The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

Tags: American Revolution, Independence, Declaration, Enlightenment, Thomas Jefferson

Circular saw invented by Samuel Miller

Tags: Woodworking, Industrial Revolution, Manufacturing, American History

James Cook becomes the first European to land on the Hawaiian Islands.

Tags: Exploration, European Colonization, Indigenous Peoples, British Empire, Hawaii, James Cook, Discovery, Maritime History

Franco-American alliance signed.

Tags: American Revolution, Diplomacy, International Relations, Warfare, Treaty

The Treaty of Paris formally ends the American Revolutionary War.

Tags: American Revolution, Treaties, Diplomacy, Independence, Warfare, Nationalism

Bifocals invented by Benjamin Franklin

Tags: Inventions, Optics, Benjamin Franklin, Medicine, American History

Automatic flour mill invented by Oliver Evans

Tags: Industrial Revolution, Manufacturing, Agriculture, Automation, American History

1788: The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay

Tags: Political Theory, American Revolution, United States Constitution, Federalism, Political Philosophy, Early Republic, Founding Fathers

The United States Constitution is written in Philadelphia and submitted to the states for ratification.

Tags: Constitution, Founding Fathers, Federalism, Republicanism, Legislative Branch, Executive Branch, American Revolution, Political Philosophy

New Hampshire becomes the 9th state to ratify the United States Constitution, and by the terms of Article VII it takes effect.

Tags: Constitution, Federalism, American Revolution, Political History, Early Republic, Founding Fathers

George Washington is elected the first President of the United States; he serves until 1797.

Tags: American Revolution, Presidency, George Washington, Founding Fathers, Federalism, Early Republic, Political Leadership, Constitution

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano

Tags: Slavery, Transatlantic Slave Trade, Abolitionism, British Empire, African Diaspora, Human Rights

1795: George Vancouver explores the world during the Vancouver Expedition.

Tags: Exploration, Mapping, Royal Navy, Pacific Northwest, Cartography

The United States Bill of Rights is ratified.

Tags: Bill of Rights, Constitution, Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Political History, American Revolution, Founding Fathers, Legal History, Federalism

Eli Whitney invents the modern cotton gin.

Tags: Industrial Revolution, Slavery, Textile Industry, Economy, Agriculture, United States History

Jay's Treaty is concluded between Great Britain and the United States, by which the Western outposts in the Great Lakes are returned to the U.S. and c...

Tags: Treaty, Diplomacy, International Relations, Commerce, Territorial Disputes, Early Republic, George Washington

Pinckney's Treaty between the United States and Spain grants the Mississippi Territory to the U.S.

Tags: Treaty, Diplomacy, Territorial Expansion, Foreign Policy

John Adams is inaugurated on March 4 as President of the United States following the 1796 United States presidential election. The peaceful transfer o...

Tags: Presidency, Inauguration, Political Transition, Federal Government, George Washington, Early Republic

American politician Alexander Hamilton begins publishing the New York Evening Post as the Federalist "Vehicle" for their news.

Tags: Media, Early Republic, Freedom of the Press

Thomas Jefferson elected President of the United States by the House of Representatives, following a tie in the Electoral College.

Tags: Presidential Election, Thomas Jefferson, Early Republic, Legislative Branch

The United States almost doubles in size when it buys out France's territorial claims in North America in the Louisiana Purchase. This begins the Amer...

Tags: Westward Expansion, Territorial Acquisition, Manifest Destiny, American History, Diplomacy, Geopolitics, Thomas Jefferson

Lewis and Clark Expedition in western U.S.

Tags: Exploration, United States History, Mapping, Indigenous Peoples, Territorial Expansion

Robert Fulton expands water transportation and trade with the workable steamboat.

Tags: Transportation, Steam Power, Trade, Industrial Revolution

Britain and the United States separately make the Slave Trade a criminal act.

Tags: Slavery, Abolition, Transatlantic Slave Trade, Legislation, Human Rights

Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward.

Tags: Supreme Court, Constitutional Law, Corporations, Judicial Review, John Marshall, Federalism

Missouri Compromise on the slavery issue in U.S.

Tags: Slavery, Political Crisis, Expansionism, Sectionalism, Legislative Action

Thomas Blanchard invents the pattern-tracing lathe (actually more like a shaper). The lathe can copy symmetrical shapes and is used for making gun sto...

Tags: Manufacturing, Industrial Revolution, Automation

Denmark Vesey is arrested and executed for attempting to incite a slave insurrection in South Carolina.

Tags: Slavery, South Carolina, Antebellum Era, African American History, Resistance, Social Justice, Conspiracy

Monroe Doctrine declared by US President James Monroe in cooperation with Britain.

Tags: US Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Imperialism, American Expansionism

Gibbons v. Ogden, a landmark decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the power to regulate interstate commerce encompassed the power to re...

Tags: Supreme Court, Judicial Review, Federalism, Navigation, Constitutional Law, John Marshall, Early Republic

American Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine.

Tags: Industrial Revolution, Patents

U.S. Congress passes the Indian Removal Act which authorized the President to negotiate removal treaties with many native tribes living east of the Mi...

Tags: Indigenous Peoples, Forced Migration, Manifest Destiny, Andrew Jackson, Treaties, American Expansion, Sovereignty

Chief John Ross of the Cherokee Nation defends Cherokee rights and sovereignty in the U.S. Supreme Court case The Cherokee Nation v. The State of Geor...

Tags: Indigenous Rights, Supreme Court, Legal History, Immigration, Irish History, Manifest Destiny

Joseph Henry invents the electromechanical relay.

Tags: Electrical Engineering, Electromagnetism, Communication, Telegraphy, American History

Samuel Colt popularizes the revolver and sets up a firearms company to manufacture his invention of the Colt Paterson revolver a six bullets firearm s...

Tags: American History, Firearms, Weapons, Manufacturing

Telegraphy patented.

Tags: Communication, Samuel Morse, Telegraph, Industrial Revolution

Samuel Morse invents Morse code.

Tags: Communication, Telegraph, Samuel Morse, Electrical Engineering

William Otis invents the steam shovel.

Tags: Industrial Revolution, Construction, Transportation, Mining

Charles Goodyear invents vulcanized rubber.

Tags: Rubber, Industrial Revolution, Manufacturing, Materials Science, Transportation

William Henry Harrison is the first US president to die in office.

Tags: American History, Political Transition, Executive Branch

Anaesthesia used for the first time.

Tags: Medicine, Surgery, Anesthesia, Massachusetts, Medical History

Short stories A Christmas Carol and The Tell-Tale Heart published.

Tags: Literature, Fiction, Writing

First publicly funded telegraph line in the world—between Baltimore and Washington—sends demonstration message on 24 May, ushering in the age of the t...

Tags: Telegraph, Communication, American History, Samuel Morse, Transportation

Treaty of Wanghia was signed by the United States and China.

Tags: Diplomacy, Treaty, Trade, Foreign Relations, Imperialism, Qing Dynasty

Texas annexed by the United States and becomes the 28th state.

Tags: United States History, Manifest Destiny, Expansionism, Territorial Expansion, Slavery, Mexican-American War, Texas Revolution, Statehood

The Wilmot Proviso unsuccessfully attempts to ban slavery in western territories acquired after the Mexican-American War.

Tags: Slavery, United States History, Antebellum Era, Mexican-American War, Territorial Expansion, Sectionalism, Political Divisions, Westward Expansion

The Oregon Treaty is signed between the United Kingdom and the United States, ceding the modern states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, as well as pa...

Tags: Treaty, Border Dispute, Territorial Expansion, Manifest Destiny, Diplomacy, Pacific Northwest

Linus Yale Sr. invents the first modern pin tumbler lock.

Tags: Security, Industrial Revolution, Mechanical Engineering

Walter Hunt invents the first repeating rifle to use metallic cartridges (of his own design) and a spring-fed magazine.

Tags: Firearms, Weaponry, American History, Military Technology

James B. Francis invents the Francis turbine.

Tags: Hydropower, Industrial Revolution, Energy

Walter Hunt invents the Safety pin.

Tags: Patent, Industrial Revolution, Manufacturing

Herman Melville publishes Moby-Dick.

Tags: American Literature, Novel, Romanticism, Literature, Global Impact

Elisha Otis invents the safety brake elevator.

Tags: Safety, Industrial Revolution, Urbanization, Transportation, Modernization

William Wells Brown (1814–1884) wrote first novel published by an African American, Clotel.

Tags: Literature, African American History, Novel, Slavery, American Literature, Civil Rights

Twelve Years a Slave is a memoir and slave narrative by American Solomon Northup as told to and edited by David Wilson.

Tags: Slavery, American History, Civil War, Literature, Social Commentary, Abolitionism

The Convention of Kanagawa formally ends Japan's policy of isolation. This would open up two ports in Japan to American ships and offered protection t...

Tags: Imperialism, Isolationism, Trade, Diplomacy, Treaty, Meiji Restoration, Globalization

Bessemer process enables steel to be mass-produced.

Tags: Industrial Revolution, Steel, Metallurgy, Manufacturing, Mass Production, Economic Development

Walt Whitman publishes Leaves of Grass.

Tags: Poetry, American Literature, Modernism

The Pony Express started.

Tags: Transportation, Communication, Westward Expansion, American West, Infrastructure

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, declaring slaves in Confederate territories free, a pivotal step to...

Tags: American Civil War, Slavery, Emancipation, Abolitionism, Abraham Lincoln, Civil Rights

1865–1877: Reconstruction in the United States; Slavery is banned in the United States by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Tags: Reconstruction, Civil Rights, Slavery, Abolition, Civil War, Post-War, Legislation

April 14: United States President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by actor and Confederate sympathiser John Wilkes Booth, while attending a performanc...

Tags: Assassination, American Civil War, Reconstruction Era, Abraham Lincoln, Political Violence

Successful transatlantic telegraph cable follows an earlier attempt in 1858.

Tags: Communication, Telegraph, Globalization, Infrastructure

Lucien B. Smith invents barbed wire, which Joseph F. Glidden will modify in 1874, leading to the taming of the West and the end of the cowboys.

Tags: American West, Agriculture, Industrial Revolution, Frontier

The United States purchases Alaska from Russia.

Tags: Expansionism, Territorial Acquisition, Diplomacy, United States History, Russian Empire, Manifest Destiny, Geopolitics, Alaska

The Expatriation Act of 1868 is approved by the U.S. Congress, one of the early blows which would eventually lead to the death of the common law doctr...

Tags: Citizenship, Law, Legal History, American History, Nationalism, Civil Rights, Immigration

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is approved.

Tags: Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, Reconstruction Era, Equality, Citizenship, American Politics, Legal History

First transcontinental railroad completed in United States on 10 May. – United States

Tags: Railroad, Transportation, Infrastructure, Westward Expansion, American Civil War, Economic Development, Manifest Destiny

Blue jeans and barbed wire are invented.

Tags: Inventions, Industrial Revolution, Westward Expansion, Agriculture, Material Culture

Josiah Willard Gibbs founded chemical thermodynamics, the phase rule.

Tags: Thermodynamics, Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Scientific Revolution, Global Impact, Physics

Alexander Graham Bell has a patent granted for the telephone. However, other inventors before Bell had worked on the development of the telephone and ...

Tags: Communication, Patent, Telecommunications, Industrial Revolution, Global Impact

Asaph Hall discovers the moons of Mars.

Tags: Astronomy, Space Exploration, Planetary Science, Mars

Thomas Edison invents the phonograph.

Tags: Sound Recording, Communication, Entertainment, Industrial Revolution, Global Impact

First commercial telephone exchange in New Haven, Connecticut.A barricade in the Paris Commune, 18 March 1871. Around 30,000 Parisians were killed, an...

Tags: Communication, Infrastructure

Lester Allan Pelton invents the Pelton wheel.

Tags: Inventions, Hydropower, Industrial Revolution, Energy, Mechanics

Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison independently patented functional incandescent light bulbs, ending decades of unsuccessful experimentation. Edison's hig...

Tags: Electricity, Lighting, Industrial Revolution, Thomas Edison, Global Impact

President James A. Garfield is assassinated.

Tags: Assassination, Gilded Age, American History

Mark Twain publishes Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Tags: Literature, American Literature, Novel, Satire, Slavery, Social Commentary

Singer begins production of the 'Vibrating Shuttle'. which would become the most popular model of sewing machine.

Tags: Industrial Revolution, Manufacturing, Consumer Goods, Textiles, Mass Production

Charles Martin Hall and independently Paul Héroult invent the Hall–Héroult process for economically producing aluminum in 1886.

Tags: Industrial Revolution, Metallurgy, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Global Trade

Construction of the Statue of Liberty (formally Liberty Englightening the World)

Tags: Sculpture, Monument, Symbolism, Immigration, French Third Republic, Gilded Age, Liberty

Albert A. Michelson and Edward W. Morley: Michelson–Morley experiment which showed a lack of evidence for the aether.

Tags: Physics, Relativity, Global Impact, Scientific Revolution

John J. Loud invents the ballpoint pen.

Tags: Inventions, Writing, Patents, Industrial Revolution

Thomas Edison and William Kennedy Dickson invent the Kinetoscope.

Tags: Film, Motion Pictures, Cinema, Thomas Edison, Entertainment, Mass Media

Robert Gair would invent the pre-cut cardboard box.

Tags: Packaging, Manufacturing, Industrial Revolution, Commerce, Business

Whitcomb Judson invents the zipper.

Tags: Manufacturing, Textiles, Fashion, Industrial Revolution, Patent

John Froelich develops and constructs the first gasoline/petrol-powered tractor.

Tags: Agriculture, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Revolution

William Stewart Halsted, invents the rubber glove for his wife Caroline Hampton as he noticed her hands were affected by the daily surgeries she had p...

Tags: Medicine, Surgery, Medical Technology, Hygiene, Health

Business coalition overthrows the royal government of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Tags: Imperialism, Colonialism, Annexation, Monarchy, Republic, Political Transition

First gramophone record.

Tags: Sound Recording, Communication, Music, Entertainment, Industrial Revolution, Mass Media

First electric bicycle produced by Hosea Libbey.

Tags: Transportation, Electric Vehicles, Technology History

J. J. O'Donnell discovers and documents the order-of-sequence for the sound of an approaching tornado

Tags: Meteorology, Natural Disaster, Weather, Observation, United States History

United States annexes the Republic of Hawaii

Tags: Imperialism, Expansionism, Hawaii, Political History, Territorial Acquisition, Foreign Policy, Manifest Destiny

1899–1900: Open Door Policy proclaimed to protect China.

Tags: Imperialism, Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Trade, International Relations

Hawaii becomes an official U.S. territory.

Tags: Imperialism, Colonialism, Annexation, Territorial Acquisition, American Expansionism

L. Frank Baum publishes The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Tags: Children's Literature, Fantasy, American Literature, Novel, Cultural Impact, Symbolism

The first motorized cleaner using suction, a powered "vacuum cleaner", is patented independently by Hubert Cecil Booth and David T. Kenney.

Tags: Industrial Revolution, Patent, Consumerism

March 2: The Platt Amendment provides for Cuban independence in exchange for the withdrawal of American troops.

Tags: Imperialism, US Foreign Policy, Spanish-American War, Treaty, Sovereignty, Political Influence

September 6: The assassination of William McKinley ushered in office Vice President Theodore Roosevelt after McKinley's death on September 14.

Tags: Presidency, Assassination, Progressive Era, Political Violence, Executive Branch

July 17: Willis Carrier invents the first modern electrical air conditioning unit.

Tags: Industrial Revolution

May 20: Cuba given independence by the United States.

Tags: Independence, Cuban History, United States History, Imperialism, Colonialism, Diplomacy, Treaty of Paris, Spanish-American War, Sovereignty

First sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight achieved by an airplane flown at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina by Orville and Wilbur Wrigh...

Tags: Aviation, Flight, Transportation

November 18: Independence of Panama, the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama.

Tags: Imperialism, Treaty, Independence, Panama Canal, Geopolitics

May: U.S. begins construction of the Panama Canal and eradication of yellow fever.

Tags: Panama Canal, Public Health, Disease Eradication, United States History, Infrastructure

Leo Baekeland invents bakelite, the first plastic made from synthetic components.

Tags: Plastic, Synthetic Materials, Chemistry, Industrial Revolution, Material Science, Manufacturing

October 1: The Ford Motor Company invents the Model T.

Tags: Automobile, Industrial Revolution, Mass Production, Assembly Line, Transportation, Consumerism

First commercial radio transmissions.

Tags: Radio, Communication, Broadcasting, Guglielmo Marconi, Entertainment, Media

July 26: Founding of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI)

Tags: Law Enforcement, Federal Government, Justice, Crime, FBI

April 6: Robert Peary claims to have reached the North Pole though the claim is subsequently heavily contested.

Tags: Exploration, Polar Exploration, Controversy, Arctic, Geography

Robert Andrews Millikan: conducts the oil drop experiment and determines the charge on an electron

Tags: Physics, Atomic Theory, Experimental Physics, Scientific Method, Modern Physics, Quantum Mechanics

March 4: William Howard Taft is inaugurated as President of the United States; deep divisions in his Republican Party over tariffs.

Tags: Presidency, Tariffs, Economic Policy

Williamina Fleming: the first white dwarf, 40 Eridani B

Tags: Astronomy, Cosmology, Stellar Evolution, Astrophysics, Spectroscopy

January 18: Eugene Burton Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco harbor, marking the first time an aircraft lands on...

Tags: Aviation, Naval Technology, Military Technology, United States Navy, Transportation

November 3: Swiss race car driver and automotive engineer Louis Chevrolet co-founds the Chevrolet Motor Company in Detroit with his brother Arthur Che...

Tags: Automotive Industry, Automobile, Entrepreneurship, Manufacturing, Business, Industrial Revolution, Transportation

Vesto Slipher: galactic redshifts

Tags: Astronomy, Cosmology, Galaxies, Observational Astronomy, Expansion of the Universe, Physics

Henrietta Swan Leavitt: Cepheid variable period-luminosity relation

Tags: Astronomy, Cosmology, Astrophysics, Edwin Hubble

The first commercial slot cars or more accurately model electric racing cars operating under constant power were made by Lionel (USA) and appeared in ...

Tags: Toys, Entertainment, Consumerism, Electric Vehicles

The first use of articulated trams by Boston Elevated Railway.

Tags: Transportation, Urban Development, Public Transit, Infrastructure

February 14: Arizona becomes the last state to be admitted to the continental Union.

Tags: Statehood, American West, United States History, Expansionism, Political Geography

October 7: Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line.

Tags: Industrial Revolution, Assembly Line, Mass Production, Manufacturing, Automobile Industry

March 4: Woodrow Wilson is inaugurated as President of the United States.

Tags: Presidency, Progressive Era, Woodrow Wilson, Inauguration, Government

September 1: Martha, last known passenger pigeon, dies.

Tags: Extinction, Environmentalism, Conservation, Wildlife, Zoology

The crystal oscillator is invented by Alexander M. Nicholson using a crystal of Rochelle Salt although his priority was disputed by Walter Guyton Cady...

Tags: Electronics, Radio Technology, Telecommunications

Paris Peace Conference writes Treaty of Versailles that punishes Germany.

Tags: World War I, Treaty, Peace Treaty, Post-War, League of Nations, Interwar Period

January 21: The First Red Scare in the United States. Irish War of Independence begins.

Tags: Communism, Anti-Communism, War of Independence, Civil Unrest, Nationalism, Revolution

November 19: Release date of Feline Follies, the first appearance of Felix the Cat (then known as Master Tom).

Tags: Animation, Cartoon, Early Cinema, Entertainment

March 4: Warren G. Harding is inaugurated as President of the United States.

Tags: Presidency, Inauguration, Government

February 6: Pius XI becomes Pope. The Washington Naval Treaty is signed.

Tags: Treaty, Catholicism, World War I Aftermath, Diplomacy, International Relations

August 2: Death of Warren G. Harding; Vice President Calvin Coolidge assumes office as President of the United States.

Tags: Presidency, Succession, Government, American History

October 16: The Walt Disney Company is founded.

Tags: Animation, Film, Entertainment, Business, Disney, Mass Media, American Culture

May 24: Immigration Act of 1924 significantly restricts immigration from Asia, the Middle East, and Southern Europe to USA.

Tags: Immigration, Legislation, Discrimination, Xenophobia

February 12: Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin premieres in New York City.

Tags: Music, Classical Music, Composition, American Culture, Orchestral Music, New York City

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: Discovery of the composition of the Sun and that hydrogen is the most abundant element in the Universe

Tags: Astronomy, Cosmology, Astrophysics, Elements, 20th Century Science

June 19: National Broadcasting Company (NBC) founded in New York City.

Tags: Broadcasting, Radio, Media, Entertainment, Communication, Corporations

Robert H. Goddard launches the first liquid fueled rocket.

Tags: Space Exploration, Rocketry, Aviation

Harry Ferguson, patents the Three-point hitch equipment linkage system for tractors.

Tags: Agriculture, Farming, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Revolution

May 20 – 21: Charles Lindbergh performs the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris; becomes a world hero.

Tags: Aviation, Transportation, Communication, Global Impact

September 18: Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) founded in New York City.

Tags: Broadcasting, Radio, Communications, Media, Entertainment

October 6: The Jazz Singer, the first "talkie", is released.

Tags: Film, Cinema, Sound, Entertainment, Motion Pictures, Hollywood

The quartz clock is invented by Warren Marrison and J.W. Horton at Bell Telephone Laboratories.

Tags: Timekeeping, Precision, Electronics

October 4: Mount Rushmore construction begins in South Dakota, U.S.

Tags: Sculpture, Monument, Art, American History

Philo Farnsworth demonstrates the first practical electronic television to the press.

Tags: Television, Communication, Electronics, Broadcasting, Mass Media

July 24: The Kellogg–Briand Pact is signed in Paris.

Tags: Diplomacy, International Relations, Peace Treaty, Interwar Period, World War I, United States of America, Multilateralism

November 18: Steamboat Willie, is the first appearance of Mickey Mouse.

Tags: Animation, Film, Walt Disney, Cartoon, Entertainment Industry, Popular Culture, Early Cinema

Edwin Hubble: Hubble's law of the expanding universe

Tags: Astronomy, Cosmology, Edwin Hubble, 20th Century Science, Universe, Expansion, Space

Lars Onsager's reciprocal relations, a potential fourth law of thermodynamics

Tags: Physics, Thermodynamics, Theoretical Physics, 20th Century Science, Nobel Prize, Physical Chemistry

March 4: Herbert Hoover is inaugurated as President of the United States.

Tags: Presidency, Great Depression, Inauguration, Executive Branch

May 16: The first Academy Awards are presented.

Tags: Film, Cinema, Awards, Hollywood, Motion Pictures, Entertainment, United States History

February 18: Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.

Tags: Astronomy, Space Exploration, Planets, Astrophysics, Solar System, Discovery

May 27: Construction of Chrysler Building completed.

Tags: Architecture, Skyscrapers, Construction, Art Deco, New York City, Urban Development

April 19: Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the first Looney Tunes short, is released.

Tags: Animation, Cartoon, Film, Entertainment

May 1: Empire State Building completed.

Tags: Architecture, Skyscrapers, Construction, New York City, Art Deco, Modernism, Urbanization

October 5: Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon Jr. complete the first non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean in their plane, Miss Veedol, in 41½ hours.

Tags: Aviation, Transportation

Karl Guthe Jansky discovers the first astronomical radio source, Sagittarius A

Tags: Astronomy, Radio Astronomy, Astrophysics, Cosmology, Milky Way

FM radio is patented by inventor Edwin H. Armstrong.

Tags: Radio, Communication

Harry C. Jennings Sr. and Herbert Everest, both mechanical engineers, invented the first lightweight, steel, folding, portable wheelchair with their "...

Tags: Medical Technology

March 4: Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated as President of the United States

Tags: Presidency, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Great Depression, American History, Inauguration

October 14: Germany announces its withdrawal from the League of Nations and the World Disarmament Conference, after the U.S., the U.K. and France deny...

Tags: World War II, League of Nations, Weimar Republic, International Relations, Diplomacy, Political Tensions

New Deal begins in America.

Tags: Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Economic Policy, Social Welfare, American History, Political Reform, Reform

Clive McCay: Calorie restriction extends the maximum lifespan of another species

Tags: Biology, Aging, Longevity, 20th Century Science

March 24: The United States grants more autonomy to the Philippines.

Tags: Colonialism, Self-Government, Commonwealth, Imperialism, Interwar Period

Nylon, the first fully synthetic fiber is produced by Wallace Carothers while working at DuPont.

Tags: Synthetic Materials, Textiles, Chemistry, Industrial Revolution, Consumer Goods

May 31: Establishment of 20th Century Fox.

Tags: Film, Cinema, Hollywood, Motion Pictures, Entertainment Industry, Media, Business

The Hoover Dam is completed.

Tags: Infrastructure, Great Depression, Construction

George Nissen and Larry Griswold build the first modern trampoline.

Tags: Sport, Recreation

May 6: German zeppelin Hindenburg crashes in Lakehurst, New Jersey, ending the airship era.

Tags: Aviation, Disaster, Interwar Period, Commercial Aviation, Transportation

December 21: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first feature-length animated movie released.

Tags: Animation, Film, Cinema, Disney, Walt Disney, Hollywood, Entertainment, Motion Pictures

Nuclear fission discovered in experiment by chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann and physicists Lise Meitner and Otto Robert Frisch. The German nuc...

Tags: Nuclear Physics, World War II, Cold War, Manhattan Project, Scientific Breakthrough

Isidor Rabi: Nuclear magnetic resonance

Tags: Physics, Nuclear Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Spectroscopy, Research, Nobel Prize

July 6–15: Évian Conference ends with all attendee nations save the Dominican Republic refusing to accept more Jewish refugees from the Third Reich.

Tags: World War II, Holocaust, Refugees, Anti-Semitism, International Relations, Diplomacy, Third Reich, Human Rights

December: Time Magazine declares Adolf Hitler as Man of the Year.

Tags: Propaganda, Nazism, Fascism, World War II, Adolf Hitler, Media, Global Impact

April 18: DC Comics hero Superman has its first appearance.

Tags: Fiction, American Culture, Entertainment, Pop Culture

August 25: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer releases The Wizard of Oz.

Tags: Film, Hollywood, Cinema, Children's Literature, American Culture, Entertainment

Neptunium is synthesized.

Tags: Chemistry, Nuclear Physics, Manhattan Project, Research

Pu-239 isotope (isotope of plutonium) a form of matter existing with the capacity for use as a destructive element (because the isotope has an exponen...

Tags: Nuclear Physics, Radioactivity, Manhattan Project

Mount Rushmore construction ends.

Tags: Sculpture, Monument, American History

August 13: Release date of Disney's Bambi.

Tags: Animation, Film, Disney, Cinema, Entertainment, Children's Literature

Oswald Avery proves that DNA is the genetic material of the chromosome

Tags: Genetics, DNA, Molecular Biology, Biology, Research, Medical Advancements

May 15: American Broadcasting Company (ABC) founded in New York City.

Tags: Broadcasting, Television, Mass Media, Communications, Entertainment, Radio

The non-infectious viral vaccine is perfected by Dr. Jonas Salk and Thomas Francis.

Tags: Medicine, Polio, Public Health, Jonas Salk, Medical Breakthrough, Epidemic

Willard Libby began his work on radiocarbon dating. He published his paper in 1946, a second paper in Science in 1947. Libby and James Arnold succeede...

Tags: Archaeology, Physics, Chemistry, History

Howard Florey Mass production of penicillin

Tags: Medicine, Antibiotics, World War II, Alexander Fleming, Public Health

October 8: The microwave cooking oven is patented, with the one of the first prototypes placed at a Boston restaurant for testing.

Tags: Consumerism, Modernization

Percy Spencer, while employed at Raytheon, would patent a magnetron based microwave oven.

Tags: Consumerism

February 4 – 11: Yalta Conference.

Tags: World War II, Diplomacy, Allied Powers, Soviet Union, Cold War, Divided Germany, International Relations

April 12: Death of Franklin D. Roosevelt; Vice President Harry Truman assumes office as President of the United States.

Tags: Presidency, World War II, Succession, Political Transition, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Cold War

June 26: United Nations founded (UN Charter).

Tags: United Nations, Post-World War II, Diplomacy, Global Governance, Multilateralism, Peacekeeping, World War II, Allied Powers, San Francisco

July – August: The Potsdam Conference divides Europe into Western and Soviet blocs.

Tags: Cold War, Post-World War II, Geopolitics, Soviet Union, Iron Curtain, International Relations, Winston Churchill

First images of the Earth taken from space.

Tags: Space Exploration, Photography, Cold War

July 4: The Treaty of Manila declares Philippines independent.

Tags: Decolonization, Post-War, Independence, Treaty

November – December: Three Bell Labs engineers give the first public demonstration of the transistor, an electrical component that could control, ampl...

Tags: Electronics, Semiconductors, Bell Labs, Digital Revolution, Microchip, Post-War

Breaking of the sound barrier by Chuck Yeager in Bell X-1.

Tags: Aviation, Aerospace, World War II, Cold War

Floyd Farris and J.B. Clark (Stanolind Oil and Gas Corporation) invents hydraulic fracturing technology.

Tags: Oil Industry, Fossil Fuels, Energy, Petroleum, Resource Extraction

The first transistor, a bipolar point-contact transistor, is invented by John Bardeen and Walter Brattain under the supervision of William Shockley at...

Tags: Electronics, Bell Labs, Semiconductors, Digital Revolution

March 12: Harry Truman establishes the Truman Doctrine of containment of Communism.

Tags: Cold War, Communism, Containment, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Ideology

July 26: Creation of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

Tags: Cold War, Intelligence, Espionage, National Security, Post-World War II, Covert Operations, Geopolitics, Foreign Policy, CIA

Claude Elwood Shannon: 'A mathematical theory of communication' a seminal paper in Information theory.

Tags: Communication, Mathematics, Digital Revolution, Electronics, Binary Code, Computer Science, Scientific Publication

Richard Feynman, Julian Schwinger, Sin-Itiro Tomonaga and Freeman Dyson: Quantum electrodynamics

Tags: Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Theoretical Physics, Electromagnetism, Post-War, Scientific Revolution

The first atomic clock is developed at the National Bureau of Standards.

Tags: Precision, Physics, Scientific Advancement

June 14: Albert II became the first mammal launched into space

Tags: Space Race, Aeronautics, Cold War, Space Exploration

February 15: Release date of Disney's Cinderella.

Tags: Animation, Disney, Film, Cinema, American Culture, Walt Disney

George Otto Gey propagates first cancer cell line, HeLa

Tags: Biology, Cancer Research, Medical Advancements, Molecular Biology

September 18: Release date of the acclaimed science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Tags: Film, Science Fiction, Cinema, Cold War, Post-War, Cultural Impact

Development of the first effective polio vaccine by Jonas Salk.

Tags: Medicine, Vaccination, Public Health, Disease Eradication, Jonas Salk, Medical Breakthrough, Infectious Disease, Epidemic

Stanley Miller: demonstrated that the building blocks of life could arise from primeval soup in the conditions present during early Earth (Miller-Urey...

Tags: Biochemistry, Evolution, Astrobiology

May: Bonn–Paris conventions end allied occupation of West Germany.

Tags: Post-War, Cold War, Occupation, West Germany, International Relations, Sovereignty, Allied Powers

The first color television is produced.

Tags: Television, Consumerism, Post-War, Mass Media, Entertainment

January 20: Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated as President of the United States.

Tags: President, Inauguration, Cold War, Government, Executive Branch

August 19: Mohammed Mossadeq deposed in Iran.

Tags: Cold War, Coup d'état, CIA, Nationalization, Democracy, Oil, Geopolitics

Invention of the solar battery by Bell Telephone scientists, Calvin Souther Fuller, Daryl Chapin and Gerald Pearson capturing the Sun's power. First p...

Tags: Energy, Renewable Energy

May 17: The Supreme Court of the United States decides Brown v. Board of Education, ordering an end to racial segregation in public schools.

Tags: Civil Rights Movement, Supreme Court, Segregation, Education, Racial Discrimination, Legislation, Equality

April 12: The Salk polio vaccine having passed large-scale trials earlier in the United States, receives full approval by the Food and Drug Administra...

Tags: Medicine, Vaccination, Public Health, Disease, Polio, Medical Breakthrough, Jonas Salk

April 18: Death of Albert Einstein.

Tags: Physics, Relativity, Theoretical Physics, Scientific Revolution, Nobel Prize, Atomic Age, Global Impact, Modern Science

Antimatter first produced.

Tags: Physics, Particle Physics, Fundamental Particles, Experimental Physics, Discovery

The intermodal container is developed by Malcom McLean.

Tags: Transportation, Logistics, Shipping, Globalization, Trade, Economy

The hard disk drive is invented by IBM.

Tags: Computer Science, Data Storage, Information Technology, IBM, Hardware, Computing

The Logic Theorist computer program, the first "artificial intelligence program", was written and invented by Allen Newell, Herbert A. Simon, and Clif...

Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Automation

March 7: The United States recognises Morocco's independence from France

Tags: Decolonization, Independence, Foreign Relations, Cold War, Post-Colonialism, Diplomacy

First prescription of the combined oral contraceptive pill.

Tags: Medicine, Pharmaceuticals, Women's Rights, Social Change

Chien Shiung Wu: demonstrated that parity, and thus charge conjugation and time-reversals, are violated for weak interactions

Tags: Physics, Particle Physics, Experimental Physics, Quantum Mechanics, 20th Century Science

December 20: First flight of the Boeing 707.

Tags: Aviation, Commercial Aviation, Jet Age, Air Travel, Transportation

The laser and optical amplifier are invented and named by Gordon Gould and Charles Townes. The laser and optical amplifier are foundational to powerin...

Tags: Laser, Internet, Communication

The first personal computer used by one person and controlled by a keyboard, the IBM 610, is invented by IBM.

Tags: Computer Science, Personal Computer, IBM, Computing

July 29: NASA formed.

Tags: Space Exploration, Space Race, Cold War, Scientific Advancement, Astronauts

August 23: Federal Aviation Administration formed.

Tags: Aviation, Transportation, Air Travel, Infrastructure, Safety

Invention of the optical disc and the cassette tape.

Tags: Inventions, Audio Technology, Data Storage, Electronics, Consumer Goods, Entertainment, Philips, Music Industry

The MOSFET (MOS transistor) is invented by the Egyptian Mohamed Atalla and the Korean Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs. It is used in almost all modern electr...

Tags: Electronics, Bell Labs, Computer Revolution, Microchip

January 3: Admission of Alaska, the 49th state, into the United States.

Tags: Alaska, Statehood, American Expansion, Cold War

January 22: First crewed descent to the deepest point on Earth, the Mariana Trench.

Tags: Exploration, Oceanography, Cold War, United States Navy

May 9: The birth control pill becomes commercially available.

Tags: Reproductive Rights, Feminism, Pharmaceuticals, Medicine, Social Change

May 16: Construction of the first laser.

Tags: Laser, Physics, Optics, Quantum Mechanics

The first functioning laser is invented by Theodore Maiman.

Tags: Laser, Physics, Scientific Breakthrough, Optics, Global Impact

May 1: 1960 U-2 incident sparks deterioration in relations between superpowers.

Tags: Cold War, Espionage, Soviet Union, Diplomacy, Intelligence, Arms Race, International Relations, Khrushchev

November 8: The 1960 United States presidential election marks the first televised debates between presidential candidates.

Tags: Presidential Election, Television, Media, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon

May 25: In an address to Congress, John F. Kennedy declares the United States' objective of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the...

Tags: Space Race, Cold War, John F. Kennedy, Exploration

January 17: The assassination of Patrice Lumumba begins the Congo Crisis.

Tags: Cold War, Decolonization, African History, Political Assassination, Proxy War, United Nations

January 20: John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as President of the United States.

Tags: Presidency, Cold War, John F. Kennedy, American History, Leadership, Democracy, Inauguration

Riccardo Giacconi and his team discover the first cosmic x-ray source, Scorpius X-1

Tags: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Cosmology, Space Exploration, Observational Astronomy

July 26: Launch of the first geostationary satellite, Syncom 2.

Tags: Space Race, Telecommunications, Cold War, Space Exploration, Communication

November 22: Assassination of John F. Kennedy. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson assumes office as President of the United States.

Tags: Assassination, Presidency, Cold War, Political Violence, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, American History

March 22: The Beatles' first record, "Please Please Me", and the beginnings of the British Invasion.

Tags: Music, Popular Culture, British Invasion, Rock and Roll, The Beatles, Cultural Exchange, Entertainment Industry, Youth Culture

May 27: Bob Dylan releases The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.

Tags: Music, Folk Music, Cultural Impact, American Culture, Album Release

November 28: NASA launches the Mariner 4 space probe from Cape Kennedy toward Mars to take television pictures of that planet in July 1965.

Tags: Space Exploration, NASA, Mars, Space Race, Planetary Science, Cold War, Astronomy

Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig: postulates quarks, leading to the standard model

Tags: Physics, Particle Physics, Standard Model, Theoretical Physics

Arno Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson: detection of CMBR providing experimental evidence for the Big Bang

Tags: Cosmology, Radio Astronomy, Astrophysics, Experimental Physics

July 2: Civil Rights Act abolishes segregation in the USA.

Tags: Civil Rights Movement, Segregation, Legislation, Equality, Discrimination, Social Justice, African Americans, Voting Rights, Lyndon B. Johnson

Leonard Hayflick: normal cells divide only a certain number of times: the Hayflick limit

Tags: Biology, Cell Biology, Aging, Research, Genetics

Kevlar is invented by Stephanie Kwolek at DuPont.

Tags: Materials Science, Military Technology, Manufacturing, Chemical Engineering

March 17: The Voting Rights Act of 1965, inspired by the Selma to Montgomery marches.

Tags: Civil Rights, Voting Rights, Legislation, African Americans, Equality, Social Justice, Civil Rights Movement

August 30: Bob Dylan releases Highway 61 Revisited.

Tags: Music, Folk Music, Rock and Roll, Album Release, Cultural Impact, American Culture

Joseph Weizenbaum, a German computer scientist at MIT, completes ELIZA, the first chatbot.

Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Natural Language Processing, Software Development

December 15: Death of Walt Disney.

Tags: Animation, Film, Entertainment, Media, Entrepreneurship, Disney, Popular Culture, American Culture

Vela nuclear test detection satellites discover the first gamma-ray burst

Tags: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Exploration, Cold War, Particle Physics

October 21: The March on the Pentagon becomes a major event in public opposition to the Vietnam War

Tags: Vietnam War, Anti-War Movement, Protest, Civil Rights Movement, Social Activism, Political Dissent, United States History, Lyndon B. Johnson

July 17: Death of John Coltrane, American jazz saxophonist, clarinettist and composer.

Tags: Music, American Culture, Composer

December – Apollo 8 orbits the Moon with three NASA astronauts, becoming the first human spaceflight mission to enter the gravitational influence of a...

Tags: Space Exploration, NASA, Cold War, Space Race, Astronauts, Moon, Human Spaceflight

April 4: Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Tags: Civil Rights Movement, Assassination, African Americans, Equality, Social Justice, Martin Luther King Jr., Nonviolent Resistance, Racial Discrimination

June 5: Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy

Tags: Assassination, Civil Rights Movement, Presidential Election, Political Violence, Social Upheaval

August 23: 1968 Democratic National Convention protests ("The whole world is watching")

Tags: Protests, Vietnam War, Civil Rights Movement, Chicago, Police Brutality, Political Polarization, Counterculture, Social Activism

July 20: Apollo 11 Moon landing, in which Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first two humans on the Moon.

Tags: Space Exploration, Cold War, Space Race, NASA, Astronauts, Lunar Exploration

October 29: Creation of Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), the earliest incarnation of the Internet.

Tags: Internet, Computer Science, Networking, Information Technology, Digital Revolution, Cold War, Development, Communication

The NPL network followed by the ARPANET implement packet switching for data communication, drawing on the concepts and designs of Donald Davies, and P...

Tags: Internet, Information Technology, Digital Revolution

January 20: Richard Nixon is inaugurated as President of the United States.

Tags: Presidential Inauguration, Cold War, Richard Nixon, American History, Executive Branch

January 22: Maiden flight of the Boeing 747.

Tags: Aviation, Commercial Aviation, Transportation, Aerospace, Jet Age, Globalization

April 11: Apollo 13 (Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, Jack Swigert) is launched toward the Moon.

Tags: Space Exploration, NASA, Moon Landing, Cold War, Space Race, Astronauts

The pocket calculator is invented.

Tags: Electronics, Computing, Mathematics, Consumer Goods

February 18: The Chicago Seven are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Tags: Vietnam War, Anti-War Movement, Civil Rights, Protest, Activism, Legal System

March 5: Ratification of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Tags: Nuclear Weapons, Arms Control, Cold War, Treaty, International Relations, Nuclear Proliferation, Global Security

November 15: Intel releases the world's first microprocessor, the Intel 4004.

Tags: Computer Revolution, Computing, Electronics

The first single-chip microprocessor, the Intel 4004, is invented. Its development was led by Federico Faggin, using his silicon-gate MOS technology. ...

Tags: Computer Science, Digital Revolution, Personal Computer, Electronics

IBM developed and released the world's first floppy disk and disk drive.

Tags: Computers, IBM, Data Storage, Hardware, Digital Revolution

July 5: The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, formally certified by President Richard Nixon, lowers the voting age from 21 to ...

Tags: United States Constitution, Voting Rights, Civil Rights, Richard Nixon, Legislation

COINTELPRO officially ends.

Tags: FBI, Surveillance, Political Repression, Civil Rights Movement, Activism, Cold War, Intelligence, Covert Operations

November 29: The arcade game Pong, the first commercially successful video game, is released.

Tags: Video Games, Entertainment, Commercialization, Computer Science

The first video game console, used primarily for playing video games on a TV, is the Magnavox Odyssey.

Tags: Video Games, Home Entertainment, Consumer Electronics, Entertainment, Digital Revolution

February 21 – 28: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon makes an unprecedented 8-day visit to the People's Republic of China and meets with Mao Zedong.

Tags: Cold War, Diplomacy, Mao Zedong, Detente, Foreign Policy

May 26: Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT I treaty in Moscow, as well as the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and other agreements.

Tags: Cold War, Nuclear Arms Race, Arms Control, Richard Nixon, Treaty, International Relations, Diplomacy

Release of A Computer Animated Hand, one of the first ever computer animations.

Tags: Early Computing, Animation, Visual Arts, Art History

December 3: Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up images of Jupiter.

Tags: Space Exploration, Astronomy, Jupiter, NASA, Planetary Science, Space Race

May 3: Construction of the Sears Tower (later renamed to Willis Tower) completed.

Tags: Architecture, Skyscrapers, Modernism, Urban Development, Construction, Chicago, Economy

May 14: The first space station, Skylab, is launched.

Tags: Space Exploration, Space Race, Cold War, NASA, Astronauts, Space Station, Scientific Advancement

The first fiber optic communication systems were developed by Optelecom.

Tags: Telecommunications, Digital Revolution

The first commercial graphical user interface is introduced in 1973 on the Xerox Alto. The modern GUI is later popularized by the Xerox Star and Apple...

Tags: Computer Science, Software, Personal Computing, Digital Revolution

January 22: The Supreme Court of the United States decides Roe v. Wade.

Tags: Supreme Court, Reproductive Rights, Legal History, Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, Gender Equality, Social Change

March 29: First close-up images of Mercury by Mariner 10. The Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang is discovered at Xi'an, China.

Tags: Space Exploration, Archaeology, Planetary Science, Qin Dynasty, Astronomy, Cultural Heritage, Celestial Bodies

Russell Alan Hulse and Joseph Hooton Taylor, Jr. discover indirect evidence for gravitational wave radiation in the Hulse–Taylor binary

Tags: Physics, Astrophysics, Relativity, Gravitational Waves, Radio Astronomy, 20th Century Science

The Transmission Control Program is proposed by Vinton Cerf and Robert E. Kahn, building on the work of Louis Pouzin and other Internet pioneers, crea...

Tags: Internet, Computer Science, Networking, Information Technology, Communication, Digital Revolution

The lithium-ion battery is invented by M. Stanley Whittingham, and further developed in the 1980s and 1990s by John B. Goodenough, Rachid Yazami and A...

Tags: Consumer Electronics, Electric Vehicles

August 8 – 9: Watergate scandal: Resignation of Richard Nixon; Vice President Gerald Ford assumes office as President of the United States, the first ...

Tags: Presidency, Resignation, Impeachment, Richard Nixon, Political Scandal, American Politics

January: Altair 8800, the first commercially successful personal computer, is released.

Tags: Personal Computer, Digital Revolution, Software, Hardware, Electronics

April 4: Microsoft founded in Albuquerque, New Mexico, by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

Tags: Software, Personal Computing, Entrepreneurship, Digital Revolution

August 1: The Helsinki Accords, which officially recognize Europe's national borders and respect for human rights, are signed in Finland.

Tags: Cold War, Human Rights, Detente, International Relations, Soviet Union, Diplomacy

April 1: Steve Wozniak invents the Apple I and Steve Jobs then convinces Wozniak to sell the system, giving birth to Apple Computer.

Tags: Computers, Personal Computing, Entrepreneurship, Apple, Steve Jobs

Church Committee, a U.S. Senate select committee that investigated abuses by the CIA, NSA, FBI and Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Tags: Ancient rome, Intelligence Agencies, CIA, FBI, Investigations, Cold War

August 20: Voyager 2 launched by NASA.

Tags: Space Exploration, NASA, Planetary Science, Voyager Program, Astronomy, Space Race, Exploration

Dr Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger invented a new DNA sequencing method for which they won the Nobel Prize.

Tags: Molecular Biology, Genetics, DNA, Biotechnology, Scientific Innovation, Medical Advancements, Frederick Sanger, Nobel Prize, 20th Century Science

Introduction of the first mass-produced personal computers.

Tags: Computer Revolution, Steve Jobs, Software Development

January 20: Jimmy Carter is inaugurated as President of the United States.

Tags: Presidency, Inauguration, Cold War, Foreign Policy

May 25: Star Wars is released and quickly becomes the highest-grossing film of all-time.

Tags: Film, Cinema, Science Fiction, Entertainment, Popular Culture, Hollywood

June 22: Discovery of Pluto's moon Charon.

Tags: Astronomy, Space Exploration, Planetary Science, Kuiper Belt, Solar System, Celestial Bodies, Discovery

Invention of artificial insulin.

Tags: Biotechnology, Medicine, Pharmaceuticals, Genetic Engineering

The Global Positioning System (GPS) enters service. While not the first Satellite navigation system, it is the first to enter widespread civilian use.

Tags: Navigation, United States Military, Cold War, Space Race

September 17: The Camp David Accords are signed between Israel and Egypt.

Tags: Peace Treaty, Diplomacy, Arab-Israeli Conflict, Anwar Sadat, Cold War, International Relations

November 27: San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk are assassinated by former Supervisor Dan White.

Tags: Assassination, Political Violence, LGBTQ+ Rights, San Francisco, Human Rights, Political Corruption

June 19: Garfield's first comic strip, originally published locally as Jon in 1976, goes into nationwide syndication.

Tags: Popular Culture, Entertainment

The first handheld game console with interchangeable game cartridges, the Microvision is released.

Tags: Video Games, Consumer Electronics, Entertainment, Hardware, Portable Devices

Public dialup information, messaging and e-commerce services, were pioneered through CompuServe and RadioShack's MicroNET, and the UK's Post Office Te...

Tags: Internet, Online Services, Telecommunications, E-commerce

November 4: The Iran hostage crisis begins.

Tags: Cold War, Revolution, Diplomacy, Hostage Crisis, International Relations, Political Conflict

November 13: Voyager 1 takes the first close-up pictures of Saturn.

Tags: Space Exploration, Astronomy, Planetary Science, Voyager Program, NASA, Spacecraft

Scientists Mark Skolnick, Ron Davis, Ray White, and David Botstein published their findings on a gene mapping tool using Restriction Fragment-length P...

Tags: Genetics, Molecular Biology, Medical Research, Cancer Research

June 1: Launch of Cable News Network (CNN).

Tags: Media, Television, News, Communication, Globalization

April 12: First orbital flight of the Space Shuttle.

Tags: Space Exploration, NASA, Space Shuttle Program, Aerospace Engineering, Cold War, Scientific Advancement

August 12: IBM Personal Computer released.

Tags: Personal Computing, Computers, Information Technology, IBM, Hardware, Software, Digital Revolution

The first reusable spacecraft, the Space Shuttle undergoes test flights ahead of full operation in 1982.

Tags: Space Exploration, Aerospace Engineering, NASA, Space Race, Cold War, Orbital Mechanics

January 20: Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as President of the United States. Iran releases the 52 U.S. hostages held in Tehran after 444 days.

Tags: Presidency, Hostage Crisis, Cold War, Diplomacy, Ronald Reagan

March 30: Assassination attempt on U.S. president Ronald Reagan.

Tags: Assassination, Political Violence, Reagan Administration, Cold War

Donald C. Backer et al. discover the first millisecond pulsar

Tags: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Radio Astronomy, Space Exploration, Cosmology

December 7: The first execution by lethal injection takes place in Texas.

Tags: Criminal Justice, Capital Punishment, Execution, Texas, Law, United States History

November 30: Michael Jackson releases his landmark album Thriller, the best-selling album of all time.

Tags: Music, Album, Entertainment, Cultural Impact

Kary Mullis invents the polymerase chain reaction, a key discovery in molecular biology

Tags: Biotechnology, Molecular Biology, Genetics, DNA, Medical Advancements, Research

Stereolithography is invented by Chuck Hull.

Tags: Manufacturing, Industrial Revolution

Ameritech, now known as AT&T, commercialized the Bell System (its cellular network) in Chicago, Ill.

Tags: Telecommunications, Cellular Technology, Mobile Phones, Chicago, Digital Revolution

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is recognized as the cause of HIV/AIDS, and research on zidovudine and other treatments gets underway.

Tags: Epidemiology, Medical Research, Public Health, Infectious Disease

The first commercially available cell phone in the US, the DynaTAC 8000X, is created by Motorola.

Tags: Telecommunications, Mobile Phones, Consumer Electronics, Communication

September 1: 73 years after its infamous disaster, the wreck of the Titanic is found off the coast of Newfoundland by a joint French–American expediti...

Tags: Oceanography, Maritime History, Exploration, Shipwreck

October 1: Release date of the Macintosh 128K, the first successful mass-market personal computer to feature a graphical user interface, built-in scre...

Tags: Computers, Graphical User Interface, Personal Computing, Apple, Software, Hardware

November 20: Windows 1.0, the first Microsoft Windows operating system, released.

Tags: Microsoft, Windows, Software, Personal Computing, Digital Revolution

August 20: Beginning of the Iran–Contra affair, a political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan Administra...

Tags: Scandal, Cold War, Reagan Administration, Covert Operations, International Relations, Political Corruption

January 24: First close-up images of the planet Uranus

Tags: Space Exploration, Astronomy, Planetary Science, Voyager Program, NASA, Solar System, Spacecraft

October 11 – October 12: A breakthrough in nuclear arms control at the Reykjavík Summit.

Tags: Cold War, Nuclear Arms Race, Arms Control, Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet Union

November 3: The Iran–Contra affair publicly announced.

Tags: Political Scandal, Cold War, Covert Operations, Reagan Administration, Nicaragua, National Security, Executive Branch, Foreign Policy

December: The antidepressant drug fluoxetine (marketed as Prozac) becomes commercially available.

Tags: Pharmaceuticals, Mental Health, Depression, Medical Advancements, Healthcare

November 2: Morris worm, first computer virus distributed through the Internet.

Tags: Computer Science, Internet, Cybersecurity, Information Technology, Software

August 25: Voyager 2 makes its closest approach to Neptune and its largest moon, Triton.

Tags: Space Exploration, Voyager Program, Planetary Science, Astronomy, Spacecraft, NASA, Solar System

January 20: George H. W. Bush is inaugurated as President of the United States.

Tags: Presidency, Elections, Cold War, Government, Inauguration

April 24 – May 20: Launch of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Tags: Space Exploration, Astronomy, Telescopes, NASA, Astrophysics, Cosmology, Space Race

Mary-Claire King discovers the link between heritable breast cancers and a gene found on chromosome 17q21.

Tags: Genetics, Cancer Research, Medical Breakthrough, Molecular Biology

The Neo Geo AES becomes the first video game system to launch that used Memory Cards.

Tags: Video Games, Arcade Games, Entertainment

March 27: The United States begins broadcasting Radio y Televisión Martí to Cuba.

Tags: Cold War, Propaganda, Television, Cuban Revolution, International Relations

July 11: A solar eclipse of record totality occurs in the Northern hemisphere. It is seen by 20 million people in Hawaii, Mexico, and Colombia.

Tags: Astronomy, Solar Eclipse, Scientific Observation, Hawaii

May 16: Elizabeth II becomes the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress during a 13-day royal visit in Washington, D.C.

Tags: Diplomacy, Monarchy, Cold War, Heads of State, International Relations, Ceremony

July 1: President George H. W. Bush nominates the controversial Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court of the United States to replace Thurgood Marshal...

Tags: Supreme Court, Telecommunications, Mobile Technology, United States Politics

October 3: Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Tom Foley announces the closure of the House Bank by the end of the year after revelations tha...

Tags: House of Representatives, Scandal, Corruption, Political Ethics

October 30 – November 1: Madrid Conference of 1991.

Tags: Peace Process, Arab-Israeli Conflict, Diplomacy, International Relations, Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail observe the first pulsar planets (this was the first confirmed discovery of planets outside the Solar System)

Tags: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Exoplanets, Planetary Science, Solar System, Space Exploration

October 31 - Microsoft released Windows 3.1.

Tags: Microsoft, Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Graphical User Interface, Technology Industry, Digital Revolution

September 26: The first mission in Biosphere 2 ends after two years.

Tags: Environmental Science, Ecology, Space Exploration, Sustainability, Research

IBM created the first mobile app with SIMON; it had 10 built-in apps from Email to Calendar.

Tags: Mobile Computing, Smartphones, IBM, Communication, Software, Early Technology, Computing

January 20: Bill Clinton is inaugurated as President of the United States.

Tags: Presidential Inauguration, Bill Clinton, Government

November 30: Release date of Schindler's List.

Tags: Film, Holocaust, World War II, Cinema, Jewish History, Memory

IBM Simon, the world's first smartphone, is developed by IBM.

Tags: Communication, Mobile Phones, Smartphones, IBM, Telecommunications, Consumer Electronics

October 1: Palau gains independence from the United States.

Tags: Independence, Decolonization, Self-determination, Sovereignty, United Nations

June 15: Release date of Disney's The Lion King.

Tags: Animation, Film, Entertainment, Disney, Cinema, Cultural Impact

June 23: Release date of Forrest Gump.

Tags: Film, Cinema, American Culture, Popular Culture, Hollywood

March 14: Astronaut Norman Thagard becomes the first American to ride into space aboard a Russian launch vehicle (the Soyuz TM-21), lifting off from t...

Tags: Space Exploration, Astronauts, International Cooperation, Cold War Legacy, NASA, Space Race

Eric Cornell, Carl Wieman and Wolfgang Ketterle attained the first Bose-Einstein Condensate with atomic gases, so called fifth state of matter at an e...

Tags: Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Experimental Physics

August 24: Release date of Windows 95.

Tags: Software, Personal Computing, Microsoft, Internet, Graphical User Interface, Digital Revolution, Technology Industry, Global Impact

DVD is an optical disc storage format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity tha...

Tags: Digital Media, Consumer Electronics, Entertainment, Philips, Sony

Waiter.com launches as the first online food ordering service.

Tags: Internet, E-commerce, Online Services, Digital Revolution, Business

November 22: Premiere of Toy Story, the first computer-animated feature film and the first Pixar Animation Studios film.

Tags: Animation, Film, Cinema, Entertainment

Myriad Genetics released the BRACAnalysis, the first commercial genetic test for assessing the risk of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.

Tags: Genetics, Biotechnology, Medical Advancements, Healthcare

The Ciena Corporation, in partnership with Sprint, deployed the first commercial dense wavelength-division multiplexing system, which created the mass...

Tags: Internet, Telecommunications, Infrastructure, Networking

Bolt and Six Degrees (1997) both become the first social media sites.

Tags: Internet, Social Media, Networking, World Wide Web, Communication, Software Development

CDF and DØ experiments at Fermilab: Top quark.

Tags: Physics, Particle Physics, Standard Model, High-Energy Physics, 20th Century Science

August 29: Netflix is launched.

Tags: Internet, Streaming, Digital Media, Entertainment, Telecommunications, Dot-com Bubble

Sound barrier broken on land.

Tags: Transportation, Jet Propulsion

The first weblog, a discussion or informational website, was created by Jorn Barger, and later shortened to "blog" in 1999 by Peter Merholz.

Tags: Internet, World Wide Web, Digital Media, Social Media

Supernova Cosmology Project and the High-Z Supernova Search Team: discovery of the accelerated expansion of the Universe and dark energy

Tags: Cosmology, Astronomy, Supernova, Universe, Expansion, Observation, Research

June 25 - Microsoft released Windows 98.

Tags: Software, Microsoft, Operating Systems, Personal Computing, Internet, Digital Revolution, Windows

September 4: Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Tags: Internet, Search Engine, Computer Science, Digital Revolution

November 20: A Russian Proton rocket is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying the first segment of the International Space Sta...

Tags: Space Exploration, International Cooperation, Space Station, NASA, Cold War Aftermath, Aerospace

December 19: The impeachment of Bill Clinton begins as a result of the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal.

Tags: Impeachment, Political Scandal, Bill Clinton, Presidential Politics, Political Ethics, Governance

The first digital video recorder (DVR), the TiVo, is launched by Xperi.

Tags: Digital Media, Consumer Electronics, Home Entertainment, Television, Streaming

July 7: The draft assembly of Human Genome Project is announced at the White House by US President Bill Clinton, Francis Collins, and Craig Venter.

Tags: Genetics, Biology, Human Genome Project, Bill Clinton, Biotechnology, Healthcare

The Tau neutrino is discovered by the DONUT collaboration

Tags: Physics, Particle Physics, Standard Model, Experimental Physics, High Energy Physics, Fundamental Particles

February 17 - Microsoft released Windows 2000.

Tags: Operating Systems, Microsoft, Software, Computing, Digital Revolution, Business

September 13: Steve Jobs introduces the public beta of Mac OS X.

Tags: Operating Systems, Apple, Steve Jobs, Software, Computer Science, Digital Revolution

November 2: International Space Station begins operations; its first crew, composed of three men, arrives.

Tags: Space Exploration, Space Station, International Cooperation, Scientific Advancement, NASA, Astronauts, Orbital Mechanics

Short description is different from Wikidata

Tags: Genetics, Human Genome Project, Biotechnology, Medicine, DNA, Research

July 11–25: The 2000 Camp David Summit, aimed at reaching a "final status" agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis, was held between Unite...

Tags: Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Peace Process, Diplomacy, Summit, Yasser Arafat, Bill Clinton

December 12: In Bush v. Gore, the United States Supreme Court declares George W. Bush President of the United States.

Tags: Supreme Court, Presidential Election, George W. Bush, Legal System, Constitutional Law

The first draft of the Human Genome Project is published.

Tags: Genetics, Biology, Medicine, Research, Human Genome Project, DNA, Biotechnology, International Collaboration

October 23: Steve Jobs introduces the first iPod.

Tags: Consumer Electronics, Apple, Steve Jobs, Globalization

Dean Kamen unveils Segway.

Tags: Transportation, Robotics

January 20: President Joseph Estrada of the Philippines is ousted in the Second EDSA Revolution. George W. Bush is inaugurated as President of the Uni...

Tags: Political Transition, Presidency, Democracy, George W. Bush, Protests

March 14: SpaceX is founded by Elon Musk.

Tags: Space Exploration, Aerospace, Commercial Space, Entrepreneurship

The Human Genome Project is completed.

Tags: Genetics, Biology, Scientific Research, Biotechnology, Medical Advancements, International Collaboration, DNA, Molecular Biology

Final flight of the SST (Supersonic Transport) Concorde.

Tags: Aviation, Transportation, Air Travel, Economic Impact

August 27 – 29: The first six-party talks, involving South and North Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

Tags: Nuclear Proliferation, Diplomacy, International Relations, Denuclearization, Security

November 17: Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes Governor of California.

Tags: Governor, Elections, Celebrity, Political Figure

Spirit and Opportunity land on Mars.

Tags: Space Exploration, Mars, Robotics, NASA, Planetary Science, Exploration

First surface images of Saturn's moon Titan.

Tags: Space Exploration, Astronomy, Planetary Science, Exploration

February 4: Facebook is formed by Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew McCollum, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.

Tags: Social Media, Internet, Communication, Social Networking, Web 2.0, Global Impact

First podcast, invented by Adam Curry and Dave Winer, is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet and it usually feat...

Tags: Digital Media, Internet, Audio, Communication

July 29: Michael E. Brown confirms the discovery of the dwarf planet Eris.

Tags: Astronomy, Planetary Science, Solar System, Space Exploration, Kuiper Belt

February 14: YouTube is founded by Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen.

Tags: Internet, Social Media, Digital Media, Web 2.0

March 21: Twitter is launched.

Tags: Social Media, Internet, Communication, Social Networking, Global Impact

October 9 – November 13: Google acquires YouTube for US$1.65 billion.

Tags: Internet, Social Media, Digital Media, Google, Web 2.0

Nintendo launches the Wii.

Tags: Video Games, Entertainment, Gaming Industry

December 26: Death and state funeral of Gerald Ford.

Tags: Presidency, Death, Political History

December 30: Execution of Saddam Hussein by hanging.

Tags: Iraq War, Saddam Hussein, Execution, War on Terror, International Law, Human Rights, Regime Change

January 9: Introduction of the iPhone.

Tags: Mobile Phones, Smartphones, Apple, Steve Jobs, Consumer Electronics, Digital Revolution, Internet

Netflix debuted the first popular video-on-demand service

Tags: Internet, Streaming, Entertainment, Digital Media, Global Impact

In 2007, Amazon launched the first Kindle e-reader, a device developed under the direction of CEO Jeff Bezos to beat competitors to market; it was fol...

Tags: Amazon, Jeff Bezos, Consumer Electronics, Internet

January 4: Nancy Pelosi becomes the first female Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

Tags: House of Representatives

October 7: Spotify is launched.

Tags: Internet, Music, Digital Media, Streaming, Entertainment, Business, Copyright

Google Chrome is released.

Tags: Internet, Software, Google, World Wide Web, Information Technology

Tesla Roadster launched, the first mass production lithium-ion battery electric car.

Tags: Electric Vehicles, Automotive Industry, Environmentalism, Sustainability, Transportation

November 4: Barack Obama is elected the first African-American President of the United States.

Tags: Presidential Election, Civil Rights, Equality, Democracy

January 20: First inauguration of Barack Obama.

Tags: Presidency, Civil Rights, Elections, Inauguration, Global Impact

The first synthetic organism, Mycoplasma laboratorium is created by the J. Craig Venter Institute

Tags: Genetic Engineering, Biotechnology, Research and Development, Scientific Breakthrough

The first self-replicating, synthetic bacterial cells are constructed.

Tags: Genetics, Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, Cell Biology, Research, Bioethics

The iPad is introduced.

Tags: Computing, Apple, Mobile Technology, Consumer Electronics

Instagram is launched.

Tags: Social Media, Internet, Social Networking, Digital Culture, Communication

NASA launches spacecraft to visit Jupiter and Mars.

Tags: Space Exploration, NASA, Astronomy, Planetary Science, Jupiter, Spacecraft

HIV treatment as prevention (HPTN 052)

Tags: HIV, Public Health, Medical Research, Epidemiology, Global Health

Space Shuttle program is officially ended.

Tags: Space Exploration, NASA, Space Race, Aerospace Engineering, Cold War Legacy, Human Spaceflight, International Collaboration

Occupy movement inspires worldwide protests.

Tags: Protest, Social Justice, Globalization, Financial Crisis, Activism, Democracy

The US rover, Curiosity, takes a selfie on Mars and finds evidence of an ancient streambed of water on the Red Planet.

Tags: Space Exploration, Mars, Planetary Science, Astronomy, Robotics, NASA, Geology

Photonic molecules are discovered at MIT

Tags: Physics, Nanotechnology

October 14: Skydiver Felix Baumgartner becomes the first person to break the sound barrier without a vehicle.

Tags: Aviation, Space Exploration, Physics

November 6: Barack Obama wins second term as President of the United States, defeating former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

Tags: Presidential Election, Democracy

Edward Snowden releases classified documents concerning mass surveillance by the NSA.

Tags: Surveillance, Privacy, National Security, Transparency, Global Impact

September 17: Rockstar Games release Grand Theft Auto V.

Tags: Video Games, Entertainment, Pop Culture, Gaming Industry

Liquid water is found on Mars.

Tags: Space Exploration, Astronomy, Planetary Science, Mars, Astrobiology, NASA

First close-up images of Ceres and Pluto.

Tags: Space Exploration, Astronomy, Planetary Science, Solar System, NASA, Dwarf Planets

CRISPR genome-editing method

Tags: Genetics, Biotechnology, Molecular Biology, Scientific Innovation, Bioethics, Medical Advancements, Global Impact

July 14: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement reached, setting limits to Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

Tags: Nuclear Proliferation, Diplomacy, Sanctions, International Relations

The heads of China and Taiwan meet for the first time, while the United States and Cuba reestablish full diplomatic relations.

Tags: Diplomacy, International Relations, Cold War Legacy, Cross-Strait Relations, US Foreign Policy

February 11: Detection of gravitational waves by LIGO confirmed.

Tags: Physics, Astronomy, Gravitational Waves, General Relativity, LIGO, Black Holes, Cosmology

July 4: Juno enters orbit around Jupiter

Tags: Space Exploration, Astronomy, Planetary Science, NASA, Jupiter, Spacecraft

March 20: Barack Obama becomes the first U.S. president to visit Cuba since Calvin Coolidge in 1928.

Tags: Diplomacy, Foreign Relations, Cold War Legacy

November 8: Donald Trump wins the 2016 presidential election, in an upset against Hillary Clinton, the first woman to be nominated by a major party.

Tags: Presidential Election, Populism, Political Polarization, Democracy, Donald Trump, Global Politics

The United Nations lifts sanctions from Iran in recognition of the dismantling of its nuclear program.

Tags: Nuclear Proliferation, Sanctions, United Nations, International Relations, Diplomacy, Middle East Politics

Paris Agreement on Climate Change

Tags: Climate Change, Environmentalism, International Relations, United Nations, Sustainability, Global Governance

Gravitational wave signal GW170817 is observed by the LIGO/Virgo collaboration. This is the first instance of a gravitational wave event observed to h...

Tags: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Gravitational Waves, LIGO, Scientific Breakthrough, Cosmology, Space Exploration

Google publishes a research paper "Attention Is All You Need" leading to the development into a new deep learning architecture known as the transforme...

Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Computer Science, Google, Algorithm

January 20: Donald Trump is inaugurated as President of the United States.

Tags: Presidential Inauguration, Donald Trump, Political Transition, Executive Branch, Global Impact, Democracy, Governance

The northern white rhinoceros becomes functionally extinct.

Tags: Extinction, Conservation, Wildlife, Endangered Species, Zoology, Ecology, Global Impact

June 12: The first summit between the US and North Korea and the first ever crossing of the Korean Demilitarized Zone by a North Korean leader occur.

Tags: Diplomacy, Nuclear Proliferation, Cold War, Summit, Kim Jong-un, Donald Trump, Denuclearization

The Trump administration reimposes sanctions against Iran.

Tags: Sanctions, Donald Trump, Foreign Policy, Middle East Politics, International Relations

April 10: The Event Horizon Telescope takes the first ever image of a black hole, at the core of galaxy Messier 87. Fossil fragments found in the Call...

Tags: Astronomy, Black Holes, Event Horizon Telescope, Paleontology, Human Evolution

October 18: NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch conduct the first all-female spacewalk outside of the ISS.

Tags: Space Exploration, NASA, Astronauts, Gender Equality

New Horizons takes the first close up image of a classical kuiper belt object.

Tags: Space Exploration, Astronomy, Kuiper Belt, Planetary Science, Solar System, Spacecraft, NASA

Victor Vescovo breaks the human depth record, reaching 10,928 m in the Challenger Deep.

Tags: Oceanography, Exploration

Isabelle Holdaway is the first patient to receive a genetically modified phage therapy to treat a drug-resistant infection.

Tags: Medicine, Biotechnology, Infectious Diseases, Genetic Engineering

IBM launches IBM Q System One, its first integrated quantum computing system for commercial use.

Tags: Quantum Computing, IBM, Computer Science, Commercialization, Information Technology

December 18: US President Donald Trump is impeached by the House of Representatives for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Tags: Impeachment, Presidential Politics, House of Representatives, Donald Trump, Political Scandals

A trilateral gathering is held at the Panmunjom Truce Village between South Korean President Moon Jae-in, North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un and US Presi...

Tags: Denuclearization, Diplomacy, Summit, Inter-Korean Relations, United States Foreign Policy, Kim Jong-un, Donald Trump, Cold War Legacy

July 30: NASA successfully launches its Mars 2020 rover mission to search for signs of ancient life and collect samples for return to Earth.

Tags: Space Exploration, Mars, NASA, Astronomy, Planetary Science

October 20: NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft briefly touches down on 101955 Bennu, becoming the agency's first probe to retrieve samples from an asteroid,...

Tags: Space Exploration, NASA, Cosmology, Planetary Science, Exploration

The first MRNA vaccine to be approved by public health medicines regulators is co-developed by Pfizer and BioNTech for COVID-19.

Tags: COVID-19, Pandemic, Public Health, Medical Innovation

NASA and SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) discover about 12 US fl oz (350 ml) of surface water in one of the Moon's largest vi...

Tags: Space Exploration, Astronomy, Moon, NASA

May 30: Crewed spaceflight resumes in the United States for the first time since 2011.

Tags: Space Exploration, NASA, Space Race, Commercial Spaceflight, Space Shuttle Program, Space Station, SpaceX, Human Spaceflight

December 1: The Arecibo Telescope of the Arecibo Observatory collapses, just weeks after the announcement of its planned demolition.

Tags: Astronomy, Radio Astronomy, Space Exploration, Infrastructure

OpenAI demonstrated an Artificial Intelligence model called GPT-3. The program was created to generate human-like responses when given prompts.

Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Software, Computer Science, OpenAI

January 16 – February 5: Donald Trump is acquitted by the United States Senate in his first impeachment trial.

Tags: Impeachment, Ancient rome, Donald Trump, President, Political Scandal, Constitutional Law

The 2020 U.S. presidential election saw record voter turnout, and although Joe Biden was declared the winner, Donald Trump contested the results, culm...

Tags: Presidential Election, Democracy, Political Polarization, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Political Crisis

February 9: Bong Joon-ho's Parasite becomes the first South Korean film to receive Academy Award recognitions at the 92nd Academy Awards.

Tags: Film, Cultural Exchange, Entertainment

February 18: NASA's Mars 2020 mission (containing the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter drone) lands on Mars at Jezero Crater, after seven m...

Tags: Space Exploration, Mars, NASA, Aerospace

June 7: The Juno spacecraft performs its only flyby of Jupiter's moon Ganymede, the first flyby of the moon by any spacecraft in over 20 years.

Tags: Space Exploration, Astronomy, Jupiter, NASA

Pfizer develops the world's first pill for COVID.

Tags: COVID-19, Pandemic, Pharmaceuticals, Medical Innovation, Healthcare, Public Health

April 19: Ingenuity becomes the first vehicle to fly in the atmosphere of another planet. Miguel Díaz-Canel becomes First Secretary of the Communist P...

Tags: Space Exploration, Mars, Aviation, Cuban Revolution, Communist Party

July 19: Blue Origin successfully conducts its first human test flight, with a reusable New Shepard rocket delivering four crew members into space inc...

Tags: Space Exploration, Commercial Spaceflight, Jeff Bezos

September 16: Inspiration4, launched by SpaceX, becomes the first all-civilian spaceflight, carrying a four-person crew on a three-day orbit of the Ea...

Tags: Space Exploration, SpaceX, Commercial Spaceflight

January 6: Supporters of President Donald Trump, gathered after a rally led by him, attack the United States Capitol, leading to five deaths.

Tags: Political Violence, Protest, Democracy, Donald Trump, Elections, Insurgency, Political Polarization

January 13 – February 13: Donald Trump is impeached for a second time following the events of January 6, but is acquitted again after his trial from F...

Tags: Impeachment, Political Scandals

January 20: Joe Biden is inaugurated as President of the United States. Kamala Harris, sworn in as vice president, becomes the first woman, first Afri...

Tags: Presidency, Inauguration, Democracy, Joe Biden, Equality

June 19: Joe Biden signs Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law, making Juneteenth a federal holiday. It is the first new federal holiday s...

Tags: Joe Biden, Civil Rights, African American History, Equality, Legislation

July 11: James Webb Space Telescope takes Webb's First Deep Field, oldest and highest resolution image of the universe to date.

Tags: Space Exploration, Astronomy, Cosmology, Astrophysics, Telescopes

September 26: Double Asteroid Redirection Test demonstrates capabilities on asteroid (65803) Didymos I Dimorphos.

Tags: Space Exploration, Astronomy, Aerospace Engineering, NASA

December 13: National Ignition Facility achieves first fusion ignition. President Biden signs the Respect for Marriage Act, which federally protects s...

Tags: Nuclear Physics, Scientific Breakthrough, LGBTQ+ Rights, Marriage Equality, Civil Rights, United States Politics

National Ignition Facility achieves first fusion ignition.

Tags: Nuclear Physics, Energy, Scientific Breakthrough, Research and Development, Climate Change, Renewable Energy

April 14: Elon Musk purchases Twitter.

Tags: Social Media, Internet, Business, Communication

November 16: NASA launches Artemis 1, the first uncrewed mission of its Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket ever to reach orbit.

Tags: Space Exploration, NASA, Space Race, Exploration

November 30: OpenAI launches ChatGPT, an AI chatbot.

Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Software, Internet, OpenAI

ChatGPT is launched to the public, making its first mainstream generative AI to be released.

Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, OpenAI, Computer Science, Software, Digital Revolution

June 30: Ketanji Brown Jackson becomes the first black woman on the Supreme Court.

Tags: Supreme Court, Civil Rights, Equality, Gender Equality, Race Relations

April 20: SpaceX conducts the first full stack test launch of the world's most powerful rocket, Starship.

Tags: Space Exploration, SpaceX, Commercial Space

October 3: Kevin McCarthy's expulsion via a motion introduced by Matt Gaetz is the first ousting of a Speaker of the United States House of Representa...

Tags: House of Representatives, Political Crisis, Legislative Branch

February 22: Intuitive Machines lands first private lunar probe, Nova-C, on moon

Tags: Space Exploration, Lunar Exploration, Space Race, Commercial Space, Aerospace, United States of America

June 24: Julian Assange released from prison in UK after accepting US plea bargain, returns to Australia

Tags: Espionage, Freedom of the Press, International Law, Transparency

November 5: Donald Trump wins US presidential election

Tags: Presidential Election, Donald Trump, Democracy, Elections, Political Campaigns, American Politics