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3500 BCE
Wheel
The invention of the wheel in Mesopotamia revolutionized transportation and allowed for the creation of new trade routes. -
3200 BCE
Writing system
The development of writing systems in Sumer allowed for the recording of history, laws, and culture, which helped preserve and pass down knowledge. -
3000 BCE
Papyrus
The Egyptians revolutionized the literary world by producing a smooth, flexible writing material that could accept and retain ink without a blur or smudge called papyrus. -
2650 BCE
Ruler
The oldest preserved measuring rod is a copper-alloy bar that dates from c. 2650 BCE and was found by the German Assyriologist Eckhard Unger while excavating at the Sumerian city of Nippur (present-day Iraq). -
750 BCE
18.7-year cycle
Mayan astronomers discover an 18.7-year cycle in the rising and setting of the Moon. From this they created the first almanacs – tables of the movements of the Sun, Moon, and planets for the use in astrology. -
500 BCE
Zero
The move from zero as merely a placeholder by the Mayans and Babylonians – a tool to distinguish larger numbers from smaller ones to a digit of its own was established in India by a man named Aryabhata in the 5th Century. -
400 BCE
Zodiac
Around this date, Babylonians used the zodiac to divide the heavens into twelve equal segments of thirty degrees each, the better to record and communicate information about the position of celestial bodies. -
1450
Printing press
German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, which revolutionized the spread of knowledge and ideas. -
Ellipticall orbits
In astronomy, Kepler's laws of planetary motion, published by Johannes Kepler between 1609 and 1619, describe the orbits of planets around the Sun. The laws modified the heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus, replacing its circular orbits and epicycles with elliptical trajectories and explaining how planetary velocities vary. -
Motion and Gravity
Sir Isaac Newton worked in many areas of mathematics and physics. He developed the theories of gravitation in 1666 when he was only 23 years old. In 1686, he presented his three laws of motion in the “Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis.” -
Battery
Talian Alessandro Volta makes the first battery (known as a 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). -
Space flight
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky publishes his first article on the possibility of space flight. His greatest discovery is that a rocket, unlike other forms of propulsion, will work in a vacuum. He also outlines the principle of a multistage launch vehicle. -
pH meters
German chemists Fritz Haber and Zygmunt Klemensiewicz develop the glass electrode, enabling very precise acidity measurements.