Significant dates in the history of technology or the applied sciences

hands
37,300 hand paintings in El Castillo Cave, Spain among the oldest found.
35,000 Paleolithic (old stone) tool complex ATLATL
32,000 Neanderthal evidence in Payre, France in Rhône River valley.
30,000-25,000 Art, artifacts and cave murals painted.

NEW STONE AGE – Neolithic

10,000 Domestication of some key Plants and Animals

8,350 Earliest founding of JERICHO, a ten acre city
8,000 b.c. Neolithic cultural complex - farming, herding & sedentary life.
7,000 b.c. Earliest copper smelting

6,550 b.c. Farming in Greece and the Danube basin
6,000 b.c. pottery and woolen textiles in Asia Minor

CATAL HUYUK established as a 32 acre city in Anatolia
Earliest rice culture, THAILAND, CHINA, & INDIA
Copper mining and smelting with tin in Yugoslavia
Ebla, a trading center in Syria founded

5,000 b.c. Mesopotamian hydraulic advances in irrigated farms
4,000 b.c. Earliest BRONZE castings and plow perfected
3,500 b.c. Lung Shan urban center of China
Wheel and plough in Mesopotamia & the lateen sail in Egypt
3,100 b.c. Egyptian kingdom coalesces around Memphis
Cuneiform pictographic writing in SUMERIA
3,000 b.c. spread of copper making, Bronze in Thailand

arable farming practiced in Africa
pottery in Ecuador and Colombia

2,750 b.c. Indus Valley civilization center at Mahenjo Daro (Pakistan)

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Incipient Civilizations

2,685 b.c. OLD KINGDOM of EGYPT
2,590 b.c. Great PYRAMID at GIZEH built by Cheops
2,500 b.c. Desiccation of N. Africa and domestication of the
           HORSE in central Asia
2,500 b.c. Syrian urbanization in the fertile crescent
           written language on fired tablets, Ebla library; EBLA was a commercial city of
           260,000 persons; were taught writing, astronomy, botany, mining, arithmetic.

2,000 b.c. Origins of Minoan culture of Crete
     the earliest Greeks in the      Peloponnesian region, and the Hittites in Anatolia
     Bronze metal working in Peru,
      widespread use of sails in the Aegean Sea

1,900 b.c. Settlements in MELANESIA by earliest INDONESIANS
1,750 b.c. Hammurabi codifies BABYLONIAN LAWS
1,700 b.c.Hittites develop iron weapons in Turkey
1,600 b.c.Shang Dynasty of China’s BRONZE AGE
Mycenaean Civilization in Greece
1,567 b.c. Egyptian “NEW KINGDOM” established spread of craftsmanship,
Archimedean screw for lifting water spreads in Asia.

1,550 b.c. Aryans destroy the Indus Valley cultures
1,500 b.c. Ideographic script in China
           “linear B” language of Crete
           Hittite Cuneiform writing
1,450 The destruction of MYCENEAN GREEKS
           BRAHMA worship in INDIA, earliest VEDIC writings

1,370 b.c. AKHENATON teaches MONOTHEISM in EGYPT
1,300 b.c. MELANISIAN settlers reach FIJI ISLANDS
1,200 b.c. Hebrew EXODUS from EGYPT
1,150 b.c. OLMEC CULTURE of central MEXICAN HIGHLANDS
1,100 b.c. Spread of the PHOENICIANS in the Mediterranean
who develop modern alphabetical script
1,027 b.c. Shang DYNASTY replaced by the CHOU in China
1,000 b.c. Etruscans settle in ITALY

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Ancient Heritage

tool adapting

900 b.c. founding of the NUBIAN Kingdom of KUSH, Africa
814 founding of Carthage
800 the earliest UPANISHADS, sacred HINDU texts
780 well field system originated in Northern China
776 earliest Hellenic OLYMPIC GAMES
753 Founding of Rome (by traditional dating)
750 Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey first written down
650 earliest coins in LYDIA, ASIA MINOR
585 THALES of MILETUS predicts an eclipse and founds rationalist school of Greek Philosophy
558 ZOROASTER writes in PERSIA (Zarathustra)
550 Deutero-Isaiah historian earliest writings of the Hebrew Torah (BIBLE)
520 Death of Lao-Tzu Chinese mystic and teacher
500 Hieroglyphic writing in Mexico
486 Death of Siddartha (THE BUDDHA)
479 Death of Confucius founder of the CHINESE MANDARINATE & civil service exams to fill the bureaucracy
479 Classical age of Greek literature, drama, philosophy, science and craftsmanship spreads
350 Flowering of Chinese Philosophical schools
290 creation of the LITERARY Library of ALEXANDRIA, Egypt eventually stored 500,000 volumes
210-200 alleged origin of the compass in China, as lodestones used for direction finding.

142 b.c. Romans erect first stone bridge over the Tiber
112 Opening of the Silk “road” from China to W. Asia
100 Camel introduced to Saharan Africa
89 Roman citizenship extended to all ITALY
49 Caesar’s conquest of Gaul begins
31 BATTLE OF ACTIUM, Augustus is Roman Emperor

A.D. = ANNO DOMINE : “in the year of our Lord”

43 a.d. Roman conquest of Britain begins
105 a.d. earliest use of PAPER in China
116 Trajan (Romans) conquers MESOPOTAMIA
150 Earliest extant SANSKRIT texts from India
Buddhism reaches CHINA from TIbet and India
165 SMALLPOX epidemic ravages the Roman Empire
200 BHAGAVAD GITA set down in writing in INDIA
codification of the Hebrew laws

271 MAGNETIC COMPASS used ritually throughout CHINA for situating temples
280-337: Constantine the Great -"Christianizes" the Roman Empire.
285 Confucianism reaches JAPAN
293 DIOCLETIAN reorganizes the Roman Empire
300 foot stirrup spreads from ALTAI into CHINA
           Hopewell and MAYAN cultures thrive in the
           Mississippi Valley and the Yucatan, Mexico
           Settlement of Eastern Polynesia completed from the Indonesian descendants of western Polynesia
404 The LATIN VULGATE (Bible) composed from Greek.
482-511: Clovis, King of the Franks (Merovingian dynasty of France)
520 Advanced mathematics (DECIMAL SYSTEM) taught in Hindu universities
          includes quadratic equations & ALGEBRAIC COMPUTATION
529 BENEDICTINE Monasticism Established in Europe
534 Roman Emperor JUSTINIAN promulgates LEGAL CODE: Corpus Juris Primum

625 PROPHET MOHAMMED begins his fundamentalist mission
645 Buddhism spreads to Tibet
690 ARABIC replaces Greek and Pharsi as the major language of Asia Minor

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Medieval Synthesis

technical exaptation

730 Block PRINTING introduced in China
738 Evidence for stirrups used by Charles Martel,
751 PAPER making spreads from CHINA to ISLAM
760 ARABS adapt the INDIAN numerals, Algebra & Trigonometry
768 Carolus Magnus –Charlemagne- King of the Franks, illiterate promoter of writing and reading. Creates missi dominici, a subordinate managerial system.
788 MOORS build the great MOSQUE in CORDOBA, Spain
853 Earliest (extant) printed book in CHINA
863 creation of the CYRILIC Alphabet in Slavic Europe
888 The Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist scripture: Early evidence of BLOCK PRINTING
910 CLUNIAC reform of the Benedictine monasticism
935 earliest text of the KORAN completed

1000 Flowering of the CHINESE painting & ceramics
use of IRON tools in ZIMBABWE
1045 MOVABLE TYPE Printing developed in China

1066 Norman Invasion of England brings French feudalism
1092 Su Sung's astronomical clock ran by water power until 1126
1096 FIRST CRUSADE of the FRANKS to ASIA MINOR

1100 Earliest UNIVERSITIES in EUROPE

SALERNO: medicine
BOLOGNA: law
PARIS: theology & law

1100 Omar Khayyam’s RUBAIYYAT composed
          Flourishing of Muslim / Christian renaissance
          centered in TOLEDO, SPAIN
             (translation of ancient science & philosophy into Arabic, Latin, & Spanish)
1107 Chinese use multiple color printing
1117 earliest mention in China of a compass used for navigation
1154 CHARTRES cathedral began in France (GOTHIC STYLE)
1160 VERNACULAR languages spread to replace LATIN in
          Italy, France, England, Portugal, Netherlands, Scandinavia and Spain
1189 Herault France is the place of the earliest paper mill in Europe
1193 ZEN BUDDHIST sect founded in JAPAN
1226 Death of St. Francis of Assisi
1269 Peter Perigrinus writes a description of a needle laden compass
1274 SUMMA THEOLOGICA of Thomas Aquinas published
1275 Marco Polo journeyed to CHINA
1290 eyeglasses perfected in ITALY
1291 the origins of the SWISS CONFEDERATION

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Medieval Commercial Revolution

1320 early phase of the ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
1337 ANGLO-FRENCH HUNDRED YEARS (150) WAR begins
1339 building of the KREMLIN undertaken
1348 BLACK DEATH or BUBONIC PLAGUE infects EUROPE
1398 Tammerlane invades India and sacks hindi DELHI
1400 death of CHAUCER
1402 Tammerlane defeats the OTTOMANS in ASIA MINOR
1405 Ming Dynasty of China sends out several world naval expeditions
1415 Earliest PORTUGUESE conquests in west AFRICA
1445 Johannes Gutenberg of MAINZ, GERMANY prints the first book in EUROPE

1453 The destruction of CONSTANTINOPLE by the OTTOMANS
1454 Johannes Gutenberg prints the Bible in Mainz (Germany) Holy Roman Empire.
1472 Initial astronomical observance in the west of the Comet by Regiomantus of                     Nuremburg–later referred to as Haley's Comet in England.
1481 Earliest evidence of a lock used on a European canal by the brother's Dominico
1482 earliest translation of Euclid's Elements in Europe
1492 RECONQUISTA of the IBERIAN Peninsula achieved
          expulsion of the Jews and Muslims from Spain
          Columbus’ first voyage to the WEST INDIES
1493 A Spanish Pope divides the world in two between Portugal and Spain.
1494 French invasion of the Italian Peninsula
1497 Nicolas Copernicus 1st recorded astronomy observation–the moon traveresed a star
1498 A Latin translation of Aristotle is completed by Aldus Manutius

1501 Erasmus publishes "In Praise of Folly" in the Netherlands
1509 the small WATCH invented by PETER HENLE of NURENBERG, Germany
1510-12 N. Copernicus [Nicolas Kopernicus] hypothesizes that the Sun, not the Earth
is the center of the planets, & creates a mathematical proof.
1525 Widespread introduction of the POTATOE in Europe from the ANDES of PERU &
Maize from Ecuador & Mexico.

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Scientific Revolution

1543 Nicolas Kopernicus -- Copernicus, posthumously publishes DE REVOLUTIONIBUS ORBIS
1546 Gerhardus Mercator, Flemish mapmaker, asserts the Earth has magnetic poles.
1548 Mexican silver mines at Zacatecas worked by the Spanish
1559 tobacco spreads through Europe from North America (first seen by Columbus in 1493, West Indies)
1560 Portuguese begin SUGAR PLANTATION AGRICULTURE in Brazil
having brought the sugar cane plants from Indonesia, India, and Arabia
1565 founding of the Spanish mission at St. Augustine, Florida
1569 Mercator's map of the world: Cosmographia published
1574 Earliest European treatise on drugs & building of the Strasbourg clock
1575 The Uraniborg observatory built by Tycho Brahe for his King of Denmark
1585 Simon Stevin, Dutch scientist, proposes the "law of equilibrium."
1593 GALILEO devises a THERMOMETER
1609 Telescope perfected by the Dutch
1610 Galileo demonstrates the telescope from top of the Venetian campanile
1620 first weekly newspapers in AMSTERDAM, Netherlands
1633 Galileo's heresy trial; found guilty by the Holy Inquisition, in Rome
1636 earliest Protestant College in North America
1642 PASCAL perfects the ADDING MACHINE
1653 TAJ MAHAL completed
1656 Bernini begins the work on St. Peters in ROME
1657 Christian Huygen’s perfects PENDULUM CLOCKS
1662 ROYAL SOCIETY founded in LONDON
1666 Academie des Sciences established in PARIS

1709 Abraham Darby adapts COKE SMELTING to the making of PIG IRON
1714 MERCURY THERMOMETER perfected by FAHRENHEIT
1730 Thomas Newcomen creates STEAM ENGINE (1 cylinder)
1762 Harrison’s navigational CHRONOMETER
1769 James Watt’s CONDENSOR assisted STEAM ENGINE

1781, March 13: John and Caroline Herschel telescopically find the planet Uranus

1790 LAVOISIER’S Elements of Chemistry published

Oliver Evans' mechanized flour mill & milling spreads in north USA.
Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin

1792 Cartwright produces a steam powered weaving loom
1793 France adopts Lavoisier’s metric, decimal systems
1796 Jenner concocts a SMALLPOX vaccine, London

Mechanization | Industrialization | Automation

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Nineteenth Century "Progress"

1800 Oliver Evans’ Steam boat, dredge, and wagon built
1801 Allesandro Volta constructs a chemical battery
1809 Sir Humphrey Davy demonstrates electric lighting
1811 ROTARY PRINTING PRESS PERFECTED
1812 Cylinder PRINTING PRESS perfected by LONDON TIMES
1820 Hans Christian Oersted reveals ELECTRO-MAGNETIC FIELDS
1821 ELECTRIC MOTOR & GENERATOR created by M. FARRADAY
1822 earliest PHOTOGRAPHIC image by Neipce, France
1825 first passenger steam RAILWAY

1839 Charles Goodyear initiates the production of rubber condoms,

1859 Darwin publishes, ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES
1861 Pasteur formulates the GERM THEORY of morbidity after aiding the wine industry
1862 Lincoln signs the transcontinental railway act
1863 LONDON constructs the first underground mass railway
1864 Lincoln sets aside YOSEMITE VALLEY as a PARK
1865 James Clerk Maxwell's’ ELECTROMAGNETIC THEORY
PULP PAPER begins to replace RAG PAPER --making newspapers cheaper.
1867 DAS KAPITAL (vol.1) published by KARL MARX
1868 AIR BRAKES invented by WESTINGHOUSE
1869 GOLDEN SPIKE driven at Promontory POINT, UTAH

1870 Celluloid distilled
1871 U.S. Fish Conservation undertaken
1874 NEW YORK displays the ELECTRIC TRAM
1876 PHILADELPHIA CENTENNIAL exhibition
BELL patents his TELEPHONE long distance
1877 PHONOGRAPH designed

1878

Russians build first OIL TANKER
Earliest electric street lighting LONDON
CATHODE RAY TUBE designed

1879 EDISON’S ELECTRIC LIGHT BULB
1882 First hydro-electric plant WISCONSIN
1884 BICYCLE perfected in BRITAIN
1885 DAIMLER & BENZ perfect the AUTOMOBILE
          William Stanley builds a TRANSFORMER (electrical)
1887 TESLA perfects the INDUCTION MOTOR
1888 Dunlop invents the pneumatic tire
1892 WORLD’S COLUMBIAN exhibition CHICAGO
          TESLA devises the A. C. MOTOR
1895 Roentgen discovers “X-RAYS”
          MARCONI demonstrates WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY, radio waves
1896 Henri Becquerel discovers radiation
          accidentally exposing a hidden photographic plate to uranium crystals.
1899 Thomson discovers negatively charged ELECTRONS
          Ebenezer Howard’s GARDEN CITIES OF TOMORROW published modern URBAN PLANNING principles

Mechanization | Industrialization | Automation

19th Century | World War Two | recent | contemporary

Twentieth Century "Futurism"

1900 MAX PLANK formulates the QUANTUM THEORY of matter and energy transformations
          SIGMUND FREUD’S an INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS
1901 Air ship --dirigible-- flown by Alberto Santos-duMont
1903 Western Regional Reclamation undertaken by
          Theodore Roosevelt as water conservation
          Dec. 17, WRIGHT BROTHERS successfully fly at KITTY HAWK
1905 EINSTEIN’S seminal contributions on LIGHT, HEAT, ENTROPY, & GRAVITY

1906, November 12: A. Santos-Dumont builds the aeroplane "14 bis" --
first sustained air flight in Europe, is 722 feet long @ 15 feet altitude.
1908 controlled flight by Wright brothers in France
1909 A. Santos-Dumont builds the aeroplane "demoiselle" at 55 MPH
1910 The development of PLASTICS
1912 PANAMA PACIFIC exhibition SAN FRANCISCO
1913 HENRY FORD’S conveyor belt built MODEL T FORD

1914-1918 The First World War, called the "Great War"
1919 LORD RUTHERFORD splits the ATOM in GREAT BRITAIN
1920 Astronomical measurements support Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, light rays bend around massive celestial bodies
first widespread RADIO BROADCASTING regularly
1923 TB TUBERCULOSIS VACCINE perfected in FRANCE
1928 Hoover Dam project commemorated River Conservation
1929 GREAT CRASH on the New York Stock Exchange
. . . . . start of the Great Depression
1932 Discovery of the Neutrons in ATOMIC NUCLEI

1933 Japanese occupation of puppet regime in Korea
1934 initial scientific interest in cloning research begins
1936 TELEVISION TRANSMISSION
Japan launched invasion of China where it used biochemical weapons

1937 Jet engine tested in BRITAIN
NYLONS created in USA
1938 Hahn & Strassman create fission experimentally in a German lab
1939 Lise Meitner interprets fission experiment correctly

BRITISH perfect RADAR
Penicillin developed by British and Canadians
Swiss concoct DDT as an organo/phosphate pesticide
HELICOPTER invented in the USA

German blitzkreig warfare against Poland launched.

1940 use of early CYCLOTRON

Nazi invasion took less than sixty days to defeat France

1942 first electronic COMPUTER “Eniac” used by military

12/2/1942 ENRICO FERMI conducts the first SUSTAINED NUCLEAR CHAIN REACTION in a GRAPHITE lined CORE

1943 Penicillin successfully used in the treatment of disease.

7/17/1945 ALAMOGORDO, NEW MEXICO: first ATOMIC BOMB blast at the TRINITY TEST SITE
7/18/45 “the day after Trinity.”
(J. Robert Oppenheimer argues the bomb test is revolutionary as it taps the weak nuclear force.)

1946 Xerography process perfected by Chester Carlson for photographic duplication of documents.
1947 earliest SUPERSONIC FLIGHT

USA --Bell Labs-- invents TRANSISTOR--keystone technology– for electronics revolution

1948 antibiotics produced for medicinal therapy
1949 USSR test its first Atomic Bomb
1951 first NUCLEAR POWER STATIONS in the U.S. & U. K.

1952 US tests first Hydrogen fission fusion bomb at Eniwitok, 11/6
CONTRACEPTIVE PILL perfected in the USA
COMPUTER CHIP crafted in BELL LABORATORIES

1953 the structure of DNA MOLECULE described by Watson, Wilkins, Franklin & Crick

USSR explodes a Hydrogen Bomb

1954 US Hydrogen Bomb testing in Bikini atoll the South Pacific
1957 Soviet Union launches the first SATELLITE in SPACE,
1957 The contraceptive pill released as a treatment for gynecological disorders.
1958 earliest recorded data of carbon dioxide fluctuations from atop the Hawaiian Islands

1960 first optical microwave laser constructed, contraceptive pill FDA approved
1961 Soviet Union first orbits a person in SPACE
1961 US announces a race to the Moon with USSR
1967 China explodes a Hydrogen Bomb test
1969 Anglo-French test flight of the Supersonic Transport, SST
1969 Neil Armstrong walks on the LUNAR SURFACE, July

1973 ARAB OIL EMBARGO
1975 first HOME COMPUTER KITS for personal computers available in USA
1980 USA and USSR possess 50,000 nuclear warheads combined

Walter Alvarez argues, based on an iridium clay layer as evidence, that a meteor destroyed the dinosaur's life support system at the end of the Cretaceous Era.

1982 Cruise MISSILES deployed by the USA in EUROPE
first genetically altered bacteria patented to produce insulin
1983 CD, compact disc commercially mass produced
first mission of the US space shuttle
1984 Nucleic acid analysis reveals humans and Chimpanzees share 99% of similar DNA.

Thames flood barrier is opened, largest in the world.
Apple MACintosh home computer & mouse introduced.

1985 British Antarctic Survey documents a growing ozone hole
1986 last two DUSKY SEASIDE SPARROWS face extinction in DISNEY WORLD, FLORIDA; USA.

Space shuttle "Challenger" explodes on take off

1989 Warmest year on record (until that time)
1989 Collapse of Eastern European Communism and the Soviet Union

Eighty nations sign the Montreal Protocol to ban CFCs.

1990 English Channel tunnel completed by the French & British as a rail system between Dover & Calais.
1992 First Persian Gulf / US-Iraqi War.
1998 Warmest year on record surpasses previous record holder. June 1998, an international team of Japanese and U.S. physicists unveiled strong evidence that elusive subatomic particles known as neutrinos have mass (or weight).

1999 Y-2K scare concerning computers precedes the end of the year.
2000 June, initial working genome of the human species published.

Twenty-first century

2001, first intentionally cloned domestic animal, Dolly, a sheep.

2001, two passenger aircraft are used to destroy the World Trade Center in NYC and another airliner is flown into the Pentagon by people bearing Saudi Arabian passports.

2002, European Union admits eastern nations to the original pact.

2002, European Union takes a step to making carbon dioxide and other polluting industrial emissions a commercial medium of exchange in adopting a "carbon trading system" to reduce stationary sources of greenhouse gases.

2003, Space shuttle disintegrates on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere due to faulty and damaged heat shield killing all aboard.

2003, Second Persian Gulf / US-Iraqi War (in 2007 becomes the longest war in US history).

2004, Bar-code reader, auto-teller and credit card converge to make first fully automated consumer store in Germany.

2004, Japanese investors announce plans to develop a high-speed train working on the principle of magnetic levitation (Mag-lev) rather than conventional rails and direct current electrical power to connect Tokyo with Osaka.

2005, Chinese mag-lev train operates in Shanghai.

2005, New Orleans floods after levees break under tidal pressure from two hurricanes whose winds drive high storm tides directly up a poorly designed barge canal. The city is evacuated, whole districts are destroyed; thousands died, over a million people are displaced.

2006, fourth year of the Iraqi invasion or Second Persian Gulf (US-Iraqi) War.

2007, cellulosic ethanol from grass (switch grass) suggested as a source of alcohol for fuel as petroleum hits a record high price of $88.00 per barrel in world markets.

2008, petroleum tops $112 per barrel, food riots worldwide, May, 63,000 dead in a Typhoon that hit coastal Myanmar.

2008, bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium artificial life is synthesized, the initial step and new approach to engineering organisms.

2008, petroleum reaches $178 per barrel on world markets in summer.

2008, August-October, collapse of the global economic system --Second Great Depression, by 2010 leading to 9 then 11 million Americans without jobs [ 8 million in 2012 ].

2011, The Arab Spring: revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, & Syria.

Saturday, March 12-16, there were a series of explosions at Nuclear reactors following earthquake and tidal waves that hit Honshu island, Japan. Radioactive material was detected outside the Fukushima plant.

2011, withdrawal of USA military from Iraq at Iraqi's request.

2012, Asians, Blacks, Hispanics and mixed ethnicity made up 50.4 percent of all births, becoming a majority for the first time in US.

Higgs-boson detected in the CERN subatomic particle accelerator.

Most extensive drought intwo-thirds of the US in over eighty years.

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Last Updated on – August 5, 2012 – from September 7, 2007, - 1998.

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