History of Science – Timeline



1.5 Million – 400,000 Years Ago: Fire Power

At some point in history there had to be one initial crucial step that separated humans from the other animals in our journey to becoming the dominant species on this planet.
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14000 BCE – 4000 BCE: Domestication of Animals

Domestication is the process of selective breeding for human use. The domestication of animals began with the now-lovable dog by at least around 14000 BCE and possibly thousands of years earlier.
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12000 BCE – 4000 BCE: Domestication of Plants

The human domestication of plants may have been the single most important event in human history.
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5500 BCE – 5000 BCE: Metallurgy

The importance of metallurgy to human culture is so vital that scholars typically divide ancient time periods by metalworking ages such as the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age.
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3500 BCE: The Wheel

Wheels appear everywhere in today’s world. It is impossible to imagine civilization as we know it with out them.
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3400 BCE: Writing

Writing is a set of markings used to represent a language. It augments the benefits of language by making permanent, allowing the message to travel further and persist through time.
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3000 BCE: Number systems

For tens of thousands of years there was no organized number systems and people counted things using their fingers and toes.
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3000 BCE – 600 BCE: Early Medicine and the Hippocratic Oath

Disease is humanity's oldest and most feared enemy. It harasses us constantly in a multitude of vicious ways through methods that have only recently been discovered.
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800 BCE – 200 BCE: Gears

An important technology in allowing people do to work was the invention of the gear, a system consisting of cogs that takes energy from an input source, such as flowing water, and convert it to an output source, such as a pump.
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820s: Algebra

Algebra became recognized as a separate branch of mathematics thanks to work of the Persian mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi.
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900: Gunpowder

Gunpowder was invented in China and spread to the Middle East, eventually arriving in Europe around 1300, nearly 400 years after its invention.
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1450: The Printing Press

A vital precursor to the scientific revolution, the invention of the printing press changed the way information spread across the world by improving its fidelity and, most importantly, by hastening its rate of reproduction.
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1543: On the Revolutions of Celestial Spheres

The Earth-centered universe was the prevailing wisdom of Medieval Europe until a Polish scholar named Nicolaus Copernicus suggested otherwise in his 1543 book, On the Revolutions of Celestial Spheres.
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1590s: The Microscope

Like many inventions, the exact date of the first microscope is disputed and confused, however credit is sometimes given to Zacharias Janssen and his father Hans Martenz for creating the first microscope as early as 1590, or possibly in 1595.
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1608: The Refracting Telescope

The first evidence for what later was to be called the telescope was the submission of a patent to the Dutch government in 1608 by Hans Lippershey, although it is likely that the idea was hit upon earlier by other lens makers.
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1610: The Starry Messenger

Published by Galileo Galilei on March 13, 1610, Sidereus Nuncius (or Starry Messenger) revealed to the world Galileo’s observations as he view the night sky through his improved telescope.
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1628: Blood Circulation

After thirty years of research, William Harvey’s landmark book On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals established once and for all that blood flow was entirely circular and that the heart was a pump.
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1643: Discovery of the Vacuum

The existence of a vacuum, a space completely empty of matter, had been debated since at least the ancient Greek philosophers, and probably much longer.
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1656: Pendulum Clock

The pendulum clock was invented by Christiaan Huygens in 1656 and became the worlds most accurate time-keeping device until the early 20th century.
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1662: Boyle’s Law

The discovery of the relationship between gas volume and air pressure was published by Robert Boyle in 1662.
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1665: The Cell

The observation of what was coined the cell by Robert Hooke in 1665 provided the starting point for a sequence of discoveries at the microscopic level and continuing into our present time that have revolutionized our view of life.
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1668: Reflecting Telescope

A refracting telescope uses lens to collect and focus the image as opposed to a reflecting telescope that uses a combination of mirrors to reflect and focus the image.
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1687: Principia

Issac Newton’s 1687 publication of Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, more commonly known as Principia, may have been the most important and influential scientific piece of literature of all time.
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1712: The Newcomen Engine

In 1712 Thomas Newcomen unknowingly ushered the world into the industrial revolution when he built an “atmospheric” engine to pump up water from a coal mine near Dudley Castle in England.
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1730: The Marine Chronometer

Amazing that it may seem to people living in the 21st century, finding reliable longitudinal position at sea was not possible until 1730 when John Harrison invented the marine chronometer, a timepiece capable of keeping accurate time of a known, fixed location.
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1735: Systema Naturae

Systema Naturae was the manuscript published by Carl Linnaeus that marked the beginning of the modern system of species classification.
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1745: The Leyden Jar

The Leyden Jar can be thought of as the first electrical capacitor – a device that stores and releases electrical energy.
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1763: Bayes’ Theorem

Bayes' theorem is a fundamental concept in probability theory.  It was formulated in 1763 by the English statistician and Presbyterian minister, Reverend Thomas Bayes.
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1781: Discovery of Uranus

In 1781 William Herschel announced the discovery of a new planet that became named Uranus in the tradition of naming planets after classical mythology.
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1796: The First Vaccination

The first vaccination was performed by English physician Edward Jenner in 1796.
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1799: The Battery

Right at the turn of the 19th century electricity was becoming an increasing topic of study.
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1820: Discovery of Electromagnetism

Electromagnetism was discovered at the turn of the second decade of the 19th century.
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1830s: The Electric Telegraph

The electrical telegraph harnessed the new science of electricity to revolutionize long distance communication.
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1824: Carnot Cycle

The Carnot cycle is the ideal cycle of operations that provides the maximum theoretical efficiency for any engine that utilizes heat.
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1830: Principles of Geology

Principles of Geology was a groundbreaking work that promoted and popularized the James Hutton’s concept of uniformitarianism.
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1834: The Electric Motor

The invention of electric motor can be said to happened in May 1834 by Moritz Jacobi, although later that year Thomas Davenport independently created one as well.
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1848: Absolute Zero

Absolute zero is the lowest temperature theoretically possible.
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1850s: Laws of Thermodynamics

The laws of thermodynamics are some of the most fundamental laws of physics.
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1859: On the Origin of Species

In 1859 Charles Darwin published his landmark book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.
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1860s: Germ Theory of Disease

The Germ Theory of Disease seems like common knowledge to just about everybody today, but this has not always been the case.
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1860s: The Electromagnetic Spectrum

In nature there exists a continuum of radiation waves, all traveling at the same speed of light, with a nearly infinite possibility of wavelengths and frequencies. This is the electromagnetic spectrum.
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1866: Laws of Inheritance

In 1866 the Augustinian monk Gregor Mendel published Experiments in Plant Hybridization that explained his pea plant experiments and the resulting laws of inheritance.
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1869: Mendeleev’s Periodic Table of Elements

In 1869 Dmitri Mendeleev published his periodic table of elements.
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1876: The Telephone

The story of the invention of the telephone one is a complex one, rife with rival claims over the invention itself, and the product of numerous discoveries and individual contributions. However credit is given to the Scottish born inventor Alexander Graham Bell who was awarded the first telephone patent in 1876.
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1897: Electron

It was speculated for some time the atoms may be composed of additional fundamental units, and by the late 19th century evidence began to emerge from experimental research to support this hypothesis.
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1900 – 1920s: Quantum Mechanics

Quantum mechanics is a paradigm shifting theory of physics that describes nature at the smallest scale.
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1903: First Successful Airplane

On December 17, 1903 just outside Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright completed the first successful sustained and controlled heavier-than-air, powered flight.
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1905: Special Relativity

Special Relativity is a theory proposed by Albert Einstein that attempts to explain the relationship between space, time and motion.
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1911: Atomic Nucleus

The discovery of the nucleus was the result of experiments conducted by Ernst Rutherford and his team, where a beam of alpha particles were fired at a thin sheet of gold foil.
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1913: Bohr Model of the Atom

In 1913 Niels Bohr proposed a model of the atom based on quantum physics which helped solve problems of previous atomic models that were based on classical physics.
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1915: General Relativity

The theory of general relativity is one of the most profound and revolutionary achievements in the history of science and transformed our understanding of space, time, and gravity.
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1927: The Big Bang

According to the Big Bang theory, the observable universe began in a singularity of infinite density and temperature at a specific moment in time some 13.8 billion years ago.
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1932: Discovery of the Neutron

The neutron was discovered by the British physicist Sir James Chadwick in 1932, marking a pivotal moment in the understanding of atomic structure.
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1938: Nuclear Fission

The discovery of nuclear fission is a process that releases an enormous amount of energy by splitting the nucleus of an atom.
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1947: The Transistor

The transistor was invented by John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley of Bell Labs in 1947 as a replacement for the inefficient vacuum tube.
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1953: The Structure of DNA

In April 1953, Francis Crick and James Watson published a paper in Nature which established the structure of DNA.
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1960s: Plate Tectonics

Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that explains the movement of the Earths surface and many of its most prominent geological features
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1977: Voyager Program

The Voyager Program consists of two spacecraft, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, launched by NASA in 1977 in order to probe the four outer planets of the Solar System.
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Comments

  1. Taryn says:

    Fascinating timeline! I will definitely delve deeper into these, as it has sparked my curiosity. Surprised not to see anything past 1977.

  2. Dan says:

    Thanks for enjoying the timeline! Thanks for the feedback, I am working on updating more recent science.

  3. Luna S says:

    History is so amazing, there is always something new and fascinating to learn about our past.

  4. Britney says:

    I miss learning about science! I had no idea when gunpowder or where it was first invented!

  5. Jessie says:

    I don’t think I can appreciate this article enough! I am a huge science and fact nerd, I simply loved reading every piece. Thanks!

  6. Alexandra Cook says:

    Such a great and very informative post. Honestly, I am not good at Science when I was studying bit this makes me interested

  7. Bree says:

    This is an awesome timeline! I never knew when some of these major scientific things happened before!

  8. Ana says:

    What a comprehensive timeline! I loved the details & history of Science is so fascinating…isn’t it?

  9. twinspirationalparties says:

    Such a long list.. I didn’t know most of these, though I love watching and reading about science haha. Thanks for sharing.

  10. Owen G. says:

    Such an informative and interesting post. I love science so much. I really enjoyed reading this.

  11. Nina Cochingco says:

    Great post, i really enjoyed reading this, so informative, I really loved science so it doesn’t bore me at all.. 😊

  12. Julie says:

    Such a cool timeline with interesting material available! I’m currently reading Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari’s and this is so in line with the book hehe:)

  13. Pedro says:

    Hello Dan,

    Thanks for a really interesting post. History is very fascinating not least because history always repeats itself. Sadly we have always shown that we never seem to learn anything from the lessons of history.

    Best,
    Pedro

  14. Thena says:

    I love reading your timelines. They give such a clear picture and make history easier to understand and follow.

  15. Francisco says:

    The visual aspect of this is so useful. It puts into context how long some things have been around and how some have evolved. Will be poking around through the timeline. Thanks for sharing this!

  16. Laurel says:

    This is so cool how you structured this! Very cool blog post. I am looking forward to reading more.

  17. Karen says:

    This is beyond interesting and beyond fascinating to me, wow!!! The timeline really puts everything in perspective, I love it.

  18. Ambuj Saxena says:

    This is a timeline that proves the superiority of the human race! However, with every power, comes a bigger responsibility! Now, we, as humans face a bigger threat of Climate Change, Terrorism and we all need to develop our mindset and technology to counter them! Maybe, you would need to modify this timeline to include climate change technology.

  19. Kimberly says:

    Love how you formatted everything. Makes it super easy to follow without getting overwhelmed . Great post!

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