-
Commercial production of coal begins near Richmond, Virinia
-
Benjamin Franklin discovers that lightning is electricity, This leads to the development of electricity.
-
The world starts to turn from a labor-based system to a machine-based system. This uses many coal-powered machines, and used much more energy than ever before.
-
Street lights are lit up using gas made from coal in Baltimore, Maryland.
-
Michael Faraday creates the first electric motor.
-
Edwin Drake is the first person to drill for oil and is successful. He drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania.
-
Thomas Edison creates the first coal-powered station in NYC and it provides houses electricity.
-
The University of Delaware builds Solar One, which is one of the first solar energy collectors.
-
Nuclear energy replaces hydropower as the number two source of energy in the US.
-
The Guri Dam, the second largest dam in the world, begins providing energy in Venezuela.
-
The Kyoto Protocol comes into force. This protocol declares that industrialized nations need to reduce their CO2 emissions as well as other green house gasses by 5.2% of the 1990 numbers.
