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Thomas Newcomen invented the first steam engine, probably his greatest acheivement, developed in about 1710.
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Martin Klaproth, a German chemist analyzes a shiny black mineral known as pitchblend and identifies the element uranium.
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Richard Trevithick build the first prototype steam locomotive. The world's first locomotive-hauled railway journey took place as Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks, in Merthyr Tydfil in Wales
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Hermann von Helmholtz postulates the first law of thermodynamics: Energy can neither be created or destroyed, only transfered or converted.
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Thimas Edison successfully prototypes his first electric light bulb.
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Winston Churchill converts the British navy from coal to oil.
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Francis Bacon successfully demostrates that hydrogen and oxygen combine in a fuel cell to produce electricity.
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The United States Government initiates the Manhattan Project, a top-secret program to develop the atomic bomb. Aside fro the bomb, the project furthered the understanding of the atomic theory, controlled nuclear reactions using uranium, and ultimately accelerated the introduction of commercial nuclear reactors.
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OPEC, the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries formed in Baghdad.
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Supertanker Exxon Valdez runs agroundnear the Alaskan coastline creating the largest oil spill in history. The pulbic's already negative impression of the oil industry worsens.