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Period: 120 to
B.C to Now
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122
Welfare
When the tribune Gaius Gracchus instituted lex frumentaria, a law that ordered Rome’s government to supply its citizens with allotments of cheaply priced grain. This was the early form of welfare practiced under the Trajan. Other items including corn, oil, wine, bread and pork were eventually added to the list of price-controlled goods, which may have been collected with tokens called “tesserae.” -
200
Roads and highways
These Roman roads—many of which are still in use today—were constructed with a combination of dirt, gravel and bricks made from granite or hardened volcanic lava. The Romans built over 50,000 miles of road by 200 A.D., primarily in the service of military conquest. -
312
Aqueducts
This used gravity to transport water into cities. Instead of having to live near water, the Romans just used these giant stone "pipelines" to bring in water from those bodies of water to where they lived. The Romans did not actually create the aqueducts; canals and water transports existed earlier in Egypt. -
432
Statue of Zeus at Olympia
Made of ivory and gold panels, with many precious stones, the Statue of Zeus was known as one of the seven wonders of the world before it was destryoed in the 5th century. -
450
The Twelve Tables
The basis for early Roman law came from the Twelve Tables, a code that formed an essential part of the constitution during the Republican era. The Twelve Tables detailed laws regarding property, religion and divorce and listed punishments for everything from theft to black magic. -
Mercury Thermometer
Daniel Gabriel Farenheit invented the alcohol thermometer and then the mercury thermometer to make it better. Ten years later, he introduced farenheit temperature as a way to measure heat. -
Telephone
The telephone was invented by a guy named Alexander Graham Bell. It presented a new form of communication without seeing people. -
Panama Canal
What started as a French project in 1880 was completed as an American one in 1914. Over 25,000 workers perished in the process, many due to tropical diseases, and the project cost the U.S. government somewhere around $375 million. The 50-mile-long canal route takes ships through a channel from one ocean, into an artificial lake, and out another channel to the other side. -
Eiffel Tower
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Burj Dubai (Dubai Tower)
2,684-foot-tall Burj Dubai building, whose design borrows from traditional Islamic architecture as it punches a hole in the sky. Scheduled for completion by the end of 2009, the building topped out at its finished height, making it the world's tallest freestanding structure -- that's over 1,000 feet and 60 percent taller than the 1,671-foot Taipei 101 Tower.
