Science History Timeline (Long)
William N. Brandt
This is a timeline of events in science and mathematics that I have made.
I am posting it to see if people have ideas for additions or corrections
to it. It is the most complete such timeline I know of (I would
be grateful if people could tell me about other such timelines).
I cannot vouch for the correctness of this timeline but have made
efforts to make it as correct as possible. My training is in
physics and events in physical science dominate this timeline (I am
working to add more events in biology and medicine). I realize that
scientific discoveries are not always clear cut events and that
often many people contribute to a discovery while only a few may
get recognition. If people spot severe omissions in this regard I
will work to correct them.
The events are chosen simply because these are interesting things
I have learned about. I am not trying to claim that these events are
special or more important than other ones.
Thank you, Niel Brandt
Please send additions, corrections via email: bra...@sandman.caltech.edu
The following is a plain TEX file.
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\noindent {\bf EVENTS IN SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS}
\vskip 0.2 in
\halign{
# & \hskip 0.040in \hbox{#}\cr
-3000 & The abacus is invented in the Tigris-Euphrates valley\cr
-1700 & Egyptian mathematicians employ fractions\cr
-586 & Thales of Miletus predicts a solar eclipse in 585 B.C.\cr
-530 & Pythagoras studies propositional geometry and vibrating lyre strings\cr
-380 & Hippocrates begins the scientific study of medicine\cr
-370 & Eudoxus states the method of exhaustion\cr
-300 & Euclid studies geometry as a deductive system in {\sevenit Elements} and states the law of reflection in {\sevenit Catoptrics}\cr
-230 & Archimedes writes {\sevenit The Sand-Reckoner} and computes $\pi$ to two decimal places\cr
-200 & Apollonius writes {\sevenit On Conic Sections} and names the ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola\cr
-200 & Eratosthenes roughly determines the radius of the Earth\cr
-130 & Hipparchus creates the magnitude scale of stellar apparent luminosities and discovers the precession of the equinoxes\cr
-46 & Julius Caesar orders the development of the Julian calendar\cr
50 & Cleomedes studies refraction\cr
60 & Hero of Alexandria writes {\sevenit Metrica}, {\sevenit Mechanics}, {\sevenit Catoptrics}, and {\sevenit Pneumatics}\cr
130 & Claudius Ptolemy tabulates angles of refraction for several media\cr
250 & Diophantus writes {\sevenit Arithmetica}, the first systematic treatise on algebra\cr
450 & Tsu Ch'ung-Chih and Tsu K\^eng-Chih compute $\pi$ to six decimal places\cr
550 & Hindu mathematicians give a numeral representation to zero\cr
1054 & Chinese and American Indian astronomers observe the Crab supernova explosion\cr
1202 & Leonardo Fibonacci demonstrates the utility of Arabic numerals in his {\sevenit Book of the Abacus}\cr
1248 & Roger Bacon writes formulas for gunpowder in his {\sevenit Epistola}\cr
1303 & First recorded use of spectacles\cr
1420 & Al-Kashi computes $\pi$ to sixteen decimal places\cr
1451 & Nicholas of Cusa invents concave lens spectacles to treat nearsightedness\cr
1480 & Leonardo da Vinci describes a workable parachute\cr
1490 & Leonardo da Vinci describes capillary action\cr
1492 & Leonardo da Vinci describes a flying machine\cr
1502 & Peter Heinlein builds the first pocketwatch\cr
1512 & Nicholas Copernicus first states his heliocentric theory in {\sevenit Commentariolus}\cr
1520 & Scipione del Ferro has a method for solving certain types of cubic equations\cr
1521 & Ferdinand Magellan observes the Magellanic Clouds during his circumnavigating expedition\cr
1535 & Niccolo Fontana Tartaglia has a method for solving certain types of cubic equations\cr
1540 & Michael Servetus discovers pulmonary circulation\cr
1540 & Lodovico Ferrari solves the quartic equation\cr
1543 & Andreas Vesalius publishes {\sevenit De Fabrica Corporis Humani} which corrects Greek medical errors and revolutionizes medicine\cr
1543 & Nicholas Copernicus shows that his heliocentric theory simplifies planetary motion tables in {\sevenit De Revolutionibus de Orbium Coelestium}\cr
1546 & Gerolamo Fracastoro proposes that epidemic diseases are caused by transferable seedlike entities\cr
1559 & Realdo Colombo discusses the circulation of blood in detail\cr
1569 & Gerardus Mercator issues the first Mercator projection map\cr
1572 & Tycho Brahe discovers his supernova in Cassiopeia\cr
1576 & Thomas Digges modifies the Copernican system by removing its outer edge and replacing the edge with a\cr
& star filled unbounded space\cr
1577 & Tycho Brahe uses parallax to prove that comets are distant entities and not atmospheric phenomena\cr
1581 & Galileo Galilei notices the timekeeping property of the pendulum\cr
1582 & Pope Gregory XIII introduces the Gregorian calendar\cr
1589 & Galileo Galilei uses balls rolling on inclined planes to show that different weights fall with the same acceleration\cr
1590 & Zacharias Janssen invents the microscope\cr
1592 & Galileo Galilei builds a crude thermometer using air in a tube\cr
1596 & Ludolf van Ceulen computes $\pi$ to twenty decimal places\cr
1603 & Johann Bayer develops his system of star nomenclature\cr
1604 & Johannes Kepler's supernova in Serpens is observed\cr
1604 & Johannes Kepler describes how the eye focuses light\cr
1608 & Hans Lippershey tries to patent his refracting telescope\cr
1609 & Johannes Kepler states his first two empirical laws of planetary motion\cr
1609 & Galileo Galilei builds his first telescope\cr
1610 & Galileo Galilei discovers Callisto, Europa, Ganymede, and Io\cr
1610 & Galileo Galilei sees Saturn's rings but does not recognize that they are rings\cr
1610 & Johannes Kepler uses the dark night sky to argue for a finite universe\cr
1611 & M. de Dominis explains the rainbow\cr
1611 & Johannes Kepler discovers total internal reflection, a small angle refraction law, and thin lens optics\cr
1613 & Galileo Galilei uses sunspots to demonstrate the rotation of the sun\cr
1614 & John Napier discusses Napierian logarithms in {\sevenit Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio}\cr
1617 & John Napier discusses the Napier's bones calculating method in {\sevenit Rabdologia}\cr
1617 & Henry Briggs discusses decimal logarithms in {\sevenit Logarithmorum Chilias Prima}\cr
1619 & Johannes Kepler explains the direction of cometary tails by postulating a solar wind\cr
1619 & Johannes Kepler states his third empirical law of planetary motion\cr
1620 & Francis Bacon notices the jigsaw fit of the opposite shores of the Atlantic Ocean\cr
1620 & Francis Bacon analyzes the scientific method in his {\sevenit Great Instauration of Learning}\cr
1621 & Willebrord Snell states his law of refraction\cr
1622 & William Oughtred invents the slide rule\cr
1628 & William Harvey further studies blood circulation and compares the heart to a pump\cr
1629 & Pierre de Fermat develops a rudimentary differential calculus\cr
1637 & Ren\'e Descartes further develops and tests the theory of rainbows\cr
1637 & Pierre de Fermat claims to have proven Fermat's Last Theorem\cr
1638 & Galileo Galilei publishes {\sevenit Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences}\cr
1640 & Ismael Bullialdus suggests an inverse-square gravitational force law\cr
1642 & Blaise Pascal makes an adding machine\cr
1643 & Evangelista Torricelli invents the mercury barometer\cr
1645 & Otto von Guericke builds the first vacuum pump\cr
1654 & Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat develop the theory of probability\cr
1655 & John Wallis writes {\sevenit Arithmetica Infinitorum}\cr
1655 & Giovanni Cassini discovers Jupiter's great red spot\cr
1656 & Christian Huygens identifies Saturn's rings as rings and discovers Titan\cr
1656 & Christian Huygens builds the first highly accurate pendulum clock\cr
1657 & Pierre de Fermat introduces the principle of least time into optics\cr
1658 & Jan Swammerdam observes red blood cells under a microscope\cr
1661 & James Gregory proposes a reflecting telescope\cr
1665 & Giovanni Cassini determines the rotational speeds of Jupiter, Mars, and Venus\cr
1665 & Robert Hooke identifies cells\cr
1665 & Isaac Newton deduces the inverse-square gravitational force law from the ``falling'' of the moon\cr
1665 & Isaac Newton invents his calculus\cr
1668 & Isaac Newton constructs the first reflecting telescope\cr
1668 & Francesco Redi disproves theories of the spontaneous generation of living organisms\cr
1668 & John Wallis suggests the law of conservation of momentum\cr
1672 & Jean Richer and Giovanni Cassini measure the astronomical unit to within 7\%\cr
1672 & Giovanni Cassini discovers Rhea\cr
1673 & Gottfried Leibnitz invents his calculus\cr
1674 & Anton van Leuwenhoek invents the compound microscope\cr
1675 & Ole R\"omer uses the orbital mechanics of Jupiter's moons to estimate the speed of light\cr
1675 & Isaac Newton invents an algorithm for the computation of functional roots\cr
1676 & Anton van Leuwenhoek observes protozoa\cr
1678 & Christian Huygens states his principle of wavefront sources\cr
1683 & Anton van Leuwenhoek observes bacteria\cr
1684 & Isaac Newton proves that planets moving under an inverse-square force law will obey Kepler's laws\cr
1687 & Isaac Newton publishes his {\sevenit Principia Mathematica}\cr
1690 & Jacques Bernoulli solves the isochrone problem\cr
1691 & Jean Bernoulli solves the catenary problem\cr
1696 & Guillaume de L'H\^opital states his rule for the examination of indeterminate forms\cr
1697 & Jean Bernoulli solves the brachistochrone problem\cr
1698 & Thomas Savery builds a steam-powered water pump for pumping water out of mines\cr
1701 & Giacomo Pylarini gives the first smallpox inoculations\cr
1704 & Isaac Newton publishes {\sevenit Opticks}\cr
1705 & Edmond Halley predicts the periodicity of Halley's comet\cr
1712 & Thomas Newcomen builds a piston-and-cylinder steam-powered water pump for pumping water out of mines\cr
1712 & Brook Taylor develops Taylor's series'\cr
1714 & Gabriel Fahrenheit invents the mercury in glass thermometer\cr
1716 & Edmond Halley builds a diving bell\cr
1718 & Edmond Halley discovers stellar proper motions\cr
1720 & Edmond Halley puts forth an early form of Olbers' paradox\cr
1728 & James Bradley discovers the aberration of starlight and uses it to determine the speed of light to within 5\%\cr
1733 & Chester Moor Hall invents the achromatic lens refracting telescope\cr
1733 & Geralamo Saccheri studies what geometry would be like if Euclid's fifth postulate were false\cr
1733 & John Kay patents the flying shuttle loom\cr
1737 & John Harrison presents the first stable nautical chronometer, thereby allowing for precise longitude determination while at sea\cr
1738 & Daniel Bernoulli examines fluid flow in {\sevenit Hydrodynamica}\cr
1740 & Jacques de Vaucanson demonstrates his clockwork powered carriage\cr
1742 & Colin Maclaurin discovers his spheroids\cr
1744 & Jean-Phillipe de Cheseaux puts forth an early form of Olbers' paradox\cr
1747 & Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis applies minimum principles to mechanics\cr
1748 & Maria Agnesi discusses analysis in {\sevenit Instituzioni Analitiche ad Uso della Gioventu Italiana}\cr
1750 & Thomas Wright discusses galaxies and the shape of the Milky Way\cr
1752 & Benjamin Franklin shows that lightning is electricity\cr
1758 & John Dolland reinvents the achromatic lens\cr
1761 & Joseph Black discovers that ice absorbs heat without changing temperature when melting\cr
1763 & Claudius Aymand performs the first successful appendectomy\cr
1766 & Titius of Wittenberg finds the Titius-Bode rule\cr
1766 & Henry Cavendish discovers and studies hydrogen\cr
1767 & Joseph Priestly proposes an electrical inverse-square law\cr
1769 & James Watt patents his first improved steam engine\cr
1771 & Joseph Priestly discovers that plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen\cr
1772 & Johann Bode publicizes the Titius-Bode rule\cr
1778 & Carl Scheele and Antoine Lavoisier discover that air is composed mostly of nitrogen and oxygen\cr
1781 & Joseph Priestly creates water by igniting hydrogen and oxygen\cr
1781 & William Herschel discovers Uranus\cr
1783 & Joseph Montgolfier and \'Etienne Montgolfier launch the first hot air balloons\cr
1784 & Charles Messier publishes his catalog of nebulae\cr
1784 & Edward Piggot discovers the first Cepheid variable star\cr
1785 & Charles Coulomb introduces the inverse-square law of electrostatics\cr
1786 & Luigi Galvani discovers ``animal electricity'' and postulates that animal bodies are storehouses of electricity\cr
1788 & Joseph Lagrange presents his equations of motion in {\sevenit Mechanique Analytique}\cr
1793 & Claude Chappe establishes the first long-distance semaphore telegraph line\cr
1794 & Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin\cr
1795 & Pierre Laplace discusses Newtonian black holes\cr
1796 & Edward Jenner develops a smallpox vaccination\cr
1796 & Pierre Laplace states his nebular hypothesis for the formation of the solar system from a nebula of gas and dust\cr
1798 & Henry Cavendish measures the gravitational constant and determines the mass of the Earth\cr
1798 & Count Rumford has the idea that heat is a form of energy\cr
1799 & Karl Gauss proves that every polynomial equation has a solution among the complex numbers\cr
1800 & Alessandro Volta announces his invention of the electric battery\cr
1800 & William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle use electrolysis to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen\cr
1800 & William Herschel discovers infrared radiation\cr
1801 & Johann Ritter discovers ultraviolet radiation\cr
1801 & Robert Fulton builds the first submarine\cr
1801 & Thomas Young demonstrates the wave nature of light and the principle of interference\cr
1801 & Guiseppe Piazzi discovers the asteroid Ceres\cr
1802 & William Wollaston observes dark lines in the stellar spectrum\cr
1803 & John Dalton introduces atomic ideas into chemistry and states that matter is composed of atoms of different weights\cr
1803 & Thomas Young explains supernumerary rainbows\cr
1807 & Joseph Fourier first announces his discoveries about the trigonometric decomposition of functions\cr
1807 & Isaac de Rivas makes a hydrogen gas powered vehicle\cr
1808 & \'Etienne Malus discovers polarization by reflection\cr
1809 & \'Etienne Malus publishes the law of Malus\cr
1809 & Jean Lamarck revives the idea that acquired characteristics can be inherited in {\sevenit Philosophie Zoologique}\cr
1811 & Amedeo Avogadro claims that equal volumes of gases should contain equal numbers of molecules\cr
1811 & Dominique Arago discovers the optical activity of quartz\cr
1814 & Joseph Fraunhofer studies the spectral lines of the sun\cr
1814 & George Stephenson builds the first practical steam locomotive\cr
1816 & Rene Laennec invents the stethoscope\cr
1816 & David Brewster discovers stress birefringence\cr
1819 & Augustus Siebe invents a diving suit which receives air pumped down from the surface\cr
1820 & Hans Oersted notices that a current in a wire can deflect a compass needle\cr
1821 & Michael Faraday builds an electricity-powered motor\cr
1822 & Joseph Fourier formally introduces the use of dimensions for physical quantities in his {\sevenit Theorie Analytique de la Chaleur}\cr
1823 & William Sturgeon invents the electromagnet\cr
1824 & Sadi Carnot analyzes heat engines\cr
1824 & Niels Abel partially proves that the general quintic or higher equations do not have algebraic solutions\cr
1825 & Augustin Fresnel phenomenologically explains optical activity by introducing circular birefringence\cr
1826 & Joseph Ni\'epce takes the first permanent photograph\cr
1826 & Heinrich Olbers puts forth Olbers' paradox\cr
1826 & Simon Ohm states his law of electrical resistance\cr
1827 & Robert Brown discovers the Brownian motion\cr
1828 & George Green proves Green's theorem\cr
1829 & Nikolai Lobachevski publishes his work on hyperbolic non-Euclidean geometry\cr
1831 & Michael Faraday states his law of induction\cr
1831 & Michael Faraday begins his work on electrolysis\cr
1831 & Joseph Henry proposes an electromagnetic telegraph\cr
1832 & \'Evariste Galois presents a general condition for the solvability of algebraic equations\cr
1834 & William Hamilton states his dynamical principle\cr
1834 & Carl Jacobi discovers his ellipsoids\cr
1834 & Benoit-Pierre Clapeyron presents a formulation of the second law of thermodynamics\cr
1834 & Charles Babbage proposes an analytical engine calculating machine\cr
1835 & Gaspard de Coriolis deduces the Coriolis force\cr
1838 & Friedrich Bessel, T. Henderson, Friedrich Struve measure the parallax of stars\cr
1839 & Charles Goodyear invents vulcanized rubber\cr
1840 & Justus von Leibig invents artificial fertilizer\cr
1842 & Christian D\"oppler states the D\"oppler shift formula\cr
1842 & Crawford Long performs the first surgical operation using anasthesia\cr
1843 & Samuel Morse builds the first long distance electric telegraph line\cr
1843 & James Joule experimentally demonstrates that heat is a form of energy\cr
1845 & Michael Faraday discovers that light propagation in a material can be influenced by external magnetic fields\cr
1845 & Urbain LeVerrier observes a 35'' per century excess precession of Mercury's orbit\cr
1845 & Lord Rosse builds the Parsontown 72-inch optical reflecting telescope\cr
1846 & John Adams and Urbain LeVerrier predict the existence and location of Neptune from irregularities in the orbit of Uranus\cr
1846 & Johann Galle discovers Neptune\cr
1847 & Hermann Helmholtz presents a formulation of the first law of thermodynamics\cr
1847 & Ignaz Semmelweis studies and prevents the transmission of puerperal fever\cr
1848 & Louis Pasteur discovers stereoisomers\cr
1848 & Lord Kelvin discovers the absolute zero point of temperature\cr
1849 & Armand Fizeau measures the speed of light to within 5\%\cr
1850 & George Stokes proves Stokes' theorem\cr
1850 & Edouard Roche finds the limit of tidal destruction for a body held together only by its self gravity\cr
1850 & Lord Rosse discovers that some of the nebulous objects show spiral structure\cr
1851 & Jean Bernard Foucalt shows the Earth's rotation with a huge pendulum\cr
1852 & George Stokes defines the Stokes parameters of polarization\cr
1852 & James Joule and Lord Kelvin demonstrate that a rapidly expanding gas cools\cr
1854 & Georg Riemann introduces Riemannian geometry\cr
1856 & Louis Pasteur states that microorganisms produce fermentation\cr
1858 & Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace independently propose natural selection theories of evolution\cr
1859 & James Maxwell discovers the distribution law of molecular velocities\cr
1860 & Gustav Kirchoff and Robert Bunsen discover that each element has its own distinct set of spectral lines\cr
1862 & Louis Pasteur conclusively disproves the spontaneous generation of living organisms\cr
1862 & Jean Lenoir makes a gasoline-engine automobile\cr
1864 & James Maxwell publishes his papers on a dynamical theory of the electromagnetic field\cr
1864 & John Herschel publishes the General Catalog\cr
1864 & Antoine Becquerel suggests an optical pyrometer\cr
1865 & August Kekul\'e realizes that benzene is composed of carbon and hydrogen atoms in a hexagonal ring\cr
1865 & Gregor Mendel presents his experiments on the crossbreeding of pea plants\cr
1867 & Alfred Nobel patents dynamite\cr
1870 & Rudolph Clausius proves the scalar virial theorem\cr
1870 & Felix Klein constructs an analytic geometry for Lobachevski's geometry thereby establishing its self-consistency\cr
& and the logical independence of Euclid's fifth postulate\cr
1870 & Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch establish the germ theory of disease\cr
1871 & John Rayleigh discusses the blue sky law and sunsets\cr
1871 & Dmitri Mendel\'eyev systematically examines the periodic table and predicts the existence of gallium, scandium, and germanium\cr
1872 & Ludwig Boltzman states the Boltzman equation\cr
1873 & James Maxwell states that light is an electromagnetic phenomenon\cr
1873 & Johannes van der Waals introduces the idea of weak attractive forces between molecules\cr
1873 & Charles Hermite proves that {\sevenit e} is transcendental\cr
1874 & Lord Kelvin formally states the second law of thermodynamics\cr
1875 & John Kerr discovers the electrically induced birefringence of some liquids\cr
1876 & Nikolaus Otto designs a four-cycle engine\cr
1876 & Alexander Bell and Thomas Watson exhibit an electric telephone\cr
1877 & Thomas Edison patents the phonograph\cr
1878 & Josiah Gibbs further develops thermodynamics\cr
1878 & Charles Hermite solves the general quintic equation by means of elliptic and modular functions\cr
1879 & Thomas Edison patents the carbon-thread incandescent lamp\cr
1879 & Josef Stefan observes that the total radiant flux from a black-body is proportional to the fourth power of its temperature\cr
1880 & John Milne invents the seismograph\cr
1881 & Louis Pasteur develops an anthrax vaccine\cr
1882 & Simon Newcomb observes a 43'' per century excess precession of Mercury's orbit\cr
1882 & Ferdinand Lindeman proves that $\pi$ is transcendental and that the circle cannot be squared with a straightedge and compass\cr
1885 & Louis Pasteur develops a rabies vaccine\cr
1885 & Henri Poincar\'e introduces catastrophe theory\cr
1885 & Johann Balmer finds a mathematical expression for observed hydrogen line wavelengths\cr
1885 & William Stanley invents the alternating current transformer\cr
1887 & Albert Michelson and Edward Morley do not detect the ether drift\cr
1887 & Heinrich Hertz discovers the photoelectric effect\cr
1888 & Heinrich Hertz discovers radio waves\cr
1888 & John Dreyer publishes the New General Catalog\cr
1888 & Nikola Tesla patents the induction motor\cr
1888 & Henry Le Ch\^atelier states Le Ch\^atelier's Principle\cr
1889 & Roland von E\"otv\"os shows that gravitational mass and inertial mass are the same to within one part in one billion\cr
1890 & Emil von Behring discovers antitoxins and uses them to develop tetanus and diptheria vaccines\cr
1890 & Albert Michelson proposes the stellar interferometer\cr
1891 & Thomas Edison patents the ``kinetescopic camera''\cr
1892 & Henry Le Ch\^atelier builds the first optical pyrometer\cr
1893 & Ernst Mach states Mach's principle---first constructive attack on the idea of Newtonian absolute space\cr
1893 & Wilhelm Wien discovers the displacement law for a black-body's maximum specific intensity\cr
1893 & Edward Maunder discovers long-term variations in solar activity\cr
1895 & Wilhelm R\"ontgen discovers X-rays\cr
1895 & Pierre Curie discovers that magnetization is proportional to magnetic field strength\cr
1896 & Antoine Becquerel discovers the radioactivity of uranium\cr
1896 & Arnold Sommerfield solves the half-plane diffraction problem\cr
1896 & Pieter Zeeman studies the splitting of spectral lines in magnetic fields\cr
1897 & Joseph Thomson discovers the electron\cr
1897 & Alvan Clark builds the Yerkes 40-inch optical refracting telescope\cr
1897 & Martinus Beijerinck discovers viruses\cr
1898 & Marie Curie and Pierre Curie isolate and study radium and polonium\cr
1899 & Ernest Rutheford discovers that uranium radiation is composed of positively charged alpha particles and\cr
& negatively charged beta particles\cr
1900 & Paul Villard observes gamma rays\cr
1900 & Ferdinand von Zeppelin builds the first successful dirigible\cr
1900 & Johannes Rydberg refines the expression for observed hydrogen line wavelengths\cr
1900 & Max Planck states his radiation law and Planck's constant\cr
1901 & Guglielmo Marconi transmits radio signals from Cornwall to Newfoundland\cr
1902 & James Jeans finds the gravitational collapse length scale\cr
1902 & Phillip Lenard observes that maximum photoelectron energy is independent of illuminating intensity\cr
1903 & Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright fly the first motor-driven airplane\cr
1904 & John Poynting shows that radiation has momentum and exerts pressure\cr
1905 & Albert Einstein completes his theory of special relativity\cr
1905 & Albert Einstein explains the photoelectric effect\cr
1905 & Albert Einstein explains the Brownian motion as due to molecular collisions\cr
1906 & Charles Barkla discovers that each element has a characteristic X-ray and that the degree of penetration of\cr
& these X-rays is related to the atomic weight of the element\cr
1906 & Walther Nernst presents a formulation of the third law of thermodynamics\cr
1906 & Frederick Hopkins suggests the existence of vitamins\cr
1906 & Arthur Eddington begins his statistical study of stellar motions\cr
1907 & Albert Einstein introduces Principle of Equivalence of Gravitation and Inertia\cr
1907 & Ivan Pavlov demonstrates conditioned responses with salivating dogs\cr
1908 & George Hale discovers the magnetic nature of sunspots\cr
1908 & Henrietta Leavitt discovers the Cepheid period-luminosity relation\cr
1908 & Heike Kammerlingh Onnes liquifies helium\cr
1908 & Hans Geiger and Ernest Rutheford invent the Geiger counter\cr
1909 & Hans Geiger and E. Marsden discover large angle deflections of alpha particles by thin metal foils\cr
1909 & Ernest Rutheford and Thomas Royds demonstrate that alpha particles are doubly ionized helium atoms\cr
1910 & Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Russell study the relation between magnitudes and spectral types of stars\cr
1910 & Albert Einstein finds the Einstein-Smoluchowski formula for the attenuation coefficient due to density fluctuations in a gas\cr
1911 & Ernest Rutheford explains the Geiger-Marsden experiment by invoking the nuclear atom\cr
1911 & Heike Kammerlingh Onnes discovers superconductivity\cr
1912 & Victor Hess discovers that the ionization of air increases with altitude indicating the existence of cosmic radiation\cr
1912 & Pieter Debye discovers the T-cubed law for the low temperature heat capacity of a nonmetallic solid\cr
1912 & Max von Laue suggests using lattice solids to diffract X-rays\cr
1912 & W. Friedrich and P. Knipping diffract X-rays in zinc blende\cr
1913 & William Lawrence Bragg and William Henry Bragg work out the Bragg condition for strong X-ray reflection\cr
1913 & Henry Moseley shows that nuclear charge is the real basis for numbering the elements\cr
1913 & Niels Bohr presents his first quantum model of the atom\cr
1913 & Robert Millikan measures the fundamental unit of charge\cr
1913 & Albert Michelson measures tides in the solid body of the Earth\cr
1914 & Srinivasa Ramanujan begins work with Godfrey Hardy in Cambridge, England\cr
1914 & W. Adams determines an incredibly high density for Sirius B\cr
1914 & James Franck and Gustav Hertz observe atomic excitation\cr
1914 & Ernest Rutheford suggests that the positively charged atomic nucleus contains protons\cr
1915 & Albert Einstein completes his theory of general relativity\cr
1915 & Karl Schwarzschild solves Einstein's field equations for spherically symmetric systems\cr
1916 & Sydney Chapman and D. Enskog systematically develop a kinetic theory of gases\cr
1916 & Gilbert Lewis and Irving Langmuir formulate an electron shell model of chemical bonding\cr
1916 & Arnold Sommerfield makes a modified Bohr atom model with elliptic orbits to explain relativity fine structure\cr
1917 & Albert Einstein introduces the idea of stimulated radiation emission\cr
1917 & Willem de Sitter derives an isotropic static cosmological model with a cosmological constant and\cr
& predicts the cosmological redshift\cr
1917 & Mount Wilson 100-inch optical reflecting telescope begins operation\cr
1918 & Harlow Shapley demonstrates that globular clusters surround our galaxy like a halo and are not centered on the Earth\cr
1918 & J. Lense and Hans Thirring find Lense-Thirring precession\cr
1919 & James Jeans discovers that the dynamical constants of motion determine the distribution function for a system of particles\cr
1919 & Arthur Eddington leads a solar eclipse expedition which claims to detect gravitational deflection of light by the sun\cr
1920 & Harlow Shapely and Heber Curtis debate whether or not the spiral nebulae lie within the Milky Way\cr
1920 & Meghnad Saha states his ionization equation\cr
1921 & A. Lande introduces the Lande g-factor\cr
1922 & Arthur Compton studies electron photon scattering\cr
1922 & Vesto Slipher summarizes his findings of systematic redshifts of the spiral nebulae\cr
1922 & Otto Stern and Walter Gerlach show ``space quantization''\cr
1923 & Pieter Debye publishes a statistical treatment of electrolytes\cr
1923 & Edwin Hubble resolves the Shapely-Curtis debate by finding Cepheids in Andromeda\cr
1923 & Louis de Broglie suggests that electrons may have undulatory properties\cr
1924 & Wolfgang Pauli states his exclusion principle\cr
1924 & Jagadis Bose and Albert Einstein introduce Bose-Einstein statistics\cr
1924 & Arthur Eddington develops the main-sequence mass-luminosity relationship\cr
1925 & George Uhlenbeck and Samuel Goudsmit postulate electron spin\cr
1925 & E. Ising introduces his model of ferromagnetism as a cooperative spin phenomenon\cr
1925 & John Baird transmits the first television signal\cr
1925 & Pierre Auger discovers the Auger autoionization process\cr
1926 & Enrico Fermi discovers the spin-statistics connection\cr
1926 & Paul Dirac introduces Fermi-Dirac statistics\cr
1926 & R. Fowler uses Fermi-Dirac statistics to explain white dwarf stars\cr
1926 & Erwin Schr\"odinger states his nonrelativistic quantum wave equation\cr
1926 & Robert Goddard launches the first liquid fuel rocket\cr
1927 & George Lema\^itre proposes a rudimentary Big Bang universe\cr
1927 & Jan Oort proves the Milky Way is rotating and deduces rotational speeds\cr
1927 & Clinton Davission, Lester Germer, and George Thomson confirm the wavelike nature of electrons\cr
1927 & Werner Heisenberg states the quantum uncertainty principle\cr
1927 & Max Born interprets the probabilistic nature of wavefunctions\cr
1927 & Ira Bowen explains unidentified spectral lines from space as forbidden transition lines\cr
1928 & J. Johnson discovers Johnson noise in a resistor\cr
1928 & H. Nyquist derives the fluctuation-dissipation relationship for a resistor to explain Johnson noise\cr
1928 & Paul Dirac states his relativistic electron quantum wave equation\cr
1928 & C. Darwin and W. Gordon solve the Dirac equation for a Coulomb potential\cr
1928 & Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin\cr
1929 & Edwin Hubble discovers the expansion of the universe\cr
1929 & Phoebus Levene discovers DNA\cr
1929 & O. Klein discovers the Klein paradox\cr
1930 & Robert Trumpler discovers absorption by interstellar dust\cr
1930 & Paul Dirac introduces electron hole theory\cr
1930 & Erwin Schr\"odinger predicts the {\sevenit zitterbewegung} motion\cr
1930 & Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto\cr
1930 & Fritz London explains van der Waals forces as due to the interacting fluctuating dipole moments between molecules\cr
1930 & Subrehmanyan Chandrasekhar discovers the white dwarf maximum mass limit\cr
1931 & Kurt G\"odel shows that mathematical systems are not fully self-contained\cr
1931 & Ir\`ene Curie and Fr\'ed\'eric Joliot Curie observe but misinterpret neutron scattering in parafin\cr
1932 & John Cockcroft and Thomas Walton split lithium and boron nuclei using proton bombardment\cr
1932 & James Chadwick discovers the neutron\cr
1932 & Carl Anderson discovers the positron\cr
1932 & Ernst Ruska builds the first electron microscope\cr
1932 & Karl Jansky discovers radio noise from the Milky Way\cr
1933 & Wolfgang Pauli puts forth his neutrino hypothesis\cr
1933 & Fritz Zwicky applies the virial theorem to the Coma cluster and obtains evidence for unseen mass\cr
1934 & Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky propose the idea of neutron stars and suggest that supernovae\cr
& might be created by the collapse of a normal star to a neutron star\cr
1934 & Grote Reber discovers the radio source Cygnus A\cr
1934 & Ernest Lawrence and M. Livingston invent the cyclotron\cr
1934 & Leo Szilard realizes that nuclear chain reactions may be possible\cr
1934 & Enrico Fermi formulates his theory of beta decay\cr
1935 & Hideki Yukawa presents a theory of strong interactions and predicts mesons\cr
1935 & Albert Einstein, B. Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen put forth the EPR paradox\cr
1935 & Niels Bohr resolves the EPR paradox\cr
1935 & Charles Richter invents a scale to measure the strength of earthquakes\cr
1935 & Robert Watson-Watt devises a microwave radar\cr
1936 & Edwin Hubble introduces the spiral, barred spiral, elliptical, and irregular galaxy classifications\cr
1937 & Paul Dirac states his large dimensionless number cosmological hypothesis\cr
1937 & H. Hellmann finds the Hellmann-Feynman theorem\cr
1937 & Carl Anderson, J. Street, and E. Stevenson discover the muon\cr
1937 & Fritz Zwicky states that galaxies could act as gravitational lenses\cr
1937 & Theodor Dobzhansky links evolution and genetic mutation in {\sevenit Genetics and the Origin of the Species}\cr
1938 & A coelacanth is found off the coast of southern Africa\cr
1939 & Richard Feynman finds the Hellmann-Feynman theorem\cr
1939 & Hans Bethe and Carl von Weizsacker propose the proton-proton chain as the thermonuclear energy source for the sun\cr
1939 & Robert Oppenheimer and G. Volkoff calculate the first neutron star models\cr
1939 & Robert Oppenheimer and Hartland Snyder calculate the collapse of a pressure-free homogeneous fluid sphere and find\cr
& that it cuts itself off from communication with the rest of the universe\cr
1939 & Rupert Wildt realizes the importance of the negative hydrogen ion for solar opacity\cr
1939 & Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman bombard uranium salts with thermal neutrons and discover barium among the reaction products\cr
1939 & Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch determine that nuclear fission is taking place in the Hahn-Strassman experiments\cr
}
\halign{
# & \hskip 0.074 in \hbox{#}\cr
1941 & A. McKellar observes the cosmic microwave background radiation in the excitation of CN doublet lines\cr
1942 & J. Doob states his theorem on Gaussian-Markoff processes\cr
1942 & J. Duyvendak, N. Mayall, and Jan Oort deduce that the Crab nebula is a remnant of the 1054 supernova\cr
& observed by Chinese astronomers\cr
1942 & Enrico Fermi makes the first controlled nuclear chain reaction\cr
1942 & Ernst St\"uckelberg introduces the propagator to positron theory and interprets positrons as negative energy\cr
& electrons running backwards in space-time\cr
1942 & Hannes Alfv\'en predicts magnetohydrodynamic waves in plasmas\cr
1942 & Danielson and C. Lanczos implement the fast Fourier transform algorithm\cr
1943 & Jacques-Yves Cousteau makes the first dive with a compressed-air aqualung\cr
1943 & Kenneth Levenberg proposes a method for nonlinear least squares fitting\cr
1943 & Carl Seyfert identifies six spiral galaxies with unusually broad emission lines\cr
1944 & Hendrick van de Hulst predicts the 21 cm line of hydrogen\cr
1944 & Werner von Braun and Walter Dornberger launch the first V2 rocket\cr
1944 & Oswald Avery finds evidence indicating that DNA carries genetic properties\cr
1945 & First thermonuclear fission bomb exploded at Alamogordo in the New Mexico desert\cr
1946 & John Eckert and John Mauchley finish ENIAC, the first electronic computer\cr
1947 & First supersonic flight\cr
1947 & Willis Lamb and Robert Retheford measure the Lamb-Retheford shift\cr
1947 & Cecil Powell discovers the pi-meson\cr
1947 & Richard Feynman presents his propagator approach to quantum electrodynamics\cr
1947 & Palomar 200-inch optical reflecting telescope begins operation\cr
1947 & Willard Libby introduces carbon-14 dating\cr
1948 & George Gamow, Ralph Alpher, and Robert Herman formulate the Big Bang theory and predict the cosmic microwave background\cr
1948 & Hermann Bondi, Thomas Gold, and Fred Hoyle propose steady state cosmologies\cr
1948 & William Shockley, Walter Brattain, and John Bardeen invent the transistor\cr
1948 & Hendrik Casimir predicts a rudimentary attractive Casimir force on a parallel plate capacitor\cr
1948 & John von Neumann mathematically studies self-reproducing machines\cr
1949 & Herbert Friedman detects solar X-rays\cr
1950 & Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase prove that DNA is the genetic material in bacteriophages\cr
1950 & Jan Oort suggests the presence of a cometary Oort cloud\cr
1950 & Alan Turing proposes the ``Turing test'' criterion for an intelligent machine\cr
1951 & Harold Ewen and Edward Purcell observe the 21 cm line of hydrogen\cr
1951 & John Eckert and John Mauchley finish UNIVAC I, the first mass-produced electronic computer\cr
1952 & Walter Baade distinguishes between Cepheid I and Cepheid II variable stars\cr
1952 & Jonas Salk develops the first polio vaccine\cr
1952 & First thermonuclear fusion bomb exploded\cr
1952 & Hermann Bondi publishes his hydrodynamic spherical accretion model\cr
1953 & Frederick Reines and Clyde Cowan detect neutrinos\cr
1953 & Fred Hoyle predicts a carbon-12 reasonance to allow stellar triple alpha reactions at reasonable stellar interior temperatures\cr
1953 & James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and Rosalind Franklin elucidate the structure of DNA using X-ray\cr
& diffraction studies\cr
1953 & Nicholas Metropolis introduces the idea of thermodynamic simulated annealing algorithms\cr
1953 & Max Perutz and John Kendrew determine the structure of hemoglobin using X-ray diffraction studies\cr
1953 & Charles Townes makes the first maser\cr
1954 & Construction of the first nuclear power reactor\cr
1954 & Walter Baade and R. Minkowski identify the extragalactic optical counterpart of the radio source Cygnus A\cr
1954 & R. Luders derives the PCT theorem\cr
1954 & Chen Yang and R. Mills investigate a theory of hadronic isospin by demanding local gauge invariance under\cr
& isotopic spin space rotations---first non-Abelian gauge theory\cr
1956 & Lyman Spitzer predicts coronal gas around the Milky Way\cr
1956 & Herbert Friedman detects hints of the X-ray background\cr
1956 & R. Hanbury-Brown and R. Twiss complete the correlation interferometer\cr
1956 & Chen Yang and Tsung Lee propose weak force violation of parity\cr
1956 & Chien Wu discovers weak force violation of parity in decaying cobalt\cr
1957 & A.S. Kompaneets derives his Compton scattering Fokker-Planck equation\cr
1957 & Sputnik I is launched---first orbiting satellite\cr
1957 & Peter Scheuer publishes his {\sevenit P(D)} method for obtaining source counts of spatially unresolved sources\cr
1957 & John Bardeen, Leon Cooper and Robert Schrieffer develop a theory of superconductivity\cr
1957 & Richard Feynman, Murray Gell-Mann, Robert Marshak, and E. Sudarshan propose a V-A Lagrangian for weak interactions\cr
1957 & John Wheeler discusses the breakdown of classical general relativity near singularities and the need for quantum gravity\cr
1958 & Launch of the first ICBM missile\cr
1958 & Rudolf M\"ossbauer finds the M\"ossbauer crystal recoil effect\cr
1958 & E. Schatzman, B. Harrison, M. Wakano, and J. Wheeler show that white dwarfs are unstable to inverse beta decay\cr
1958 & M. Spaarnay verifies the Casimir effect\cr
1959 & Y. Aharonov and D. Bohm predict the Aharonov-Bohm effect\cr
1960 & R. Chambers experimentally confirms the Aharonov-Bohm effect\cr
1960 & R. Pound and G. Rebka test the gravitational redshift predicted by the general relativity equivalence principle\cr
1960 & Theodore Maiman makes the first laser\cr
1960 & Owens Valley 27-meter radio telescopes begin operation\cr
1960 & Martin Ryle tests Earth rotation aperature synthesis\cr
1960 & C. Hoare invents the quicksort algorithm\cr
1961 & Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space\cr
1961 & Murray Gell-Mann and Yuval Ne'eman discover the Eightfold Way patterns---SU(3) group\cr
1961 & C. Hayashi publishes his work on the Hayashi track\cr
1961 & Jeffery Goldstone considers the breaking of global phase symmetry\cr
1962 & Donald Marquardt proposes the Levenberg-Marquardt nonlinear least squares fitting algorithm\cr
1962 & R. Giacconi, H. Gursky, F. Paolini, and B. Rossi formally discover the X-ray background and Sco X-1\cr
1962 & Mariner 2 is the first mission to Venus\cr
1962 & A. Bennett publishes the revised 3C catalog of radio sources\cr
1963 & Maarten Schmidt identifies the first ``quasi-stellar object''\cr
1963 & Roy Kerr solves Einstein's field equations for uncharged rotating black holes\cr
1963 & Fred Hoyle and William Fowler conceive the idea of supermassive stars and suggest they may be associated with active galaxies\cr
1963 & Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig propose the quark/aces model\cr
1963 & Publication of {\sevenit The Feynman Lectures on Physics}\cr
1964 & Subrehmanyan Chandrasekhar and Richard Feynman develop a general relativistic theory of stellar pulsations and show\cr
& that supermassive stars are subject to a general relativistic instability\cr
1964 & Martin Ryle's 1-mile radio interferometer begins operation\cr
1964 & P. Higgs considers the breaking of local phase symmetry\cr
1964 & Irwin Shapiro predicts a gravitational time delay of radiation travel as fourth test of general relativity\cr
1964 & Val Fitch and James Cronin see CP violation in the decay of K mesons\cr
1964 & Roger Penrose proves that an imploding star will necessarily produce a singularity once it has formed an event horizon\cr
1965 & Edward Harrison solves Olbers' paradox\cr
1965 & Owens Valley 40-meter radio telescope begins operation\cr
1965 & Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discover the cosmic microwave background radiation\cr
1965 & Mariner 4 sends the first clear pictures of Mars\cr
1965 & E. Newman solves Einstein's field equations for charged rotating black holes\cr
1966 & Stephen Hawking and George Ellis show that any plausible general relativistic cosmology is singular\cr
1966 & R. Sachs and A. Wolfe theoretically predict microwave background fluctuation amplitudes\cr
1967 & Steven Weinberg puts forth his electroweak gauge theory\cr
1967 & First VLBI images---183 km baseline\cr
1967 & Venera 4 sends the first data from below clouds of Venus\cr
1967 & Pulsars discovered by Anthony Hewish and Jocelyn Bell\cr
1968 & Thomas Gold proposes that pulsars are rotating neutron stars\cr
1968 & Georges Charpak and Roger Bouclier build the first multiwire proportional mode particle detection chamber\cr
1969 & First manned mission to the moon\cr
1969 & Observations start at Big Bear Solar Observatory\cr
1969 & W. Cocke, H. Disney, and D. Taylor discover the Crab nebula pulsar thus connecting supernovae, neutron stars, and pulsars\cr
1969 & Lewis Snyder, David Buhl, B. Zuckerman, and Patrick Palmer find interstellar formaldehyde\cr
1970 & Hamilton Smith and Daniel Nathans discover a DNA cutting enzyme\cr
1970 & George Carruthers observes molecular hydrogen in space\cr
1970 & Sheldon Glashow, J. Iliopoulos, and L. Maiani propose the charm quark\cr
1970 & Launch of {\sevenit Uhuru}---first dedicated X-ray satellite\cr
1971 & Identification of Cygnus X-1/HDE 226868 as a binary black hole candidate system\cr
1971 & Gerard 't Hooft shows that the Glashow-Salam-Weinberg electroweak model can be renormalized\cr
1973 & David Politzer proposes the asymptotic freedom of quarks\cr
1974 & Mariner 10 passes by and photographs Mercury\cr
1974 & Launch of the Ariel V X-ray satellite\cr
1974 & Burton Richter and Samuel Ting discover the {\sevenit J}/$\psi$ meson implying the existence of the charm quark\cr
1974 & Kenneth Wilson develops the renormalization group technique for treating phase transitions\cr
1974 & Donald Johanson and Tom Gray discover a 3.5 million-year-old female hominid fossil that is 40\% complete and name it ``Lucy''\cr
1974 & Stephen Hawking discusses blackbody radiation and particle emission from black holes\cr
1975 & Russell Hulse and Joseph Taylor identify PSR 1913+16 as a binary pulsar\cr
1975 & M. Perl discovers the tauon\cr
1975 & The Altair 8800 personal computer is released\cr
1976 & Viking I and II land on Mars\cr
1976 & The {\sevenit Vela} and {\sevenit ANS} X-ray satellites discover X-ray bursts\cr
1976 & K. Appel and W. Haken use a computer to prove the Four-Color Theorem\cr
1976 & A. Shlyakhter uses samarium ratios from the prehistoric natural fission reactor in Gabon to show that some\cr
& laws of physics have remained unchanged for over two billion years\cr
1977 & Donald Knuth begins work on \TeX \cr
1977 & Christopher McKee and Jeremiah Ostriker propose a three component theory of the interstellar medium\cr
1977 & S. Herb finds the upsilon reasonance implying the existence of the beauty quark\cr
1978 & Launch of the {\sevenit Einstein} X-ray satellite (HEAO-2)---first X-ray photographs of astronomical objects\cr
1979 & Launch of the {\sevenit Hakucho} X-ray satellite (ASTRO-A)\cr
1979 & D. Walsh, Robert Carswell, and R. Weymann discover the first gravitational lens\cr
1980 & Completion of construction of the VLA\cr
1980 & Alan Guth proposes the inflationary universe as a possible solution to the horizon and flatness problems\cr
1981 & Chinese scientists clone a golden carp\cr
1983 & Launch of the EXOSAT X-ray satellite\cr
1983 & Launch of the {\sevenit Tenma} X-ray satellite (ASTRO-B)\cr
1983 & Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer find the W$^\pm$ and Z$^0$ intermediate vector bosons\cr
1983 & Launch of the IRAS satellite\cr
1984 & Alec Jeffreys devises a DNA fingerprinting method\cr
1985 & Louis de Branges proves the Bierbach Conjecture\cr
1987 & Observation of supernova 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud\cr
1987 & Alex Muller and Georg Bednorz discover high temperature ceramic superconductors\cr
1987 & Launch of the {\sevenit Ginga} X-ray satellite (ASTRO-C)\cr
1989 & The Z$^0$ intermediate vector boson reasonance width indicates three quark-lepton generations\cr
1989 & Identification of GS2023+338/V404 Cygni as a binary black hole candidate system\cr
1989 & Launch of the COBE satellite\cr
1990 & Launch of the ROSAT X-ray satellite---first imaging X-ray sky survey\cr
1992 & The COBE satellite indicates anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background\cr
1993 & Launch of the {\sevenit Asca} X-ray satellite (ASTRO-D)\cr
}
\end
Charles G. James
bra...@cco.caltech.edu writes:
>
>Please send additions, corrections via email: bra...@sandman.caltech.edu
>
>
>The following is a plain TEX file.
>
sections the way people do pictures and repost this? You would be amazed
at the trouble I'm having with the TeX file.
Charles G James, Jr
Dept. Chemistry UNCA
ja...@uncavx.unca.edu Asheville NC
unc...@ecsvax.uncecs.edu