Discoveries, inventions, theories and technologies, from the first tools to the digital age.
Chronyas lists 11,576 events in this topic. These are among the most notable, grouped by era.
Human prehistory
- 8th millennium BCEDiscovery of copper
- 7th millennium BCEDiscovery of gold
- 6th millennium BCEDiscovery of silver
- 6th millennium BCEDiscovery of iron
Ancient civilizations
- 141 BCEPaper
- 105 CECai Lun reports the invention of paper
Medieval world
- c. 820sAl-Khwarizmi writes the book that gives algebra its name
- c. 850sGunpowder is invented in China
- 9th centuryGunpowder
- 1270Glasses
- 13th centuryDiscovery of arsenic
Early modern world
- 1543Copernicus publishes On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
- 1557Discovery of platinum
- 1669Discovery of phosphorus
- 5 July 1687Newton's laws of motion
- 1735Discovery of cobalt
- 1751Discovery of nickel
- 1755Discovery of magnesium
Industrial era
- 1766Discovery of hydrogen
- 1771Discovery of oxygen
- 1772Discovery of barium
- 1772Discovery of nitrogen
- 1774Discovery of chlorine
- 1774Discovery of manganese
- 1777Discovery of sulfur
- 1778Discovery of molybdenum
- 1783Discovery of tellurium
- 1783Discovery of tungsten
- 1787Discovery of strontium
- 1787Discovery of yttrium
- 1789Discovery of zirconium
- 1789Discovery of uranium
- 1789Discovery of carbon
- 1790Sewing machine
- 1791Discovery of titanium
- 14 May 1796Edward Jenner performs the first smallpox vaccination
- 1797Discovery of chromium
- 1798Discovery of beryllium
- 1800Battery
- 1801Discovery of niobium
- 1801Discovery of vanadium
- 1802Discovery of tantalum
- 1803Discovery of rhodium
- 1803Discovery of palladium
- 1803Discovery of iridium
- 1804Discovery of cerium
- 1804Discovery of osmium
- 1807Discovery of sodium
- 1807Discovery of potassium
- 1808Discovery of calcium
- 30 June 1808Discovery of boron
- 1810Discovery of fluorine
- 1811Discovery of iodine
- 1817Discovery of cadmium
- 1817Discovery of lithium
- 1817Discovery of selenium
- 1823Discovery of silicon
- 1825Discovery of aluminium
- 1825Discovery of bromine
- 1828Discovery of thorium
- 1834Electric motor
- 1835Coriolis force
- 1839Photography
- 1839Cell theory
- January 1839Discovery of lanthanum
- 1841Discovery of praseodymium
- 1843Discovery of terbium
- 1843Discovery of erbium
- 1844Discovery of ruthenium
- 24 May 1844Morse sends 'What hath God wrought'
- 1856Refrigerator
- 1858Natural selection
- 1860Discovery of caesium
- 1861Discovery of rubidium
- 1861Discovery of thallium
- 1863Discovery of indium
- 1865Maxwell publishes his theory of electromagnetism
- 1866Gregor Mendel publishes his experiments on plant hybrids
- 1867Dynamite
- 18 August 1868Discovery of helium
- 6 March 1869Periodic table
- 13 April 1872Identification of Huntington's disease
- 1873Invention of electrical generator
- 1875Discovery of gallium
- 1876Telephone
- 1877Invention of phonograph
- 1878Discovery of holmium
- 1878Discovery of ytterbium
- 1879Discovery of samarium
- 1879Discovery of thulium
- 1879Invention of incandescent light bulb
- 1879Discovery of scandium
- 22 October 1879Edison's carbon-filament lamp burns for 13 hours
- 1880Discovery of gadolinium
- 1884Car
- 1885Bicycle
- 1885Discovery of neodymium
- 1886Discovery of dysprosium
- 1886Discovery of germanium
- 1894Discovery of argon
- 8 November 1895Roentgen discovers X-rays
- 1897Electron
- 1898Discovery of radium
- 1898Discovery of neon
- 1898Discovery of krypton
- 1898Discovery of polonium
- 12 July 1898Discovery of xenon
- 1899Discovery of actinium
- 1899Discovery of radon
- 1900Quantum mechanics
- 14 December 1900Max Planck introduces the quantum
- 1901Discovery of europium
- 17 May 1901Discovery of Antikythera mechanism
- 1903Airplane
- 17 December 1903The Wright brothers make the first powered flight
- 1905Special relativity
- 1905Einstein's miracle year
- 1906Discovery of lutetium
- 1909Fritz Haber synthesises ammonia from air
- 1911Rutherford discovers the atomic nucleus
Modern era
- 1916General relativity
- 1917Discovery of protactinium
- 1922Discovery of hafnium
- 11 January 1922Insulin is first used to treat diabetes
- 1924Internal combustion engine
- 1925Discovery of rhenium
- 1925Quantum mechanics is formulated
- 1927Uncertainty principle
- 1931Big Bang theory proposed
- 1936Alan Turing defines the universal machine
- 1937Discovery of technetium
- 1939Discovery of francium
- 1940Discovery of neptunium
- 1940Discovery of astatine
- 1941Discovery of plutonium
- 1944Discovery of americium
- 1944Discovery of curium
Contemporary world
- 1945Discovery of promethium
- 1945Invention of computer
- December 1947Transistor
- 1949Discovery of berkelium
- 1950Discovery of californium
- 1950Fermi paradox
- 1952Discovery of einsteinium
- December 1952Discovery of fermium
- 25 April 1953Watson and Crick publish the structure of DNA
- 1955Discovery of mendelevium
- 1957Personal computer
- 1958Discovery of nobelium
- 1958Integrated circuit
- c. 1960sGlobal Positioning System
- 16 May 1960Laser
- 14 February 1961Discovery of lawrencium
- 1964Discovery of rutherfordium
- 1965Plate tectonics
- 29 October 1969Invention of Internet
- 29 October 1969The first message is sent over ARPANET
- 18 February 1970Discovery of dubnium
- 1971Email
- 1972Creation of C
- 1973Mobile phone
- July 1974Discovery of seaborgium
- 1976Discovery of bohrium
- c. 1980sInvention of laptop
- 8 May 1980Smallpox is declared eradicated
- 29 August 1982Discovery of meitnerium
- 1983Creation of C++
- 1984Discovery of hassium
- 20 November 1985Creation of Microsoft Windows
- 12 March 1989World Wide Web
- 20 February 1991Creation of Python
- 17 September 1991Release of Linux
- 9 November 1994Discovery of darmstadtium
- 8 December 1994Discovery of roentgenium
- 1995Creation of Java
- 8 June 1995Creation of PHP
- 4 December 1995Creation of JavaScript
- 1996Discovery of copernicium
- 17 December 1996Creation of Cascading Style Sheets
- 15 September 1997Google Search
- January 1999Discovery of flerovium
- 26 June 2000The first draft of the human genome is announced
- July 2000Discovery of livermorium
- 15 January 2001Wikipedia
- 24 March 2001Creation of macOS
- June 2002Discovery of oganesson
- 12 December 2002Release of Wiktionary
- August 2003Discovery of moscovium
- 20 October 2004Creation of Ubuntu
- 14 February 2005Launch of YouTube
- 2006Discovery of nihonium
- 23 September 2008Creation of Android
- 2009Discovery of tennessine
- 3 January 2009Release of Bitcoin
- 21 July 2009Creation of Windows 7
- 2011Release of Minecraft
- 2012Higgs boson
- 28 June 2012Doudna and Charpentier publish CRISPR gene editing
- 29 July 2015Creation of Windows 10
- 30 November 2022ChatGPT