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35,000 BCE
Mortar and Pestle
Scientists have found ancient mortars and pestles in Southwest Asia that date back to approximately 35000 BC. - Wikipedia -
35,000 BCE
Glass
The earliest known man made glass are date back to around 3500BC, with finds in Egypt and Eastern Mesopotamia. Discovery of glassblowing around 1st century BC was a major breakthrough in glass making. - Google -
31,000 BCE
Art
Invention in art, design and architecture. 350,000 BCE – Paint was invented by early man. Pigment and paint grinding equipment was found in a cave at Twin Rivers near Lusaka, Zambia. 31,000 BCE – Representational painting was invented. - Google -
Period: 30,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE
Paleolithic Age (Old Stone Age)
The Paleolithic age is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools and covers roughly 95% of human technological prehistory. - Wikipedia -
12,000 BCE
Farming
People invented farming in different places: in West Asia about 12,000 BC, in Africa about 10,000 BC, in South America and China about 8000 BC. - Google -
Period: 10,000 BCE to 8000 BCE
Mesolithic Period (Middle Stone Age)
The Middle Stone Age (or MSA) was a period of African prehistory between the Early Stone Age and the Later Stone Age. It is generally considered to have begun around 280,000 years ago and ended around 50–25,000 years ago. - Wikipedia -
8000 BCE
Chisel
Flint ancestors of the present-day chisel existed as far back as 8000 bc; the Egyptians used copper and later bronze chisels to work both wood and soft stone. -
8000 BCE
Bricks
Many primitive buildings were constructed from mud and straw. However, the truth is that bricks were invented a very long time ago. The first bricks that we know about were being made in Jericho as long ago as 8000 BC. The people there had discovered they could make simple bricks by leaving clay mud to dry in the sun. - Google -
Period: 8000 BCE to 4000 BCE
Neolithic Age (New Stone Age)
The Neolithic was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 10,200 BC, according to the ASPRO chronology, in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world and ending between 4500 and 2000 BC. - Wikipedia -
6000 BCE
Axe
Axes made with ground cutting edges are known since the Neolithic period ending 4,000 to 2,000 BC. The first true hafted axes are known from the Mesolithic period (c. 6000 BC). Few wooden hafts have been found from this period, but it seems that the axe was normally hafted by wedging. -Wikipedia -
6000 BCE
Drum
Drums first appeared as far back as 6000 BC. Mesopotamian excavations unearthed small cylindrical drums dated 3000 BC. American Indians and the indigenous people of Peru, for example, used gourd and wooden constructed drums for their rituals, religious ceremonies, and various other aspects of their social life. - Google -
6000 BCE
Hatchet
Not much is known on the history of hatchets, however since hatchets came from axes they can share a common history. The history of hatchets and axes begins circa 6000 BC. These tools were primarily made with wood handles and a stone that ground down to a sharp edge. Soon after this smaller axes were made which eventually were given the name hatchets. The history of hatchets, like axes are from a long time period. - hatchets.blogsavy.com -
6000 BCE
Battle Axe
It is from the Saxo-Norman era and dates to roughly the early eleventh century. The medieval battle-axe was a weapon made by a blacksmith. The battle-axe was made of iron, steel, sometimes bronze, and also wood (for its handle). The first stone axes were produced in 6,000 B.C.E. - Medieval London.edu -
5200 BCE
Bowl
Actually, it is stated that the wooden version of the modern bowling ball was invented on this day in 1862. Today, they use some sort of plastic/polyester compound. Truthfully, I'm a little confused. The game of bowling can be traced back to approximately 5200 B.C. when ancient Egyptians used stones for their balls. - Google -
Period: 4000 BCE to 3500 BCE
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. - Wikipedia -
3500 BCE
Wheel
Wheels were invented circa 3,500 B.C., and rapidly spread across the Eastern Hemisphere. Wheels are the archetype of a primitive, caveman-level technology. But in fact, they're so ingenious that it took until 3500 B.C. for someone to invent them. - Google -
3500 BCE
Glass
The earliest known man-made glass is dated back to around 3500BC, with finds in Egypt and Eastern Mesopotamia. The discovery of glassblowing around the 1st century BC was a major breakthrough in glassmaking. - Google -
3200 BCE
Hat
One of the first pictorial depictions of a hat appears in a tomb painting from Thebes, Egypt, which shows a man wearing a conical straw hat, dated to around 3200 BC. Hats were commonly worn in ancient Egypt. - Wikipedia -
3200 BCE
Religion
The history of religion refers to the written record of human religious experiences and ideas. This period of religious history begins with the invention of writing about 5,200 years ago (3200 BCE). The prehistory of religion involves the study of religious beliefs that existed prior to the advent of written records. - Google -
3200 BCE
Writing
Abstract. Writing – a system of graphic marks representing the units of a specific language – has been invented independently in the Near East, China and Mesoamerica. The cuneiform script, created in Mesopotamia, present-day Iraq, ca. 3200 BC, was first. -
3000 BCE
Candle
These were made by soaking the pithy core of reeds in melted animal fat. However, it is commonly perceived that since the rushlights had no wick, they were not considered to be a true candle. It was not until 3000 BC that the Egyptians formed a true candle that was made out of beeswax. - Google -
3000 BCE
Shirt
The world's oldest preserved garment, discovered by Flinders Petrie, is a "highly sophisticated" linen shirt from a First Dynasty Egyptian tomb at Tarkan, c. 3000 BC: "the shoulders and sleeves have been finely pleated to give form-fitting trimness while allowing the wearer room to move. - Wikipedia -
3000 BCE
Hammer
Around 3,000 BC, 27,000 years after the last important update of the hammer. Hammer heads were forged with bronze, making them more durable as far as binding them was concerned. -
Period: 2070 BCE to 1600 BCE
Xia Dynasty
Xia dynasty. Xia dynasty, Wade-Giles romanization Hsia, (c. 2070–c. 1600 bc), early Chinese dynasty mentioned in legends. According to legend, the founder was Yu, who was credited with having engineered the draining of the waters of a great flood (and who was later identified as a deified lord of the harvest). - Google -
2000 BCE
Chariot
The critical invention that allowed the construction of light, horse-drawn chariots was the spoked wheel. The earliest spoke-wheeled chariots date to ca. 2000 BC. The use of chariots peaked around 1300 BC (see Battle of Kadesh). - Wikipedia -
2000 BCE
Pen
Who Invented the Pen? There are several different answers to this question because of the varying types of pens there are available in the 21st century. However, the first people to invent the pen as a basic tool to write were the ancient Egyptians. The oldest piece of writing on papyrus dates back to 2000 BC. - The Journal Shop -
1600 BCE
Sword
Historically, the sword developed in the Bronze Age, evolving from the dagger; the earliest specimens date to about 1600 BC. -wikipedia -
1600 BCE
Shoe
In Mesopotamia, (c. 1600-1200 BC) a type of soft shoes were worn by the mountain people who lived on the border of Iran. The soft shoe was made of wraparound leather, similar to a moccasin. As late as 1850 most shoes were made on absolutely straight lasts, with no difference between the right and the left shoe. - Google -
Period: 1600 BCE to 1050 BCE
Shang Dynasty
The Shang dynasty or Yin dynasty, according to traditional historiography, ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, succeeding the Xia dynasty and followed by the Zhou dynasty. - Wikipedia -
Period: 1200 BCE to 550 BCE
Iron Age
In other regions of Europe, the Iron Age began in the 8th century BC in Central Europe and the 6th century BC in Northern Europe. The Near Eastern Iron Age is divided into two subsections, Iron I and Iron II. Iron I (1200–1000 BC) illustrates both continuity and discontinuity with the previous Late Bronze Age. - Wikipedia -
Period: 1046 BCE to 256 BCE
Zhou Dynasty
The Zhou dynasty was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang dynasty and preceded the Qin dynasty. The Zhou dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history. - Wikipedia -
1000 BCE
Pants
The earliest existing pair of pants was found in China and dates to around 1000 BCE - within 1000 years of the time when it is believed horses were initially domesticated. These pants are constructed of wool with legs made of multiple panels. - Google -
1000 BCE
Umbrella
Early umbrellas, or as they were known parasols, were designed by the Egyptians around 1000 B.C. The first models were made from feathers or lotus leaves, attached to a stick, and were used to offer shade to the nobility. As they made their way overseas, umbrellas were regarded as status symbols, especially in China. - Google -
Period: 770 BCE to 475 BCE
Spring and Autumn Period
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611 BCE
Map
The earliest ancient Greek who is said to have constructed a map of the world is Anaximander of Miletus (c. 611–546 BC), pupil of Thales. He believed that the earth was a cylindrical form, like a stone pillar and suspended in space. - Wikipedia -
600 BCE
Mathmatics
Numeracy pre-dated writing and numeral systems have been many and diverse, with the first known written numerals created by Egyptians in Middle Kingdom texts such as the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus. Between 600 and 300 BC the Ancient Greeks began a systematic study of mathematics in its own right with Greek mathematics. - Wikipedia -
Period: 499 BCE to 449 BCE
The Persian War
The Greco-Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire of Persia and Greek city-states that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC. - Wikipedia -
Period: 475 BCE to 221 BCE
Warring States Period
The Warring States Period (475–221 BC) was an era of division in ancient China. After the relatively peaceful and philosophical Spring and Autumn Period, various states were at war before the Qin state conquered them all, and China was reunited under the Qin Dynasty. - Google -
Period: 431 BCE to 404 BCE
The Peloponnesian War
The Peloponnesian War was an ancient Greek war fought by the Delian League led by Athens against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases. - Wikipedia -
400 BCE
Catapult
The term catapult was derived from the Greek word "katapultos". A catapult was a large machine on wheels with a basket attached to a long wooden arm and a power source for hurling projectiles on the other. The first catapult however was invented around 400 BC in Greektown Syracuse. - Google -
Period: 264 BCE to 146 BCE
The Punic Wars
The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 BC to 146 BC. At the time, they were some of the largest wars that had ever taken place. - Wikipedia -
221 BCE
Kite
It is thought that the earliest use of kites was among the Chinese, approximately 2,800 years ago. The kite was said to be the invention of the famous 5th century BC Chinese philosophers Mozi and Lu Ban. By 549 AD, paper kites were being flown. In that year a paper kite was used as a message for a rescue mission. -Google -
Period: 221 BCE to 206 BCE
Qin Dynasty
The Qin dynasty was the first dynasty of Imperial China, lasting from 221 to 206 BC. Named for its heartland in Qin state, the dynasty was founded by Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of Qin. - Wikipedia -
Period: 206 BCE to 220
Han Dynasty
The Han dynasty or the Han Empire was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms period. Spanning over four centuries, the Han period is considered a golden age in Chinese history. - Wikipedia -
100 BCE
Paper
Paper was invented around 100 BC in China. In 105 AD, under the Han Dynasty emperor Ho-Ti, a government official in China named Ts'ai Lun was the first to start a paper-making industry. - Google -
Period: 220 to 589
The Six Dynasties Period
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Period: 220 to 265
Three Kingdoms
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Period: 265 to 420
Jin Dynasty
The Jin dynasty, distinguished as the Sima Jin and Liang Jin, was a Chinese dynasty, empire, and era traditionally dated from AD 265 to 420. - Wikipedia -
365
Saddle
From traveling to waging war, for hundreds of years, man rode without a saddle. The first saddle is believed to have been invented in 365 AD by the Sarmations. Proud horsemen who used their horses in battle and also sacrificed them to the gods, their saddle creations were brought back to Europe by the Huns. - Google -
Period: 386 to 589
Period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties
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Period: 500 to 1500
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. - Google -
Period: 581 to 618
Sui Dynasty
The Sui Dynasty was a short-lived imperial dynasty of China of pivotal significance. The Sui unified the Northern and Southern dynasties and reinstalled the rule of ethnic Han Chinese in the entirety of China proper, along with sinicization of former nomadic ethnic minorities (the Five Barbarians) within its territory. - Wikipedia -
618
Ice Cream
The origin of ice-cream. An ice-cream-like food was first eaten in China in 618-97AD. King Tang of Shang, had 94 ice men who helped to make a dish of buffalo milk, flour and camphor. A kind of ice-cream was invented in China about 200 BC when a milk and rice mixture was frozen by packing it into snow. - BBC News -
Period: 618 to 906
Tang Dynasty
The Tang dynasty or the Tang Empire was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. - Wikipedia -
700
Gunpowder
The first cannons and guns. But it was under the rule of the T'ang Dynasty, about 700 AD, that people really began to use gunpowder. T'ang Dynasty emperors used gunpowder to put on great fireworks displays. By 904 AD, Chinese inventors saw that you could also use gunpowder for a powerful weapon. - Quatr.us -
Period: 790 to 1066
Viking Age
The period from the earliest recorded raids in the 790s until the Norman conquest of England in 1066 is commonly known as the Viking Age of Scandinavian history. -
900
Mace
Although there are some references to flanged maces (bardoukion) as early as the Byzantine Empire c. 900 it is commonly accepted that the flanged mace did not become popular in Europe until the 12th century, when it was concurrently developed in Russia and Mid-west Asia. -
Period: 907 to 960
Five Dynasties Period
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Period: 960 to 1279
Song Dynasty
The Song dynasty was an era of Chinese history that began in 960 and continued until 1279. It was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of Later Zhou, ending the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. - Wikipedia -
1040
Fireworks
The Chinese unintentionally invented firecrackers by tossing bamboo into fire, but it took another thousand years before true fireworks came alive. As the story goes an alchemist mixed sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate (a food preservative) hoping to find the secret to eternal life. Instead, the mixture caught on fire, and gunpowder was born! When the powder was packed into bamboo or paper tubes and lit on fire, history had its first fireworks!
- ssec.si.edu -
1221
Bomb
Explosive bombs were used in East Asia in 1221, by a Jurchen Jin army against a Chinese Song city. Bombs built using bamboo tubes appear in the 11th century. Bombs made of cast iron shells packed with explosive gunpowder date to 13th century China. - Wikipedia -
1260
Cannon
According to historian Ahmad Y. al-Hassan, during the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, the Mamluks used cannon against the Mongols. He claims that this was "the first cannon in history" and used a gunpowder formula almost identical to the ideal composition for explosive gunpowder. - Wikipedia -
Period: 1279 to 1368
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan dynasty, officially the Great Yuan, was the empire or ruling dynasty of Mongolia established by Kublai Khan, leader of the Mongolian Borjigin clan. It followed the Song dynasty and was succeeded by the Ming dynasty. - Wikipedia -
1364
Gun
Historical timeline of the development of modern weapons starting at 1364 with the first recorded use of a firearm and ending in 1892 with the introduction of automatic handguns. Before the matchlock, guns were fired by holding a burning wick to a "touch hole" in the barrel igniting the powder inside. - Google -
Period: 1368 to
Ming Dynasty
The Ming dynasty was the ruling dynasty of China – then known as the Great Ming Empire – for 276 years following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. - Wikipedia -
1450
Books
Around 1450, in what is commonly regarded as an independent invention, Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type in Europe, along with innovations in casting the type based on a matrix and hand mould. This invention gradually made books less expensive to produce, and more widely available. -
1484
Hot Dog
In fact, two German towns vie to be the original birthplace of the modern hot dog. - Google -
1484
Frankfurter
Frankfurt claims the frankfurter was invented there over 500 years ago, in 1484: eight years before Columbus set sail for America. But the people of Vienna (Wien, in German) say they are the true originators of the “wienerwurst.” - Google -
1492
Globe
The earliest extant terrestrial globe was made in 1492 by Martin Behaim (1459–1537) with help from the painter Georg Glockendon. Behaim was a German mapmaker, navigator, and merchant. Working in Nuremberg, Germany, he called his globe the "Nürnberg Terrestrial Globe." It is now known as the Erdapfel. - Wikipedia -
1572
Science
David Wootton’s answer is unequivocal: modernity began with the scientific revolution in Europe, bookended by the dates 1572 (when the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe identified a new star in the heavens) and 1704 (when Isaac Newton publish Opticks). This was “the most important transformation in human history” since the Neolithic era. - Google -
Toilet
The flushing toilet was invented by John Harington in 1596. Joseph Bramah of Yorkshire patented the first practical water closet in England in 1778. George Jennings in 1852 also took out a patent for the flush-out toilet. - Wikipedia -
Telescope
It is quite a common belief that Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei invented the telescope but this is not strictly true. The earliest workings towards the design of the refracting telescope were made by German-Dutch lensmaker Hans Lippershey. - google -
Calculator
The original compact calculator was the abacus, developed in China in the ninth century. The young French mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) invented the first adding machine in 1642, a clever device driven by gears and capable of performing mechanical addition and subtraction. - Google -
Period: to
Qing Dynasty
The Qing dynasty, also known as the Qing Empire, officially the Great Qing (English: /tʃɪŋ/), was the last imperial dynasty of China, established in 1636 and ruling China from 1644 to 1912. It was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. - Wikipedia -
Clock
The first mechanical clocks, employing the verge escapement mechanism with a foliot or balance wheel timekeeper, were invented in Europe at around the start of the 14th century, and became the standard timekeeping device until the pendulum clock was invented in 1656. - Wikipedia -
Period: to
Age of Enlightenment
European politics, philosophy, science and communications were radically reoriented during the course of the “long 18th century” (1685-1815) as part of a movement referred to by its participants as the Age of Reason, or simply the Enlightenment. - Google -
Piano
The first true piano was invented almost entirely by one man—Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1731) of Padua, who had been appointed in 1688 to the Florentine court of Grand Prince Ferdinando de' Medici to care for its harpsichords and eventually for its entire collection of musical instruments. - Google -
Thimble
The first thimbles date back to about 30,000 years ago that were used when mammoth hunters sewed pearls onto pieces of leather. A Dutch metal worker made the first thimble as we know today in England around the year 1695. -
Period: to
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War comprised the North American theater of the worldwide Seven Years' War of 1756–63. It pitted the colonies of British America against those of New France. - Wikipedia -
Period: to
The 1st Industrial Revolution
This process began in Britain in the 18th century and from there spread to other parts of the world. Although used earlier by French writers, the term Industrial Revolution was first popularized by the English economic historian Arnold Toynbee (1852–83) to describe Britain's economic development from 1760 to 1840. - Google -
Soda
Our story begins in 1767 when a European man named Joseph Priestly figured out how to infuse water with carbon dioxide, creating the first carbonated beverage. Back then people believed carbonated water cured illnesses so "soda" was sold in pharmacies. - https://www.southsidecraftsoda.com -
Period: to
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War, also known as the American War of Independence, was a global war that began as a conflict between Great Britain and its Thirteen Colonies which declared independence as the United States of America. - Wikipedia -
Period: to
French Revolution
The French Revolution was a period of far-reaching social and political upheaval in France and its colonies that lasted from 1789 until 1799. It was partially carried forward by Napoleon during the later expansion of the French Empire. - Wikipedia -
Period: to
The Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire was a state and caliphate that controlled much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt by the Oghuz Turkish tribal leader Osman I. - Wikipedia -
Batteries
In 1800, Volta invented the first true battery, which came to be known as the voltaic pile. The voltaic pile consisted of pairs of copper and zinc discs piled on top of each other, separated by a layer of cloth or cardboard soaked in brine (i.e., the electrolyte). - Wikipedia -
Period: to
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a conflict fought between the United States and its Indigenous allies, and Great Britain, its dependent colonies in North America, Indigenous allies and Spain. - Wikipedia -
French Horn
According to the Brass Society, "Heinrich Stoelzel (1777-1844), a member of the band of the Prince of Pless, invented a valve which he applied to the horn by July of 1814 (considered the first French Horn)" and "Friedrich Blühmel ( fl. 1808-before 1845), a miner who played trumpet and horn in a band in Waldenburg. - Google -
Camera
The first partially successful photograph of a camera image was made in approximately 1816 by Nicéphore Niépce, using a very small camera of his own making and a piece of paper coated with silver chloride, which darkened where it was exposed to light. - Wikipedia -
Treadmill
William Cubitt, a civil engineer raised in a family of millwrights, created the treadmill—which was also called a treadwheel in the early days—in 1818. - Google -
Belt
There have been several precursors to suspenders throughout the past 300 years, but modern suspenders were first invented in 1820 by Albert Thurston. They were once almost universally worn, due to the high cut of mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century trousers that made a belt impractical. - Wikipedia -
Dress
In 1822 Albert Thurston invented suspenders (known in Britain as braces). In the early 19th century women wore light dresses. In the 1830s they had puffed sleeves. In the 1850s they wore frames of whalebone or steel wire called crinolines under their skirts. - Google -
Concrete
Finally, in 1824, an Englishman named Joseph Aspdin invented Portland cement by burning finely ground chalk and clay in a kiln until the carbon dioxide was removed. - Google -
Chainsaw
The origin is debated, but a chainsaw-like tool was made around 1830 by the German orthopaedist Bernhard Heine. This instrument, the osteotome, had links of a chain carrying small cutting teeth with the edges set at an angle; the chain was moved around a guiding blade by turning the handle of a sprocket wheel. - Wikipedia -
Metal Flute
The size and placement of tone holes, key mechanism, and fingering system used to produce the notes in the flute's range were evolved from 1832 to 1847 by Theobald Boehm and greatly improved the instrument's dynamic range and intonation over its predecessors. - Wikipedia -
Public Library
The first free public library supported by taxation in the world was the Peterborough, New Hampshire Town Library which was founded at town meeting on April 9, 1833. Many sources claim to have been the first, such as Boston's Public Library, which was the second, established in 1852. - Wikipedia -
Telegraph
An electrical telegraph was independently developed and patented in the United States in 1837 by Samuel Morse. His assistant, Alfred Vail, developed the Morse code signalling alphabet with Morse. - Wikipedia -
School
Credit for our modern version of the school system usually goes to Horace Mann. When he became Secretary of Education in Massachusetts in 1837, he set forth his vision for a system of professional teachers who would teach students an organized curriculum of basic content. - Google -
Candy Cane
A recipe for straight peppermint candy sticks, white with coloured stripes, was published in 1844. The "candy cane" is found in literature in 1866, though no description of color or flavor was provided. Its earliest known association with Christmas was in 1874, and by 1882 canes were being hung on Christmas trees. - Wikipedia -
Candy Bar
Historians believe the candy bar dates all the way back to 1847. It was in that year in Great Britain when Joseph Fry and his son first pressed a paste made up of cocoa powder and sugar into a bar shape. Before that time, chocolate had mainly been used to make sweet drinks. - Google -
Period: to
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. - Wikipedia -
Condom
The rubber vulcanization process was invented by Charles Goodyear in 1839, and patented in 1844. The first rubber condom was produced in 1855, and by the late 1850s several major rubber companies were mass-producing, among other items, rubber condoms. - Wikipedia -
Cigarettes
Cigarettes were first introduced in the United States in the early 19th century. Before this, tobacco was used primarily in pipes and cigars, by chewing, and in snuff. By the time of the Civil War, cigarette use had become more popular. Federal tax was first imposed on cigarettes in 1864. - CDC -
Period: to
The 2nd industrial revolution
Historians have labeled the years from 1870-1914 as the period of the Second Industrial Revolution. While the First Industrial Revolution caused the growth of industries, such as coal, iron, railroads and textiles, the Second Industrial Revolution witnessed the expansion of electricity, petroleum and steel. - Google -
Earmuffs
Chester Greenwood (December 4, 1858 – July 5, 1937), of Farmington, Maine, invented the earmuff in 1873, at the age of 15. He reportedly came up with the idea while ice skating and he asked his grandmother to sew tufts of fur between loops of wire. - Wikipedia -
Telephone
They were spoken by Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, when he made the first call on March 10, 1876, to his assistant, Thomas Watson: "Mr. Watson--come here--I want to see you." - Google -
Phonograph/Gramophone
Invented by Thomas Edison. It was for the mechanical recording and reproduction of sound. In its later forms, it is also called a gramophone, or, since the 1940s, a record player. - Wikipedia -
Lightbulb
A Brief History of the Light Bulb. The electric light, one of the everyday conveniences that most affects our lives, was not “invented” in the traditional sense in 1879 by Thomas Alva Edison, although he could be said to have created the first commercially practical incandescent light. - Google -
Machine Gun
This rapid-firing weapon was known as the Gatling gun. The first Gatling guns were used in the American Civil War. These guns were rapid-firing, but they depended on the arm of the operator to crank out the bullets. In 1884, Hiram Maxim invented the first machine gun. - Google -
Car
Exactly who invented the automobile is a matter of opinion. If we had to give credit to one inventor, it would probably be Karl Benz from Germany. Many suggest that he created the first true automobile in 1885/1886. - Google -
The Box Camera
The Kodak introduced in May 1888 first commercially successful box camera for roll film -- the advertising slogan being You press the button – we do the rest. The Kodak Brownie, a long lasting series of classical box cameras using roll film. The Ansco Panda was designed to compete directly with the Brownies. - Google -
Hamburger
Another version of the creation of the hamburger is that of German cook Otto Kuasw, who created a very popular sailors' sandwich made of a fillet of beef patty fried in butter, served with a fried egg, between two toasted buns in 1891, at a post in Hamburg, Germany. - Google -
Earbuds
Dre of their day. But that's nothing compared to the genius of French engineer Ernest Mercadier, who was awarded a patent for the first-ever in-ear headphones in 1891. Designed to be used by telephonists, they even boasted earbuds to block out external sounds. - Google -
Kitchen Stove
One of the earliest such devices was patented by Canadian inventor Thomas Ahearn in 1892. Ahearn and Warren Y. Soper were owners of Ottawa's Chaudiere Electric Light and Power Company. The electric stove was showcased at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, where an electrified model kitchen was shown. - Wikipedia -
Movies
The first to present projected moving pictures to a paying audience were the Lumière brothers in December 1895 in Paris, France. They used a device of their own making, the Cinématographe, which was a camera, a projector and a film printer all in one.- National Science and Media Museum -
Oven
Electric ovens were invented, but they did not become prominent until the late 1920s as electricity technology improved. The first patent for an electric oven was issued in 1896 to William Hadaway, who also designed the first Westinghouse toaster. - Google -
Period: to
Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush was a migration by an estimated 100,000 prospectors to the Klondike region of the Yukon, in north-western Canada, between 1896 and 1899. - Wikipedia -
Period: to
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was an armed conflict between Spain and the United States in 1898. Hostilities began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba, leading to U.S. intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. - Wikipedia -
Flashlight
The invention of the dry cell and miniature incandescent electric light bulbs made the first battery-powered flashlights possible around 1899. Today flashlights use mostly incandescent lamps or light-emitting diodes and run on disposable or rechargeable batteries. - Wikipedia -
Period: to
The Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, Boxer Uprising, or Yihetuan Movement was an anti-imperialist, anti-foreign, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, toward the end of the Qing dynasty. - Wikipedia -
Hershey Bar
Milton Hershey invented the Hershey bar in 1900. -
Airplane
On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright made four brief flights at Kitty Hawk with their first powered aircraft. The Wright brothers had invented the first successful airplane. The Wrights used this stopwatch to time the Kitty Hawk flights. - Google -
Ice Cream Cone
Although Marchiony is credited with the invention of the cone, a similar creation was independently introduced at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair by Ernest A. Hamwi, a Syrian concessionaire. Hamwi was selling a crisp, waffle-like pastry -- zalabis -- in a booth right next to an ice cream vendor. - Google -
Period: to
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1905 over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea. - Wikipedia -
Popsicle
Find out who invented the popsicle (by accident, no less), and how this yummy frozen treat has changed over the past 100 years. Plus, try one of our yummy popsicle recipes. In 1905, eleven-year-old Frank Epperson left a cup filled with powdered soda, water, and a stirring stick on his San Francisco porch. - Google -
Model T
On October 1, 1908, the first production Model T Ford is completed at the company's Piquette Avenue plant in Detroit. Between 1908 and 1927, Ford would build some 15 million Model T cars. It was the longest production run of any automobile model in history until the Volkswagen Beetle surpassed it in 1972. - Google -
Headphones
Headphones originated from the telephone receiver earpiece, and were the only way to listen to electrical audio signals before amplifiers were developed. The first truly successful set was developed in 1910 by Nathaniel Baldwin, who made them by hand in his kitchen and sold them to the United States Navy. - Wikipedia -
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Republic of China
The Republic of China was a sovereign state based in mainland China between 1912 and 1949, prior to the nationalist government's relocation to the island of Taiwan. It was established on 1 January 1912 after the Xinhai Revolution, which overthrew the Qing dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of China. - Wikipedia -
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World War I
World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. - Wikipedia -
Bra
The bra was not invented on November 3, 1914. Women have been binding and otherwise supporting their breasts for, literally, ages; the first bras may well date back to ancient Greece, where women would wrap bands of fabric across their chests, tying or pinning them in the back. - Google -
Poison Gas
On April 22, 1915, German forces shock Allied soldiers along the western front by firing more than 150 tons of lethal chlorine gas against two French colonial divisions at Ypres, Belgium. -
Tank
The military combined with engineers and industrialists and by early 1916 a prototype was adopted as the design of future tanks. Britain used tanks in combat for the first time in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on 15 September 1916. - Google -
Television
The First Electronic Television was Invented in 1927. The world's first electronic television was created by a 21 year old inventor named Philo Taylor Farnsworth. That inventor lived in a house without electricity until he was age 14. - Google -
TV Shows
Today, American networks play thousands of different programs every day. Every single one of these programs, however, owes its existence to America's first television program, which was called The Queen's Messenger. That program was first shown in 1928 by WRGB station. - Bebussinessed.com -
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The Great Depression
The Great Depression lasted from 1929 to 1939, and was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world. It began after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. - Google -
Audio Books
Audiobooks first emerged in 1932 with the establishment of a recording studio by The American Foundation for the Blind, which created recordings of books on vinyl records. Each side held about 15 minutes of speech. - PBS -
Comic Books
The first modern comic book, Famous Funnies, was released in the United States in 1933 and was a reprinting of earlier newspaper humor comic strips, which had established many of the story-telling devices used in comics. - Wikipedia -
Computer
First programmable computer. The Z1 was created by German Konrad Zuse in his parents' living room between 1936 and 1938. It is considered to be the first electro mechanical binary programmable computer, and the first really functional modern computer. - Google -
SPAM
Spam (stylized as SPAM) is a brand of canned cooked pork made by Hormel Foods Corporation. It was introduced by Hormel in 1937 and gained popularity worldwide after its use during World War II. - Wikipedia -
Printer
In 1938, Chester Carlson invented a dry printing process called electrophotography commonly called a Xerox, the foundation technology for laser printers to come. For years, nobody seemed to pay any interest to Carson's invention. From 1939 to 1944 Carlson was turned down by more than 20 companies. - Wikipedia -
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World War II
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. - Wikipedia -
Helicopter
On September 14, 1939, the VS-300, the world's first practical helicopter, took flight at Stratford, Connecticut. Designed by Igor Sikorsky and built by the Vought-Sikorsky Aircraft Division of the United Aircraft Corporation, the helicopter was this first to incorporate a single main rotor and tail rotor design. - Google -
Electric Guitar
To counteract these problems, inventors experimented with solid-body guitars. In 1940, Les Paul created “The Log,” a guitar whose strings and pickups were mounted on a guitar body carved from a solid block of wood. The first recordings of electric guitars were made in 1933 by Hawaiian music artists such as Andy Iona. - Google -
Velcro
In 1955, George de Mestral patented VELCRO® hook and loop fasteners, an efficient way to fasten fabrics and other materials. The idea came to him after observing the way a burr's barbed hooks clung to clothing. - Google -
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Cold War
The Cold War was the geopolitical, ideological, and economic struggle between two world superpowers, the USA and the USSR, that started in 1947 at the end of the Second World War and lasted until the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991. - Google -
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Korean War
The Korean War was a war between North Korea and South Korea. The war began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea following a series of clashes along the border. - Wikipedia -
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Civil Rights Movement
The 1954–1968 civil rights movement in the United States was preceded by a decades-long campaign by African Americans and their like-minded allies to end legalized racial discrimination, disenfranchisement and racial segregation in the United States. - Wikipedia -
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Vietnam War
The Vietnam War also known as the Second Indochina War, and in Vietnam as the Resistance War Against America or simply the American War, was a conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. - Wikipedia -
Video Games
In October 1958, Physicist William Higinbotham created what is thought to be the first video game. It was a very simple tennis game, similar to the classic 1970s video game Pong, and it was quite a hit at a Brookhaven National Laboratory open house. - APS News -
Seatbelt
Nils Bohlin, an engineer at Volvo, invented the three-point seat belt in 1959. The 1950s were a time when pilots and racing drivers wore harnesses, but seatbelts – where they were fitted in cars – took the form of a rudimentary two-point waist restraint. - Google -
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Women's Rights Movement
The women's suffrage movement was a decades-long fight to win the right to vote for women in the United States. It took activists and reformers nearly 100 years to win that right, and the campaign was not easy: Disagreements over strategy threatened to cripple the movement more than once. - History.com -
Big Mac
The Big Mac was first introduced in 1967 by Jim Delligatti, a McDonald's franchise owner in Uniontown, Pa. A year later, it became a staple of McDonald's menus nationwide. - Google -
VR
The first VR head-mounted display (HMD) system, The Sword of Damocles, was invented in 1968 by computer scientist Ivan Sutherland and his student Bob Sproull. Meanwhile, the term “virtual reality” was popularized by Jaron Lanier in the 1980s. - Verdict -
Cell Phone
Motorola was the first company to produce a handheld mobile phone. On April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive, made the first mobile telephone call from handheld subscriber equipment, placing a call to Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs, his rival. - Wikipedia -
VHS
JVC released the first VHS machines in Japan in late 1976, and in the United States in early 1977. Sony's Betamax competed with VHS throughout the late 1970s and into the 1980s (see Videotape format war). - Wikipedia -
3D Printer
Chuck Hull is the American engineer who invented 3D printing.
Hull created the first 3D printer in 1983 and has been refining his creation ever since. He says the process has "blossomed" in the last few years. Call him Charlie, Charles, Chuck -- whatever you want. - Google -
Laptop
In February 1984, IBM announced the IBM 5155 Portable Personal Computer (laptop, notebook). This Portable PC was IBM's first carry around computer. - https://www.mln.com.au -
Tablet
The first true tablet computers were Cambridge Research's Z88 and Linus Technologies' Write-Top, which were introduced in 1987. The Z88 accepted input through a keyboard that was part of the main tablet unit, while the Write-Top accepted input through a stylus. - Britannica -
Internet
ARPANET adopted TCP/IP on January 1, 1983, and from there researchers began to assemble the “network of networks” that became the modern Internet. The online world then took on a more recognizable form in 1990, when computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. - Google -
Smartphone
Rob Stothard/Getty People didn't start using the term "smartphone" until 1995, but the first true smartphone actually made its debut three years earlier in 1992. It was called the Simon Personal Communicator, and it was created by IBM more than 15 years before Apple released the iPhone. - Google -
Mobile Games
The first mobile phone game was introduced in 1994. It was a pre-installed form of Tetris, which came on a mobile phone called the Hagenuk MT-2000. Two. Three years later, in 1997, Nokia designed a version of Snake for selected phone models. - Microsoft -
DVD
DVD (an abbreviation of "digital video disc" or "digital versatile disc") is a digital optical disc storage format invented and developed by Philips and Sony in 1995. - Wikipedia -
Streaming
RealNetworks was also a pioneer in the streaming media markets, when it broadcast a baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Seattle Mariners over the Internet in 1995. The first symphonic concert on the Internet took place at the Paramount Theater in Seattle, Washington on November 10, 1995. - Wikipedia -
E-Reader
Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning created the very first e-reader in 1997, the Rocketbook. They were lifelong voracious readers and saw a future where everyone was reading digital books. -
USB Flash Drives
The first patent for a “USB-based PC flash disk” was filed in April, 1999, by the Israeli company M-Systems (which no longer exists—it was acquired by SanDisk in 2006). - The New Yorker -
Wubbanub
Created by visionary Carla Schneider over 18 years ago, WubbaNub came to life during a vacation with her infant son. When his pacifier would not stay in his mouth, Schneider grabbed her hotel sewing kit, fastened his favorite stuffed animal to the end and he was instantly comforted. - Google -
iPod
IPod, portable media player developed by Apple Inc. and released in 2001 for the company's Macintosh platform. - Britannica -
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9/11
The September 11th attacks was a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda against the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. - Wikipedia -
Blu-ray
On February 19, 2002, the project was officially announced as Blu-ray Disc, and Blu-ray Disc Founders was founded by the nine initial members. The first consumer device arrived in stores on April 10, 2003: the Sony BDZ-S77, a $3,800 (US) BD-RE recorder that was made available only in Japan. -
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SARS Outbreak
The SARS outbreak was an epidemic involving severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus. The outbreak was first identified in Foshan, Guangdong, China, on November 16, 2002. - Wikipedia -
E-Cigarette
The first device in the recent innovation in e-cigarettes was developed in 2003 by the Chinese pharma- cist Hon Lik, a former deputy director of the Institute of Chinese Medicine in Liaoning Province. -
Hamdog
Australian Mark Murray conceived one kind of hamdog in 2004. His version contains a beef patty cut in two, with a frankfurter placed in between the two patties, then topped off with cheese, pickles, sauces, tomato, lettuce and onion. He received a US design patent for the specially shaped bun in 2009. - Wikipedia -
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The Great Recession
The Great Recession was a period of general economic decline observed in world markets during the late 2000s and early 2010s. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country. - Wikipedia -
iPad
By late 2009, the iPad's release had been rumored for several years. Such speculation mostly talked about "Apple's tablet"; specific names included iTablet and iSlate. The iPad was announced on January 27, 2010, by Steve Jobs at an Apple press conference at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. - Wikipedia -
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Syrian Civil War
The Syrian civil war (Arabic: الْحَرْبُ الْأَهْلِيَّةُ السُّورِيَّةُ, romanized: al-ḥarb al-ʾahlīyah as-sūrīyah) is an ongoing multi-sided civil war, fought in Syria, between the Syrian Arab Republic led by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad (along with domestic and foreign allies) and various domestic and foreign forces that oppose both the Syrian government and each other (in varying combinations). - Wikipedia -
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Russo-Ukrainian War
The Russo-Ukrainian War (also known as the Russia–Ukraine War) has been ongoing between Russia (alongside Russian separatists in Ukraine) and Ukraine since February 2014.- Wikipedia -
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COVID-19 Pandamic
This is an evolution of the SARS outbreak.
