction, proving the cut-elimination theorem, establishing sequent calculus, founding proof-theoretic semantics, and introducing ordinal proof theory
1934 CE: David Hilbert & Paul Bernays published Grundlagen der Mathematik (Foundations of Mathematics) volume 1
1934 CE: Charles D Haven patented his Multi-ply glass sheet glazing unit, or insulated glass
1934 CE: Leo Szilard patented the nuclear fission reactor
1934 CE: Leo Szilard & Thomas A. Chalmers published Chemical Separation of the Radioactive Element from its Bombarded Isotope in the Fermi Effect & Detection of Neutrons Liberated from Beryllium by Gamma Rays: a New Technique for Inducing Radioactivity, describing the Szilard–Chalmers effect
1934 CE: Karl Popper published Logik der Forschung. Zur Erkenntnistheorie der modernen Naturwissenschaft(Logic of Research: On the Epistemology of Modern Natural Science), promoting falsifiability
1935 CE: Boris Choubert published Recherches sur la genèse des chaînes paléolithiques et antécambriennes (Research on the genesis of the Palaeolithic and Antecambrian chains), showing how the continents had previously fit together to form the supercontinent Pangaea
1935 CE: Will Durant published Our Oriental Heritage, the 1st volume of The Story of Civilization
1935 CE: Arthur Compton & Samuel King Allison published X-rays in Theory and Experiment
1935 CE: V. Gordon Childe published New Light on the Most Ancient Near East, promoting functionalism
1935 CE: Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar published The Highly Collapsed Configurations of a Stellar Mass, describing the Chandrasekhar limit

Turing Machine

1936 CE: Alan Turing published On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem, describing Turing machines
1936 CE: Theodore P. Wright published Factors affecting the costs of airplanes describing Wright’s Law
1936 CE: Alonzo Church published An unsolvable problem of elementary number theory, inventing lambda calculus
1936 CE: Dale Carnegie published How to Win Friends and Influence People
1936 CE: J. Barkley Rosser published Extensions of some theorems of Gödel and Church
1936 CE: Maynard Keynes published The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, an influential book on macroeconomics
1936 CE: Edwin Hubble published The Observational Approach to Cosmology
1936 CE: Edwin Hubble published The Realm of the Nebulae, describing spiral galaxies for the first time
1936 CE: Gerhard Gentzen published Die Widerspruchsfreiheit der reinen Zahlentheorie (The consistency of arithmetic), proving Peano axioms consistent
1936 CE: V. Gordon Childe published Man Makes Himself, describing the Neolithic Revolution and urban revolution
1936 CE: Lillian Rosanoff Lieber published The Einstein Theory of Relativity
1937 CE: John von Neumann published Continuous geometries with a transition probability
1937 CE: Alexander du Toit published Our Wandering Continents, supporting the continental drift theory
1937 CE: Benjamin Graham published The Interpretation of Financial Statements, an influential book on value investing
1937 CE: Claude Shannon published A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits, showing how Boolean algebra could simplify digital circuit design
1937 CE: William Astbury published Some recent developments in the X-ray study of proteins and related structures, showing that DNA has a regular structure
1938 CE: Herbert Copeland published The kingdoms of organisms
1938 CE: Kurt Gödel published Consistency of the axiom of choice and of the generalized continuum-hypothesis with the axioms of set theory
1938 CE: Alfred O. C. Nier published measurements of the relative abundance of the isotopes of uranium
1938 CE: Frank Benford published The law of anomalous numbers, generalizing Benford’s law
1938 CE: Alan Turing published Systems of Logic Based on Ordinals
1938 CE: Albert Einstein & Leopold Infeld published The Evolution of Physics: The Growth of Ideas from Early Concepts to Relativity and Quanta
1938 CE: Edmund Clifton Stoner published Collective electron ferromagnetism, describing the Stoner model of ferromagnetism
1938 CE: Milutin Milanković published New Results of the Astronomic Theory of Climate Changes
1938 CE: Chester Carlson patented Electron photography, a.k.a. the photocopy
1938 CE: Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin published Variable Stars
1888 CE: László Bíró patented the first commercially successful ballpoint pen
1939 CE: Linus Pauling published The Nature of the Chemical Bond
1939 CE: The Bourbaki group published the first volume of Éléments de mathématique (Elements of Mathematics)
1939 CE: Lise Meitner & Otto Robert Frisch published Disintegration of Uranium by Neutrons: A New Type of Nuclear Reaction, describing nuclear fission
1939 CE: Will Durant published The Life of Greece, the 2nd volume of The Story of Civilization
1939 CE: David Hilbert & Paul Bernays published Grundlagen der Mathematik (Foundations of Mathematics) volume 2
1939 CE: Leo Szilard wrote and Albert Einstein signed the Einstein–Szilard letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, culminating in the Manhattan Project
1939 CE: John Tukey published On denumerability in topology, describing the Tukey lemma

1940s

1940 CE: Maynard Keynes published How to Pay for the War, discussing price controls
1941 CE: Alan Turing published The Applications of Probability to Cryptography & Paper on Statistics of Repetitions
1941 CE: Milutin Milanković published Kanon der Erdbestrahlung und seine Anwendung auf das Eiszeitenproblem (Canon of Insolation of the Earth and Its Application to the Ice Age Problem)
1942 CE: Richard Feynman published The Principle of Least Action in Quantum Mechanics
1942 CE: John Vincent Atanasoff & Clifford Berry demonstrated the Atanasoff–Berry computer (ABC), the first digital electronic computer, and used it to solve linear equations
1942 CE: V. Gordon Childe published What Happened in History, a sequel to Man Makes Himself
1942 CE: Lillian Rosanoff Lieber published The Education of T. C. MITS
1943 CE: British codebreakers invented the Colossus: the first programmable electronic digital computer
1943 CE: Oswald Avery, Colin Munro MacLeod, & Maclyn McCarty published Studies on the Chemical Nature of the Substance Inducing Transformation of Pneumococcal Types: Induction of Transformation by a Desoxyribonucleic Acid Fraction Isolated from Pneumococcus Type III, identifying DNA as Griffith’s “transforming principle”
1943 CE: Arnold Sommerfeld published Mechanik der deformierbaren Medien (Mechanics of Deformable Bodies), volume 2 of his Lectures on Theoretical Physics
1943 CE: Gerhard Gentzen published Beweisbarkeit und Unbeweisbarkeit von Anfangsfällen der transfiniten Induktion in der reinen Zahlentheorie (Proof and unprovability of initial cases of transfinite induction in pure number theory), proving Gödel’s incompleteness theorems
1943 CE: Stephen Cole Kleene published Recursive predicates and quantifiers, founding recursion theory
1943 CE: Abraham Maslow published A Theory of Human Motivation, describing Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
1944 CE: Arthur Holmes published Principles of Physical Geology, promoting the continental drift theory
1944 CE: Will Durant published Caesar and Christ, the 3rd volume of The Story of Civilization
1944 CE: Erwin Schrödinger published What Is Life?, which inspired both Watson & Crick to study genetics
1944 CE: V. Gordon Childe published Progress and Archaeology, and The Story of Tools
1944 CE: Enrico Fermi & Leo Szilard submitted a patent for the first successful artificial nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, which was tested in 1942
1944 CE: John von Neumann & Oskar Morgenstern published their Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, founding game theory
1944 CE: Karl Popper published The Poverty of Historicism
1945 CE: Karl Popper published The Open Society and Its Enemies
1945 CE: John von Neumann published the First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, describing the von Neumann architecture
1945 CE: Vannevar Bush published As We May Think, anticipating information society
1946 CE: V. Gordon Childe published Archaeology and Anthropology, arguing that those disciplines should be used in tandem
1946 CE: Lillian Rosanoff Lieber published Modern Mathematics for T. C. Mits, The Celebrated Man in the Street
1946 CE: Lillian Rosanoff Lieber published Take a Number: Mathematics for the Two Billion
1947 CE: Lillian Rosanoff Lieber published Mits, Wits and Logic
1947 CE: Kathleen Booth published General considerations in the design of an all purpose electronic digital computer (Coding for the ARC, 2nd ed), introducing assembly language
1947 CE: Marjory Stoneman Douglas published The Everglades: River of Grass
1947 CE: Paul Samuelson published Foundations of Economic Analysis
1947 CE: Sidney H. Liebson published The Discharge Mechanism of Self-Quenching Geiger-Mueller Counters
1947 CE: Arnold Sommerfeld published Mechanik (Mechanics), volume 1 of his Lectures on Theoretical Physics
1947 CE: Arnold Sommerfeld published Partielle Differentialgleichungen der Physik (Partial Differential Equations in Physics), volume 6 of his Lectures on Theoretical Physics
1947 CE: V. Gordon Childe published History
1947 CE: John von Neumann & Oskar Morgenstern published the 2nd edition of their Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, describing the von Neumann–Morgenstern (VNM) utility theorem, the basis for expected utility
1948 CE: John Bardeen, Walter Brattain published The Transistor, A Semiconductor Triode, describing the point-contact transistor that they invented with William Shockley
1948 CE: Claude Shannon published A Mathematical Theory of Communication, founding information theory, and introducing the term “bit” (short for “binary digit”) suggested by John Tukey
1948 CE: John von Neumann published The general and logical theory of automata
1948 CE: Paul Samuelson & William Nordhaus published Economics: An Introductory Analysis
1948 CE: Alan Turing published Rounding-Off Errors in Matrix Processes
1948 CE: Richard Feynman published Space-Time Approach to Non-Relativistic Quantum Mechanics, developing the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics
1948 CE: Arnold Sommerfeld published Elektrodynamik (Electrodynamics), volume 3 of his Lectures on Theoretical Physics
1949 CE: Keith Runcorn published Investigations relating to the main geomagnetic field, proposing paleomagnetism
1949 CE: Benjamin Graham published The Intelligent Investor, an influential book on value investing
1949 CE: Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin et al. published X-ray crystallographic investigation of the structure of penicillin
1949 CE: Joseph Campbell published The Hero with a Thousand Faces
1949 CE: John Tukey published Comparing Individual Means in the Analysis of Variance, introducing Tukey’s range test
1949 CE: John Tukey published One degree of freedom for non-additivity, introducing Tukey’s test of additivity

1950s

1950 CE: Will Durant published The Age of Faith, the 4th volume of The Story of Civilization
1950 CE: Alan Turing published Computing Machinery and Intelligence, introducing the Turing test
1950 CE: Zhou Youguang published Hànyǔ pīnyīn cíhuì (Chinese phonetic alphabet glossary), describing how to write Chinese characters using the Latin alphabet, abbreviated pinyin
1950 CE: Arnold Sommerfeld published Optik (Optics), volume 4 of his Lectures on Theoretical Physics
1950 CE: V. Gordon Childe published The Urban Revolution, and Prehistoric Migrations which discussed diffusionism
1950 CE: Marcellus Luther (“M. L.”) Jacobs patented an Apparatus for fixing blade angulation of wind-driven multiblade propellers, to avoid failure in high winds
1950 CE: Leo Szilard & Aaron Novick published Description of the Chemostat, describing a bioreactor they invented
1950 CE: Oskar Morgenstern published On the accuracy of economic observations
1950 CE: John Forbes Nash Jr. published Equilibrium Points in N-person Games and The Bargaining Problem, contributing to game theory
1951 CE: John Forbes Nash Jr. published Non-cooperative Games, describing the Nash equilibrium
1951 CE: Fritz Houtermans published Über ein neues Verfahren zur Durchführung chemischer Altersbestimmungen nach der Blei-Methode (On a new method for carrying out chemical age determinations using the lead method)
1951 CE: J. C. R. Licklider published A duplex theory of pitch perception
1951 CE: John Bowlby published Maternal Care and Mental Health, laying the foundation for attachment theory
1952 CE: Jonas Salk tested the polio vaccine
1952 CE: Bjørn Aage Ibsen published The Anaesthetist’s Viewpoint on the Treatment of Respiratory Complications in Poliomyelitis during the Epidemics in Copenhagen, founding intensive care medicine
1952 CE: Alfred Hershey & Martha Chase published Independent functions of viral protein and nucleic acid in growth of bacteriophage, showing that DNA is genetic material
1952 CE: Raymond Gosling took an X-ray diffraction image of DNA, his supervisor Rosalind Franklin indentified the space group of DNA, and realized that the sugar-phosphate backbones had to be on the outside of the molecule, not the inside as Linus Pauling, James Watson, & Francis Crick had suggested
1952 CE: Alan Turing published The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis
1952 CE: Arnold Sommerfeld published Thermodynamik und Statistik (Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics), volume 5 of his Lectures on Theoretical Physics
1952 CE: Stephen Cole Kleene published Introduction to Metamathematics, proving Gödel’s incompleteness theorems in ways that aid teaching
1952 CE: John Forbes Nash Jr. published Real algebraic manifolds, contributing to real algebraic geometry
1952 CE: Grace Hopper published the A-0 system (Arithmetic Language version 0), a loader and linker that laid the foundation for compilers
1952 CE: Mary Eleanor Spear published Charting Statistics introducing the box plot
1953 CE: James Watson & Francis Crick published Molecular structure of nucleic acids; a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid, correctly describing the double helix
1953 CE: Rosalind Franklin & Raymond Gosling published Molecular configuration in sodium thymonucleate
1953 CE: Maurice Wilkins, Alec Stokes, & Herbert Wilson published Molecular structure of deoxypentose nucleic acids
1953 CE: Maurice Karnaugh published The Map Method for Synthesis of Combinational Logic Circuits, introducing the Karnaugh map, a method of simplifying Boolean algebra expressions
1953 CE: Will Durant published The Renaissance, the 5th volume of The Story of Civilization
1953 CE: Clair Cameron Patterson developed one of the first clean rooms, to prevent lead contamination
1953 CE: John Forbes Nash Jr. published Two-person Cooperative Games, contributing to game theory
1953 CE: Alexander Grothendieck published Résumé de la théorie métrique des produits tensoriels topologiques (Summary of the metric theory of topological tensor products), introducing the Grothendieck inequality
1953 CE: John Bowlby published Critical Phases in the Development of Social Responses in Man and Other Animals, proposing a union of psycholanalysis with ethology
1953 CE: Lillian Rosanoff Lieber published Infinity: Beyond the Beyond the Beyond
1954 CE: Carl A. Wiley patented Pulsed doppler radar methods and apparatus, a.k.a. synthetic-aperture radar (SAR), which he invented in 1951
1954 CE: Carl A. Wiley published Clipper Ships of Space, proposing solar sails
1954 CE: Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin published Variable Stars and Galactic Structure
1954 CE: Alexander Grothendieck published Topological vector spaces
1955 CE: Jonas Salk announced the polio vaccine, developed and tested since 1947
1955 CE: Francis Crick wrote On Degenerate Templates and the Adaptor Hypothesis: a note for the RNA Tie Club, describing transfer RNA (tRNA)
1955 CE: Jean Dieudonné published La Géométrie des groupes classiques (The geometry of classical groups), introducing Dieudonné modules
1956 CE: Hush-A-Phone Corp. v. United States
1956 CE: Clyde Cowan & Frederick Reines conducted their neutrino experiment, verifying the existence and properties of neutrinos
1956 CE: Sydney Brenner published On the Impossibility of All Overlapping Triplet Codes, proposing the codon, based on George Gamow’s suggestion that three nucleotides would be enough to define all 20 amino acids
1956 CE: Gerard K. O’Neill published Storage-Ring Synchrotron: Device for High-Energy Physics Research, describing storage ring particle accelerators
1956 CE: Clair Cameron Patterson published Age of meteorites and the Earth, revealing the age of the Earth to be 4.55 billion years
1956 CE: Marija Gimbutas published The Prehistory of Eastern Europe, introducing her Kurgan hypothesis proposing the Proto-Indo-European homeland as the Pontic–Caspian steppe as early as 5000 BCE
1956 CE: Lillian Rosanoff Lieber published Human Values of Modern Mathematics a Book of Essays
1957 CE: Marie Tharp & Bruce C. Heezen published a physiographic map of the North Atlantic Ocean, showing the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
1957 CE: Will Durant published The Reformation, the 6th volume of The Story of Civilization
1957 CE: Margaret Burbidge et al. published Synthesis of the Elements in Stars, describing stellar nucleosynthesis
1957 CE: Francis Crick presented the central dogma of molecular biology, in short “DNA makes RNA, and RNA makes protein”, based on his adaptor hypothesis
1957 CE: John Backus and his team delivered the first FORTRAN (Formula Translating System) compiler, the first optimizing compiler which allowed programmers to write code at a higher level of abstraction than assembly language
1957 CE: Alexander Grothendieck published Sur quelques points d’algèbre homologique (On some points of homological algebra), advancing homological algebra and introducing Grothendieck categories
1957 CE: Alexander Grothendieck published Classes de faisceaux et théorème de Riemann–Roch (Sheaf classes and the Riemann–Roch theorem), proving the Grothendieck–Riemann–Roch theorem, introducing the Grothendieck group of differences, and developing K-theory
1958 CE: Bjørn Aage Ibsen published Arbejdet på en Anæsthesiologisk Observationsafdeling (The Work in an Anaesthesiologic Observation Unit)
1958 CE: Samuel Warren Carey published The tectonic approach to continental drift, describing plate tectonics
1958 CE: Matthew Meselson & Franklin Stahl published The replication of DNA in Escherichia coli, confirming Watson & Crick’s hypothesis that DNA replication is semiconservative, i.e. each strand is copied separately
1958 CE: Eugene Wigner & Alvin M. Weinberg published Physical Theory of Neutron Chain Reactors
1958 CE: Paul Bernays published Axiomatic Set Theory
1958 CE: Grace Hopper and her team released FLOW-MATIC, the first English-like programming language
1958 CE: John Tukey published The Teaching of Concrete Mathematics, coining the term software
1959 CE: Jack Kilby patented the integrated circuit (IC)
1959 CE: Karl Popper published The Logic of Scientific Discovery, promoting falsifiability
1959 CE: Richard Feynman presented There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom, describing molecular nanotechnology
1959 CE: Christopher Strachey published Time Sharing in Large Fast Computers
1959 CE: Edsger W. Dijkstra published A note on two problems in connexion with graphs, describing Dijkstra’s algorithm to find the shortest path between two nodes in a graph
1959 CE: John Backus published The Syntax and Semantics of the Proposed International Algebraic Language of Zürich ACM-GAMM Conference, proposing the syntax for the ALGOL 58 programming language, and a metalanguage for describing formal languages in general
1959 CE: Lillian Rosanoff Lieber published Lattice Theory: The Atomic Age in Mathematics

1960s

1960 CE: François Jacob, Perrin, Sánchez, & Jacques Monod published L’opéron: groupe de gènes à expression coordonnée par un opérateur (Operon: a group of genes with the expression coordinated by an operator), describing genetic feedback loops
1960 CE: John McCarthy published Recursive Functions of Symbolic Expressions and Their Computation by Machine, Part I, describing the Lisp programming language
1960 CE: John von Neumann published Continuous geometry
1960 CE: Paul Erdős and Alfréd Rényi published On the evolution of random graphs
1960 CE: Harry Hammond Hess published Nature of great oceanic ridges, describing mid-ocean ridges
1960 CE: Harry Hammond Hess published Evolution of ocean basins, describing seafloor spreading
1960 CE: Gene Shoemaker published First Natural Occurrence of Coesite, proving that Meteor Crater is a meteorite impact crater
1960 CE: J. C. R. Licklider published Man-Computer Symbiosis
1960 CE: Eric Lenneberg published The Capacity of Language Acquisition
1960 CE: Eugene Wigner published The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences
1960 CE: The human population of Earth exceeded three billion people
1961 CE: Richard Feynman presented Theory of Fundamental Processes
1961 CE: Richard Feynman presented Quantum Electrodynamics
1961 CE: Robert S. Dietz published Continent and Ocean Basin Evolution by Spreading of the Sea Floor, describing seafloor spreading
1961 CE: Will & Ariel Durant published The Age of Reason Begins, the 7th volume of The Story of Civilization
1961 CE: Edsger W. Dijkstra published Algol 60 translation : An Algol 60 translator for the X1 and making a translator for Algol 60, introducing the shunting yard algorithm
1961 CE: John Tukey published Comparing Individual Means in the Analysis of Variance, introducing the Tukey lambda distribution
1961 CE: Lillian Rosanoff Lieber published Human Values and Science, Art and Mathematics
1962 CE: Harry Hammond Hess published History of Ocean Basins, describing seafloor spreading
1962 CE: Émile Zuckerkandl & Linus Pauling published Molecular disease, evolution, and genic heterogeneity
1962 CE: L. R. Ford, Jr. & D. R. Fulkerson published Network Flows and General Matchings
1962 CE: Thomas Kuhn published The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, introducing the term “paradigm shift”
1962 CE: Rachel Carson published Silent Spring
1962 CE: Eric Lenneberg published Understanding Language Without Ability to Speak
1962 CE: Fernando J. Corbató, M. M. Daggett, & R. C. Daley published An Experimental Time-Sharing System, describing what would become the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS), the first computer system to implement password login, and possibly email
1962 CE: Clessie Cummins patented the Jake Brake
1962 CE: Pyotr Ufimtsev published Method of Edge Waves in the Physical Theory of Diffraction, describing how electromagnetic waves interact with surfaces and establishing the basis for stealth aircraft
1962 CE: Pyotr Ufimtsev published Diffraction of plane electromagnetic waves by a thin cylindrical conductor
1962 CE: Everett Rogers published Diffusion of Innovations
1963 CE: Will & Ariel Durant published The Age of Louis XIV, the 8th volume of The Story of Civilization
1963 CE: J. C. R. Licklider published a memo addressed to “Members and Affiliates of the Intergalactic Computer Network”, describing the Internet
1963 CE: Lotfi A. Zadeh & Charles Desoer published Linear System Theory: The State Space Approach
1963 CE: Ivan Sutherland released Sketchpad, the first computer program to use a graphical user interface (GUI)
1963 CE: Peter Naur published the Revised report on the algorithmic language ALGOL 60, describing the syntax for ALGOL 60 (Algorithmic Language 1960) using Backus–Naur form (BNF), a metasyntax for context-free grammars originally proposed by John Backus
1963 CE: Lillian Rosanoff Lieber published Mathematics: First S-t-e-p-s
1963 CE: The United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) & World Health Organization (WHO) published the Codex Alimentarius (Food Code), promoting food safety
1964 CE: Richard Feynman published The Feynman Lectures on Physics
1964 CE: John Stewart Bell published On the Einstein Podolsky Rosen Paradox, proposing Bell’s theorem
1964 CE: Many astronomers photographed stars as faint as the 11th magnitude, and published the 254th and final volume of the Astrographic Catalogue
1965 CE: Richard Feynman & Albert Hibbs published Quantum Mechanics and Path Integrals
1965 CE: Richard Feynman published The Character of Physical Law
1965 CE: Norman Borlaug planted dwarf spring wheat in South Asia
1965 CE: Donald Knuth published On the translation of languages from left to right
1965 CE: Ralph Nader published Unsafe at Any Speed
1965 CE: Tuzo Wilson published A new class of faults and their bearing on continental drift, describing transform faults
1965 CE: Teddy Bullard showed a computer model fitting the continents together at 914 m below sea level
1965 CE: Will & Ariel Durant published The Age of Voltaire, the 9th volume of The Story of Civilization
1965 CE: Dag Prawitz published Natural deduction: A proof-theoretical study
1965 CE: Stephen Cole Kleene published The Foundations of Intuitionistic Mathematics
1965 CE: Lotfi A. Zadeh published Fuzzy Sets, a.k.a. uncertain sets
1965 CE: Clair Cameron Patterson published Contaminated and Natural Lead Environments of Man
1965 CE: Marija Gimbutas published Bronze Age cultures in Central and Eastern Europe
1965 CE: Edsger W. Dijkstra published Solution of a problem in concurrent programming control, proving a solution to the mutual exclusion problem for critical sections
1965 CE: James Cooley & John Tukey published An algorithm for the machine calculation of complex Fourier series, describing a fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm
1965 CE: Mary Ainsworth & John Bowlby published Child Care and the Growth of Love, advancing attachment theory
1966 CE: John von Neumann published Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata
1966 CE: Richard Feynman & Albert Hibbs published Quantum Mechanics and Path Integrals
1966 CE: Stanley Schor published Statistical Evaluation of Medical Journal Manuscripts, a metascience paper calling attention to the replication crisis
1967 CE: Lynn Margulis published On the origin of mitosing cells
1967 CE: Will & Ariel Durant published Rousseau and Revolution, the 10th volume of The Story of Civilization
1967 CE: Eric Lenneberg published Biological Foundations of Language
1967 CE: Benoit Mandelbrot published How Long Is the Coast of Britain? Statistical Self-Similarity and Fractional Dimension, describing what he coined fractals in 1975
1967 CE: Christopher Strachey published Fundamental Concepts in Programming Languages
1967 CE: Thomas D. Brock published Life at High Temperatures, describing Thermus aquaticus, a hyperthermophile
1967 CE: Carl Woese published The Genetic Code: the Molecular basis for Genetic Expression, originating the RNA world hypothesis
1967 CE: Louis Leithold published The Calculus with Analytic Geometry, simplifying how calculus is taught
1967 CE: Alexander Grothendieck & Jean Dieudonné published Éléments de géométrie algébrique (Elements of algebraic geometry) a.k.a. EGA, founding modern algebraic geometry and introducing scheme theory
1967 CE: Mary Ainsworth published Infancy in Uganda, advancing attachment theory
1968 CE: The FCC ruled that customers can connect “any lawful device” to AT&T’s network, a.k.a. the Carterfone decision
1968 CE: Motoo Kimura published Evolutionary rate at the molecular level
1968 CE: Douglas Engelbart presented The Mother of All Demos
1968 CE: Will & Ariel Durant published The Lessons of History
1968 CE: Jack Oliver published Seismology and the New Global Tectonics, describing plate tectonics
1968 CE: Donald Knuth published The Art of Computer Programming, volume 1
1968 CE: J. C. R. Licklider & Bob Taylor published The Computer as a Communication Device, describing online communities
1968 CE: Antony Hewish, Jocelyn Bell, J. D. H. Pilkington, P. F. Scott, & R. A. Collins published Observation of a Rapidly Pulsating Radio Source, announcing Bell’s discovery of radio pulsars in 1967
1968 CE: John Brunner published Stand on Zanzibar, accurately predicting several future events
1968 CE: Edsger W. Dijkstra published Go To Statement Considered Harmful, arguing for structured programming
1968 CE: Edsger W. Dijkstra published The structure of the “THE”-multiprogramming system, demonstrating layers of abstraction, virtual memory, and semaphores

Internet

1969 CE: Charley Kline sent the first message across ARPANET from UCLA to SRI: the letters “lo”
1969 CE: Donald Knuth published The Art of Computer Programming, volume 2
1969 CE: NASA’s Apollo 11 mission landed 2 people on the Moon, and returned them to the Earth alive
1969 CE: Robert Whittaker published New Concepts of Kingdoms of Organisms
1969 CE: Martin Richards published BCPL: a tool for compiler writing and system programming, describing BCPL (“Basic Combined Programming Language”)
1969 CE: Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, & Rudd Canaday implemented Unix in assembly for the PDP-7 computer
1969 CE: Ken Thompson & Dennis Ritchie developed the B programming language, based on BCPL
1969 CE: Willard Boyle & George E. Smith invented the charge-coupled device (CCD)
1969 CE: James H. Ellis, Clifford Cocks, and Malcolm J. Williamson of GCHQ published The Possibility of Secure Non-Secret Digital Encryption, proposing public-key cryptography
1969 CE: Charles Goldfarb, Edward Mosher, & Raymond Lorie developed Generalized Markup Language (GML), the first markup language
1969 CE: Mary Eleanor Spear published Practical Charting Techniques

1970s

1970 CE: Edgar F. Codd published A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks
1970 CE: Ken Thompson & Dennis Ritchie ported Unix to the PHP-11/20 in assembly
1970 CE: Wayne R. Moore published Foundations of Mechanical Accuracy
1970 CE: John W. Drake published The Molecular Basis of Mutation, stating that DNA replication has about 1.7 mutations per 108 base pairs
1970 CE: Eugene Wigner published Symmetries and Reflections: Scientific Essays
1970 CE: Vera Rubin & Kent Ford published Rotation of the Andromeda Nebula from a Spectroscopic Survey of Emission Regions, establishing that galaxy rotation curves do not match Kepler’s third law, which is evidence of dark matter
1970 CE: Edsger W. Dijkstra published Notes on Structured Programming
1971 CE: Ken Thompson & Dennis Ritchie published the UNIX Programmer’s Manual
1971 CE: Barry Commoner published The Closing Circle
1971 CE: Kjell Kleppe et al. published Studies on polynucleotides. XCVI. Repair replications of short synthetic DNA’s as catalyzed by DNA polymerases, describing polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
1971 CE: The United States Air Force (USAF) translated Pyotr Ufimtsev’s book Method of Edge Waves in the Physical Theory of Diffraction into English, describing how electromagnetic waves interact with surfaces and establishing the basis for stealth aircraft
1971 CE: Stephen Cook published The Complexity of Theorem Proving Procedures, proving the Cook–Levin theorem that the Boolean satisfiability problem (SAT) is NP-complete
1971 CE: Intel introduced the 4004 4-bit CPU, on a 10 μm process node, demonstrating large-scale integration (LSI)
1972 CE: Richard Feynman published Statistical Mechanics
1972 CE: Nasir Ahmed proposed using discrete cosine transform for image compression
1972 CE: Oskar Morgenstern published Thirteen Critical Points in Contemporary Economic Theory
1972 CE: Ken Thompson & Dennis Ritchie developed the C programming language
1972 CE: Richard M. Karp published Reducibility Among Combinatorial Problems, proving 21 computer science problems NP-complete
1972 CE: Robin Milner published Logic for Computable Functions: description of a machine implementation, describing the LCF automated theorem prover
1973 CE: Alexander Grothendieck & Jean-Louis Verdier published Théorie des Topos et Cohomologie Étale des Schémas (Theory of Topos and Étale Cohomology of Schemes), introducing topoi
1973 CE: Ken Thompson & Dennis Ritchie ported Unix to the PHP-11/20 in C
1973 CE: Donald Knuth published The Art of Computer Programming, volume 3
1973 CE: Lotfi A. Zadeh published Outline of a New Approach to the Analysis of Complex Systems and Decision Processes, proposing fuzzy logic
1973 CE: Leonid Levin published Универсальные задачи перебора (Universal Sequential Search Problems) independently proving the Cook–Levin theorem that the Boolean satisfiability problem (SAT) is NP-complete
1974 CE: Ken Thompson & Dennis Ritchie published The UNIX time-sharing system
1974 CE: Nasir Ahmed, T. Natarajan & K. R. Rao published Discrete Cosine Transform, a working image compression algorithm
1974 CE: Vint Cerf, Yogen Dalal & Carl Sunshine published RFC 675, specifying TCP
1974 CE: Charles Goldfarb developed Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), the forerunner of HTML
1974 CE: Gerard K. O’Neill published The Colonization of Space describing space habitats
1974 CE: Edsger W. Dijkstra published Self-stabilizing Systems in Spite of Distributed Control
1974 CE: The human population of Earth exceeded four billion people
1975 CE: Edsger W. Dijkstra published On the role of scientific thought, introducing the term separation of concerns
1975 CE: Atmospheric CO₂ was 314 ppm
1975 CE: Endre Szemerédi published On sets of integers containing no k elements in arithmetic progression
1975 CE: Will & Ariel Durant published The Age of Napoleon, the 11th volume of The Story of Civilization
1975 CE: Steven Sasson invented the first self-contained digital camera
1975 CE: John W. Drake et al. published Environmental Mutagenic Hazards
1975 CE: Lotfi A. Zadeh published Fuzzy logic and approximate reasoning
1975 CE: Jonathon E. Ericson, Hiroshi Shirahata, & Clair Cameron Patterson published Skeletal Concentrations of Lead in Ancient Peruvians
1975 CE: Guy L. Steele Jr. & Gerald Jay Sussman published AI Memo 349 introducing the Scheme programming language and continuation-passing style (CPS)
1975 CE: Stephen Cook published Feasibly Constructive Proofs and the Propositional Calculus
1976 CE: Robert M. May published Simple mathematical models with very complicated dynamics, popularizing the logisitic map and demonstrating chaos theory
1976 CE: Whitfield Diffie & Martin Hellman published New Directions in Cryptography, describing Diffie–Hellman key exchange, one of the first public-key cryptography protocols
1976 CE: Alice Chien, D. B. Edgar, & J. M. Trela published Deoxyribonucleic acid polymerase from the extreme thermophile Thermus aquaticus, describing Taq
1976 CE: Gerard K. O’Neill published The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space, describing space habitats including the O’Neill cylinder
1976 CE: Imre Lakatos published Proofs and Refutations
1976 CE: David A. Moon, Guy L. Steele Jr., & Richard Stallman developed the Emacs text editor (short for “editor macros”)
1977 CE: Carl Woese & George E. Fox published Phylogenetic structure of the prokaryotic domain: the primary kingdoms, defining Archaea and proposing Woese’s dogma
1977 CE: Stephen Krashen published Some issues relating to the monitor model, proposing the input hypothesis
1977 CE: Benoit Mandelbrot published Fractals: Form, Chance and Dimension
1977 CE: John Tukey published Exploratory Data Analysis, popularizing the box plot
1978 CE: Brian Kernighan & Dennis Ritchie published The C Programming Language
1978 CE: Bill Joy released the BSD operating system, including ex and thus vi
1978 CE: Ralph Merkle published Secure Communications Over Insecure Channels, describing public-key cryptography
1978 CE: Tim May & Murray H. Woods published A New Physical Mechanism for Soft Errors in Dynamic Memories, describing single-event upsets caused by alpha radiation
1978 CE: Robin Milner published A theory of type polymorphism in programming, describing the ML (Meta Language) programming language
1979 CE: Ralph Merkle patented his Method of providing digital signatures, a.k.a. a hash tree or Merkle tree
1979 CE: Stephen Cook & Robert A. Reckhow published The Relative Efficiency of Propositional Proof Systems

1980s

1980 CE: Luis Walter Alvarez, Walter Alvarez, Frank Asaro, & Helen Vaughn Michel published Extraterrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction: Experiment and Theory, proposing that the Chicxulub impact caused the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction event
1980 CE: Dorothy M. Settle & Clair Cameron Patterson published Lead in albacore: guide to lead pollution in Americans
1981 CE: Brian Reid presented Scribe: A Document Specification Language and its Compiler at the Conference on Research and Trends in Document Preparation Systems at Lausanne, Switzerland, where Charles Goldfarb presented Generalized Markup Language (GML)
1982 CE: David Chaum published Computer Systems Established, Maintained, and Trusted by Mutually Suspicious Groups, proposing cryptographically linked record keeping, a.k.a. blockchain
1982 CE: Stephen Krashen published Principles and practice in second language acquisition, developing the input hypothesis
1982 CE: Benoit Mandelbrot published The Fractal Geometry of Nature
1982 CE: Gerd Binnig, Heinrich Rohrer, Christoph Gerber, and Edmund Weibel published Surface Studies by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, describing the scanning tunneling microscope (STM)
1983 CE: Edward Tufte published The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
1984 CE: Apple released the Macintosh
1984 CE: Donald Knuth published The TeXbook
1984 CE: Gerald Jay Sussman, Hal Abelson, & Julie Sussman published Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP)
1985 CE: Richard Feynman published QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter
1985 CE: Kary Mullis, Randall Saiki, & Henry Erlich published Enzymatic Amplification of β-globin Genomic Sequences and Restriction Site Analysis for Diagnosis of Sickle Cell Anemia, describing polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
1985 CE: Dan Shechtman & Ilan Blech published The Microstructure of Rapidly Solidified Al6Mn, describing a quasicrystal
1985 CE: Richard Stallman released the GNU Emacs text editor as open-source software
1986 CE: Halley’s Comet passed near the Earth
1986 CE: Donald Knuth published The METAFONTbook
1986 CE: Leslie Lamport published The Definitive, Non-Technical Introduction to LaTeX, Professional Typesetting and Scientific Publishing
1986 CE: K. Eric Drexler published Engines of Creation, describing molecular nanotechnology
1986 CE: Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) became ISO standard 8879
1986 CE: Gerd Binnig, Calvin Quate, and Christoph Gerber published Atomic Force Microscope, describing atomic force microscopy (AFM)
1986 CE: Leonid Levin published Average Case Complete Problems, developing average-case complexity
1987 CE: Richard Feynman published Elementary Particles and the Laws of Physics
1987 CE: Richard Stallman published the GNU C Compiler under the GPL
1987 CE: Larry Wall released the Perl programming language
1987 CE: Burn-Jeng Lin published The future of subhalf-micrometer optical lithography, proposing immersion lithography for manufacturing integrated circuits (ICs)
1987 CE: Clair Cameron Patterson, Hiroshi Shirahata, & Jonathon E. Ericson published Lead in ancient human bones and its relevance to historical developments of social problems with lead
1987 CE: The human population of Earth exceeded five billion people
1987 CE: Light from a type II supernova 186,000 light years away reached Earth
1988 CE: Monthly average CO₂ exceeded 350 ppm
1988 CE: Edsger W. Dijkstra published On the Cruelty of Really Teaching Computer Science, lamenting that “software engineering has accepted as its charter ‘How to program if you cannot.’”
1989 CE: Richard Stallman published the GNU General Public License, version 1 (GPLv1)

1990s

1990 CE: Monthly average CO₂ exceeded 360 ppm
1990 CE: Carl Woese et al. published Towards a natural system of organisms: proposal for the domains Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya
1990 CE: Charles Goldfarb published The SGML Handbook
1990 CE: Robert L. Forward patented Statite apparatus and method of use, a solar sail

World Wide Web

1991 CE: Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, a hypertext information system on the Internet
1991 CE: Richard Stallman published the GNU General Public License, version 2 (GPLv2)
1991 CE: Guido van Rossum released the Python programming language
1991 CE: Stuart Haber & W. Scott Stornetta published How to time-stamp a digital document, describing a cryptographically secured chain of blocks, or blockchain
1991 CE: Mount Pinatubo erupted in the present day Philippines, with a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 6
1992 CE: Stuart Haber, W. Scott Stornetta, & Dave Bayer published Improving the Efficiency and Reliability of Digital Time-Stamping, incorporating Merkle trees into their blockchain protocol
1992 CE: William & Lynne Jolitz released 386BSD
1992 CE: Linus Torvalds published the Linux kernel under the GPLv2
1992 CE: K. Eric Drexler published Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing and Computation
1992 CE: Eugene Wigner & Andrew Szanton published The Recollections of Eugene P. Wigner
1992 CE: Peter Naur published Computing: A Human Activity
1993 CE: Jordan Hubbard, Nate Williams, & Rodney W. Grimes released FreeBSD as open-source software
1993 CE: Ian Murdock released the Debian operating system as open-source software
1994 CE: Apple switched from Motorola 68k chips to PowerPC
1995 CE: Brendan Eich created JavaScript
1995 CE: Red Hat released the Red Hat Linux operating system as open-source software
1995 CE: Richard Feynman posthumously published Lectures on Gravitation
1995 CE: MySQL AB published the MySQL relational database under the GPLv2
1995 CE: Eugene Wigner, Jagdish Mehra, & Arthur Wightman published Philosophical Reflections and Syntheses
1995 CE: Yukihiro Matsumoto released the Ruby programming language as open-source software
1996 CE: Michael Stonebraker, Andrew Yu, & Jolly Chen published the PostgreSQL relational database as open-source software
1997 CE: Richard Feynman posthumously published Feynman’s Lost Lecture: The Motion of Planets Around the Sun
1997 CE: Google released Google Search
1997 CE: Adam Back published A partial hash collision based postage scheme, proposing Hashcash, a proof of work system designed to limit email spam and denial-of-service attacks
1997 CE: The European Space Agency (ESA) published the Hipparcos & Tycho-1 star catalogues
1998 CE: Thomas Cavalier-Smith published A revised six-kingdom system of life
1998 CE: Netscape published Netscape Communicator as open-source software
1998 CE: Duncan J. Watts & Steven Strogatz published Collective dynamics of ‘small-world’ networks, describing small-world networks
1998 CE: Two papers showed evidence that the Universe is expanding, and accelerating, due to dark energy:
- Observational Evidence from Supernovae for an Accelerating Universe and a Cosmological Constant
- Measurements of Omega and Lambda from 42 High-Redshift Supernovae
1998 CE: Sergey Brin & Larry Page published The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine, describing the PageRank algorithm used by Google Search
1998 CE: Ericsson released the Erlang programming language, designed by Joe Armstrong, Robert Virding, and Mike Williams, as open-source software
1999 CE: The human population of Earth exceeded six billion people

2000s

2000 CE: Monthly average CO₂ exceeded 370 ppm
2000 CE: The United States Naval Observatory (USNO) published the ACT Reference Catalog, combining the Astrographic Catalogue with the Tycho-1 Catalogue
2000 CE: The European Space Agency (ESA) published the Tycho-2 astronomical catalogue
2000 CE: Apple released the Darwin operating system as open-source software
2000 CE: Richard Feynman posthumously published the Feynman Lectures on Computation
2000 CE: KDE published the KHTML web browser, the predecessor to WebKit as open-source software
2000 CE: Barry Commoner et al. published Long-range Air Transport of Dioxin from North American Sources to Ecologically Vulnerable Receptors in Nunavut, Arctic Canada
2000 CE: D. Richard Hipp released the SQLite relational database, based on PostgreSQL, into the public domain
2000 CE: Jesse James Garrett published The Elements of User Experience
2001 CE: Jimmy Wales & Larry Sanger released Wikipedia
2001 CE: Google released Google Earth
2001 CE: Will Durant posthumously published Heroes of History
2001 CE: The Wikimedia Foundation published MediaWiki under the GPLv2
2002 CE: Douglas Crockford specified JSON, an open standard data interchange format
2003 CE: Red Hat released the Fedora operating system as open-source software
2003 CE: Vikram Adve, Chris Lattner, and others released LLVM as open-source software
2003 CE: Pyotr Ufimtsev published Theory of Edge Diffraction in Electromagnetics
2004 CE: Mark Shuttleworth released the Ubuntu operating system as open-source software
2004 CE: John Gruber & Aaron Swartz published Markdown as open-source software
2004 CE: Richard Dawkins published The Ancestor’s Tale
2004 CE: Scaled Composites Tier One launched the first private crewed suborbital spaceflight, and recovered both stages, 3 times in a row
2005 CE: Linus Torvalds published Git as open-source software
2005 CE: Google released Google Maps
2005 CE: Apple published the WebKit web browser as open-source software
2005 CE: David Heinemeier Hansson published Ruby on Rails as open-source software
2005 CE: Jesse James Garrett published Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications
2005 CE: Lorraine Lisiecki & Maureen Raymo published A Pliocene-Pleistocene stack of 57 globally distributed benthic D 18 O records, a.k.a. the Lisiecki-Raymo δ18O stack showing the past 5 million years of climate data
2005 CE: John Ioannidis published Why Most Published Research Findings Are False, calling attention to the replication crisis
2005 CE: Katalin Karikó, Michael Buckstein, Houping Ni, and Drew Weissman published Suppression of RNA recognition by Toll-like receptors: the impact of nucleoside modification and the evolutionary origin of RNA, describing how to avoid an immune response to mRNA vaccines
2006 CE: Apple switched from PowerPC chips to Intel x86
2006 CE: Monthly average CO₂ exceeded 380 ppm
2006 CE: Sun Microsystems published the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) under the GPLv2
2007 CE: Richard Stallman published the GNU General Public License, version 3 (GPLv3)
2007 CE: Google released Street View
2007 CE: Apple released the iPhone, a practical solid-state tablet computer with a capacitive touchscreen, popularizing multitouch displays
2007 CE: Apple released Clang, created by Chris Lattner, as open-source software
2007 CE: Pyotr Ufimtsev published Fundamentals of the Physical Theory of Diffraction
2008 CE: Google released the Android operating system as open-source software
2008 CE: Google released the Chromium web browser, based on WebKit, as open-source software
2008 CE: Satoshi Nakamoto published Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, describing a digital currency based on blockchain
2009 CE: Ryan Dahl published Node.js, a JavaScript runtime, as open-source software
2009 CE: Stefan Schmidt published Shall We Really Do It Again? The Powerful Concept of Replication Is Neglected in the Social Sciences, calling attention to the replication crisis

2010s

2010 CE: Apple released the iPad, a practical solid-state tablet computer with a capacitive touchscreen, popularizing multitouch displays
2010 CE: Stephen Cook & Phuong The Nguyen published Logical Foundations of Proof Complexity
2011 CE: Monthly average CO₂ exceeded 390 ppm
2011 CE: Donald Knuth published The Art of Computer Programming, volume 4A
2011 CE: The human population of Earth exceeded seven billion people
2012 CE: Tesla released the Model S, a somewhat expensive, practical electric car
2012 CE: Cassan et al. published One or more bound planets per Milky Way star from microlensing observations
2012 CE: Carl Sassenrath released the Rebol programming language as open-source software
2012 CE: Microsoft released TypeScript as open-source software
2013 CE: Monthly average CO₂ exceeded 400 ppm
2015 CE: Thomas Cavalier-Smith et al. published A higher level classification of all living organisms
2015 CE: Anja Spang et al. published Complex archaea that bridge the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes
2015 CE: SpaceX landed an orbital rocket vertically
2015 CE: Apple released the Swift programming language, created by Chris Lattner, as open-source software
2015 CE: Mozilla released version 1.0 of the Rust programming language, designed by Graydon Hoare, as open-source software
2016 CE: The European Space Agency (ESA) published Gaia DR1, the first data release from the Gaia space observatory, on 1.1 billion space objects
2016 CE: Andrew Kelley released the Zig programming language as open-source software

Reusable Orbital Rockets

2017 CE: SpaceX reused an orbital rocket, and recovered it, economically reusing an orbital launch system for the first time
2017 CE: Tesla released the Model 3, a somewhat affordable, practical electric car
2017 CE: Ashish Vaswani, Noam Shazeer, Niki Parmar, Jakob Uszkoreit, Llion Jones, Aidan N. Gomez, Lukasz Kaiser, & Illia Polosukhin published Attention Is All You Need, introducing the transformer deep learning architecture
2018 CE: Monthly average CO₂ exceeded 410 ppm
2019 CE: The European Space Agency (ESA) published Gaia DR2, the second data release from the Gaia space observatory, on 1.3 billion space objects

2020s

2020 CE: SpaceX launched the first commercial crewed orbital flight, and landed the first stage
2020 CE: Apple switched from Intel x86 chips to a custom ARM design
2020 CE: Ryan Dahl published Deno, a JavaScript runtime, as open-source software
2022 CE: Monthly average CO₂ exceeded 420 ppm
2022 CE: The human population of Earth exceeded eight billion people
2022 CE: Jarred Sumner published Bun, a JavaScript runtime, as open-source software
2024 CE: Modular Inc. released the Mojo programming language, designed by Chris Lattner, as open-source software

Definitions

Anthology: a curated collection of literary works
Archaeological record
Attested language
Chronicle: a historical account of facts and events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline
Chronology
Cosmic Calendar
Geologic record
Historical method
Timeline
Living graph
Molecular clock
Philology: the study of literature
Synchronoptic view

Lists

Sources

Videos

Subjects

Anthropology: the scientific study of humans
Archaeology: the study of human activity via material culture
Auxiliary sciences of history
Bibliography
Biogeography
Geography
- Human geography
- Physical geography
Geology
History
Historiography
Paleoclimatology
Paleoecology
Paleogeography
Paleohydrology
Paleontology: the study of life in the past, including fossils
Philosophy of history