•    1000-1400   Age of feudal lords in Europe: castles, knights, religious fervor, only very rudimentary science and technology. Also the age of the Vikings, some of whom sailed as far as Greenland and America. Mongols overrun and subjugate southern Russia.
•    1095-1291   Crusades
•    1460   Johann Gutenberg invents the printing press with movable type. Combined with paper (another Chinese invention which gradually reached Europe and displaced parchement), the printed book is a major force in a cultural and technical growth spurt, the Renaissance (French for “rebirth”).
•    1492   Columbus discovers America, followed by Spanish (and some Portugese) explorers. The main powers in Europe are Spain, France, England, Turkey and a confederation of German princes (“Holy Roman Empire.”).
•    1543   Copernicus, a Polish cleric, publishes his theory that the Earth is a planet revolving around the Sun.
•    1588   The “Spanish Armada,” a fleet attacking Britain, is destroyed by the British navy and by storms. For the first time Britain is able to claim part of the American continent.
•   Europe and Asia are introduced to American crops–potatoes, tomatoes, corn. Europe´s diet is also gradually enriched by sugar, oranges and pepper, originating in India.

•    1609—Galileo Galilei builds in Italy the first astronomical telescope and observes mountains on the Moon, sunspots (also discovered independently by Christopher Scheiner and Johann Fabricius), 4 moons around Jupiter and a crescent-like Venus, changing its shape the way the Moon does. His observations convince him that Copernicus was right.
  That same year Johann Kepler in Prague formulates his first two laws–that planets move in ellipses, and that they speed up as they approach the Sun according to a certain formula; these are shown by Isaac Newton in 1684 to be a direct result of Newton’s law of gravitation.
•    After a failed attempt (1586) to establish a colony on Roanoke Island, Virginia (now part of N. Carolina), Jamestown is founded in Virginia in 1607, and the first English settlers land in Massachussetts Bay in 1620 (the “Pilgrims“).
•   A century after Martin Luther broke away from the Roman church, religious wars sweep Europe. The 30 years’ war (1618-1648) devastates Germany and establishes Sweden as a major military power. In the civil war in England, parliament suspends monarchy 1645-1660, king beheaded 1649.
•   TheTurkish army reaches Vienna (1683) but is repelled; among the booty the victors discover coffee, develop a taste for it. Englishmen begin smoking tobacco, an American plant.
•    1708—Abraham Darby begins extensive iron production in England, based on roasted coal (coke). As firewood gets scarce, coal becomes England’s choice fuel and coke replaces charcoal in iron production. To run the pumps that keep coal mines dry, Newcomen in 1712 invents a crude steam engine.
•    1712—Russia’s king (czar) Peter the Great “opens a window to the West” by founding a new capital, which he names St. Petersburg and which becomes Russia’s main port on the Baltic sea.

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•   Britain’s colonies in America achieve a growing degree of self-sufficiency. Benjamin Franklin prints books in Philadelphia, also demonstrates (1749) that lightning is an electrical phenomenon. Later (1775-1783) the colonies rebel against Britain, win their independence and form a confederation. In 1787 they write a constitution and form a federal republic.
•    1769—James Watt in Britain invents a greatly improved steam engine; In 1807 Robert Fulton uses steam to run the first commercial paddlewheeler on the Hudson river;

•    1781—William Herschel, a German musician settled in Britain, discovers the planet Uranus with a mirror telescope he had constructed.
•    1783—The Montgolfière brothers in France, owners of a paper factory, build the first hot air balloons; balloons lifted by hydrogen follow.
•    1789—The French Revolution: France rebels against its king, who is later deposed and executed. The French follow the US example and set up a republic, but a military officer, Napoleon Bonaparte, gradually gains power. From 1798 to 1815 France under Napoleon fights a series of wars and for a while rules or controls most of the European continent.
•    1793—Alexander Mackenzie crosses Canada from coast to coast. After the 1803 US purchase of Louisiana from Napoleon, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark cross the continent with their exploration party, from St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia River.
•    1796—Edward Jenner in Britain introduces vaccination against smallpox.
•    1803—John Dalton, a chemist, argues that observations in chemistry require matter to be composed of atoms.

•   The Industrial revolution: George Stephenson in Britain (1825) and Peter Cooper in the US (1830) found successful railroads, run by steam. Mass production of fabric and paper. Henry Bessemer in 1856 finds way to mass-produce steel.
•    1826—crude photography by L.J.M. Daguerre, greatly improved in decades that follow.
•    1829–Joseph Ressel (a Czech forester employed by the Austrian Navy in Trieste) builds and tries out a simple ship’s propeller. Later in 1836 John Ericsson patents the propeller and develops it further.
•    1837–Samuel Morse invents his telegraph; 1844 first commercial telegraph line opens, by 1866 undersea telegraph cables link Europe and America.
•    1846—Anesthesia by ether is introduced by William T. Morton in Boston.
•    1849—California gold rush.

•    1856—Commodore Perry and a US fleet open up Japan to western culture and technology; rapid modernization follows, enabling Japan to defeat Russia in war less than 50 years later.

•    1859—Charles Darwin publishes “Origin of the Species”
•    1859—Edwin Drake extracts petroleum from an oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Beginning of a world-wide effort to find and extract oil, refine it and use its constituents for light, heat and later to run gasoline and diesel engines.
•    1861—Italy unified under the king of Piedmont; 1850-70, Germany unified under Prussian leadership..
• 1860-65–US Civil War
•    1865—Joseph Lister introduces antiseptics to surgery, cutting its risks

•   The Industrial revolution: George Stephenson in Britain (1825) and Peter Cooper in the US (1830) found successful railroads, run by steam. Mass production of fabric and paper. Henry Bessemer in 1856 finds way to mass-produce steel.
•    1826—crude photography by L.J.M. Daguerre, greatly improved in decades that follow.
•    1829–Joseph Ressel (a Czech forester employed by the Austrian Navy in Trieste) builds and tries out a simple ship’s propeller. Later in 1836 John Ericsson patents the propeller and develops it further.
•    1837–Samuel Morse invents his telegraph; 1844 first commercial telegraph line opens, by 1866 undersea telegraph cables link Europe and America.
•    1846—Anesthesia by ether is introduced by William T. Morton in Boston.
•    1849—California gold rush.

•    1856—Commodore Perry and a US fleet open up Japan to western culture and technology; rapid modernization follows, enabling Japan to defeat Russia in war less than 50 years later.

•    1859—Charles Darwin publishes “Origin of the Species”
•    1859—Edwin Drake extracts petroleum from an oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Beginning of a world-wide effort to find and extract oil, refine it and use its constituents for light, heat and later to run gasoline and diesel engines.
•    1861—Italy unified under the king of Piedmont; 1850-70, Germany unified under Prussian leadership..
• 1860-65–US Civil War
•    1865—Joseph Lister introduces antiseptics to surgery, cutting its risks.
•   The Industrial revolution continues: bicycles are introduced (high-wheelers, then “safety models”), mass production of fabrics, also Brooklyn Bridge (1883), Statue of Liberty (1886), Eiffel Tower (1889)
•    1985-1900—After the introduction of electric train engines, the construction of subways begins in the major cities of Europe (starting with London, then and the US (starting with Boston, then New York).
•    1870—Suez Canal opens, a shortcut between Europe and Asia.
•    1870—Railroad across the US. In 1891-1905, the trans-Siberian railroad is built.
•    1876—Telephone invented
•    1879—Edison invents the electric lightbulb, initially using a fragile carbon filament.
•    1882—Electric power stations in London and New York. Large scale refrigeration.
•    1884—Charles Parsons invents his steam turbine, which ultimately becomes the preferred power plant of electric power stations and ships. Diesel engine introduced by Rudolf Diesel in 1897.
•   The beginning of automobiles (Marcus 1864 in Austria; Benz, 1887 in Germany; Duryea, 1893 in the US).
•    1890—Nitrocellulose photographic film introduced (George Eastman of Kodak, Rochester NY), making possible the first “movies.”

•    Age of exploration and colonization in Africa.

•    1903—Wright brothers fly at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
•    1906—Lee De Forest invents the triode–the vacuum-tube device (based on the Edison effect) by which weak electric signals can be greatly amplified . It makes possible radio, sound films, loudspeakers and later a whole generation of electronic devices..

•    1909—L.H.Baekeland introduces “bakelite”, first mass-produced plastic material. It is widely used as electrical insulator.
•    1904-1914—Panama canal is built.
•    1911—Amundsen reaches South Pole.
•    1912—Emperor overthrown in China, republic proclaimed.

•    1927—Charles Lindbergh flies solo from the US to Paris.
•    1929—The New York stock market crashes, beginning a long economic depression, in the US and across the world.
•    1922 to 1925—Fascism, the creed of a strong, all-controlling government, gains power in Italy under Benito Mussolini. In Russia in 1924, Communist leader V.I. Lenin, dies; after that Joseph Stalin gradually gains power, kills or exiles all his rivals and institutes a reign of terror.
•    1930—In Germany, hard-hit by the economic hardships following WW-I and by the world-wide depression, the Fascist Nazi party under Adolph Hitler is 2nd in the polls in 1930, takes power 1933.

•    1927-1930—Talking films (black and white). “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) pioneers color movies, but more than 10 years pass before color films become prevalent.
•    1932—Sulfa drugs, first new anti-bacterial weapon. Penicillin follows during World War II, and other antibiotics are developed after the war.
•    1936—The DC-3, the first modern airliner, can reach 210 mph with 21 passengers.

•    1943—Oswald Avery at the Rockefeller Institute in New York proves that DNA, a hitherto unexplained substance in all nuclei of living cells, carries the genetic information.
•    1947—India becomes independent, along with a great number of colonies (especially in Africa), as Britain and France dismantle most of their empires. Indonesia is established in 1949.
•    1948-1949—The “cold war” between the western allies (Britain, France and the US) and the Soviet Union begins with a blockade of Berlin by the Soviets, who try to force out the western allies. Contact is maintained for a year by a massive airlift.
•    1947—Transistor invented, compact solid-state device that replaces the triode and is much more durable. In 1956 Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley are awarded the Nobel prize for this.

•    1949—The X-1 rocket airplane of the United States exceeds the speed of sound.
•    1949—A million TV receivers (black-and-white) in the US; two years later the number reaches 10 million.
•    1949–Britain puts the first jet airliner into service, the Comet. It is later withdrawn because of structural faults, but by 1958 the French Caravelle and the larger Boeing 707 jets enter service. Gradually jets begin dominating air transport, while travel by ocean liners declines sharply.
•    1950—The “Marshall Plan” of US general George C. Marshall revitalizes the European economy by providing extensive but judicious aid.
•    1950—North Korea invades South Korea. The US army stops the invasion and after a while enters North Korea, but a major intervention by China’s army forces a stalemate.
•    1951–UNIVAC, first large electronic computer, built by Sperry-Rand.

•    1952—United States explodes “Mike”, the first hydrogen bomb, perhaps 500 times more powerful than the nuclear “atomic” bomb.
•    1953—Edmund Hillary and Tenzing reach the top of Mt. Everest.

•    1954—Following a supreme court ruling, the US government outlaws Black/White segregation in public schools.

1955

• —Jonas

Salk

•  develops vaccine against polyomyelities, followed (1960) by the Salk oral vaccine; diseases is effectively eradicated.

•    1953-1958—Watson and Crick show that DNA is a double helix and its mode of replication is established. By 1966 the “genetic code” is revealed, by which specific proteins are created. The beginning of modern molecular biology.
• 1956–Soviet army crushes attempt of Hungary to break away from Communist block.
•    1956—First large commercial nuclear power station, at Calder Hall, opens in Britain.

•    1958—Interstate highway network in the US started.
•    1958—NASA established by President Eisenhower.

•    1962, 20 February—John Glenn becomes first American in orbit.

•    1962—The placing of Soviet Missiles on Cuba produces international crisis, which ends when the missiles are withdrawn.
•    1963—President J.F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
•    1963—Nuclear test ban treaty

•   1969, 20 July—Apollo 11 astronauts land on the Moon.

•    1975—Viet Nam war ends.
•    1975—Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak create the first personal computer, the “Apple”
•    1976—NASA´s “Viking” soft-lands on Mars, marking the US bicentennial.

•    1981—AIDS begins spreading in the US.