An Historical Timeline of Important Inventions, Ideas and Events

I have included inventions, ideas and events all together since each of the three tends to influence the other two. Hopefully, this will result in placing whatever you are looking for into a better context. Although the list will never be complete, I will be continually adding new items as I come across them.

20th Century

1972: Nolan Bushnell invented the first video game (Pong).
1971: Intel created the first single chip microprocessor Intel (4004).
1958: Jack Kilby invented the microchip while working at Texas Instruments.
1947: Bell Laboratories invented the transister.
1905: Abbert Einstein published his Special Theory of Relativity.
1903: Wilbur and Orville Wright made their first successful flight at Kitty Hawk of their self-propelled airplane.
1900 Sigmund Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams.

19th Century

1893: American, W.L. Judson invented the zipper.
1888: Nikola Tesla invented the AC motor and transformer.
1886: John Pemberton invented Coca Cola.
1885: Karl Benz invented the first practical automobile powered by an internal-combustion engine.
1884: Lewis Edson Waterman invented the first practical fountain pen.
1880: The British Perforated Paper Company invented a form of toilet paper.
1876: Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone.
1873: Joseph Glidden invented barbed wire.
1866: Alfred Nobel invented dynamite.
1862: Dr. Richard Gatling patented the machine gun.
1861: Pierre Michaux invented a bicycle.
1858: Jean Lenoir invented an internal combustion engine.
1856: Louis Pasteur invented pasteurisation.
1851: Isaac Singer invented a sewing machine.
1849: Walter Hunt invented the safety pin.
1847: Ignaz Semmelweis invented antisceptics
1845: Robert William Thomson patented the first vulcanised rubber pneumatic tire.
1842: Joseph Dart built the first grain elevator.
1841: Samuel Slocum patented the stapler.
1838: Samual Morse invented Morse Code.
1837: Samuel Morse invented the telegraph.
1831: Cyrus H. McCormick invented the first commercially successful reaper.

18th Century

1799: Alessandro Volta invented the battery.
1794: Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin.
1789: The guillotine was invented.
1783: Joseph Michel Montgolfier and Jacques Etienne Montgolfier invented the hot-air balloon.
1775: Alexander Cummings invented the flush toilet.
1764: James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny.
1757: The predicted return of Halley's comet makes it the first known periodic comet.
1724: Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the first mercury thermometer.
1709: Bartolomeo Cristofori invented the piano.

17th Century

1687: Isaac Newton published Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, explaining his laws of motion and universal gravitation.
1608: Hans Lippershey invented the first refracting telescope.

The Renaissance: 1,600 A.D. - 1,400 A.D.

16th Century

1569: Gerard Mercator invented Mercator map projection.

15th Century

1494: Whiskey invented in Scotland.
1492: Columbus discovered America.
1455: Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press.

The Middle Ages: 1,400 A.D. - 500 A.D.

14th Century

13th Century

12th Century

11th Century

The Dark Ages: 1,000 A.D. - 500 A.D.

1000: Leif Ericsson discovered North America.
632: Mohammed died. (632-570)

The Roman Empire: 476 A.D.-509 B.C.

410: Rome was sacked by the Goths.
395: The Roman Empire was divided into The Western half, ruled by Rome, and the Eastern half ruled from Constantinople (the Byzantine Empire).
79 A.D.: Pompeii and Herculaneum was buried by the eruption of Vesuvius.
80 A.D.: The Coloseum was completed in Rome.
30 B.C.: Cleopatra died. (30-69 B.C.)
44 B.C.: Julius Caesar killed by Roman Senators. (44-100 B.C.) (Et tu, Brutus?)
71-73 B.C.: Sparticus led the slave rebellion against Rome.
214 B.C.: The Great Wall of China was completed.
218 B.C.: Hannibal crossed the Alps.
322 B.C.: Aristotle died. (322-384 B.C.)
323 B.C.: Alexander The Great died. (323-356 B.C.)
347 B.C.: Plato died. (347-427 B.C.)
356 B.C.: Alexander the Great born.
384 B.C.: Aristotle born.
399 B.C.: Socrates drank the hemlock. (399-470 B.C.)
427 B.C.: Plato born.
470 B.C.: Socrates born.
479 B.C.: Confucius died.
480 B.C.: Buddha died.
509 B.C.: Republic of Rome was established. Rome's last king was overthrown in 510 B.C.

The Iron Age: ?-1,500 B.C.

753 B.C.: Rome was founded.

The Bronze Age: 1,500-4,000 B.C.

Bronze is made from copper and tin.

Circa 2550 B.C.: The Great Pyramid at Giza was completed.

The New Stone Age (The Neolithic Age): 4,000-12,000 B.C.

5,500 B.C.: The wheel was invented some time prior to this date. The oldest wheel found was discovered in Mesopotamia and dates to around this time period.
8,000 B.C.: Agriculture first appeared in Mesopotamia.

The Old Stone Age (The Paleolithic Age): 12,000-50,000 B.C.

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