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Airplane takes flight
The Wright brothers were two American inventors who achieved the first airplane flight on December 17, 1903 -
Plastic
A key breakthrough came in 1907, when Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland created Bakelite, the first real synthetic, mass-produced plastic -
Assembly line
Ford created the first movie assembly line for mass production -
WWI
World War I, also known as the Great War, began in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. His murder catapulted into a war across Europe that lasted until 1918. During the conflict, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States (the Allied Powers). -
First solo flight
Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight in his plane The Spirit of St. Louis -
The Great Depression
The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from 1929 to 1939. It began after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. Over the next several years, consumer spending and investment dropped, causing steep declines in industrial output and employment as failing companies laid off workers. -
National Anthem
In 1931, The Star Spangled Banner was adopted the United States of America’s National Anthem -
WW2
The instability created in Europe by the First World War (1914-18) set the stage for another international conflict—World War II—which broke out two decades later and would prove even more devastating. Rising to power in an economically and politically unstable Germany, Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, rearmed the nation and signed strategic treaties with Italy and Japan to further his ambitions of world domination -
Nuclear reactor
1942 Enrico Fermi, and Italian physicist, let the team of scientist who created the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction -
United Nations
In 1945, the United Nations is established -
Solar powered house
Maria Telkes invented the first Thermo electric powered generators from the heat to provide heat for her first hundred percent solar powered house -
Industrial Robot
The first industrial robot was designed by George DeVol in 1954 -
First computer chip
Robert noise invented the first monolithic integrated circuit chip -
USA expansion
Alaska becomes the 49th state (Jan. 3) and Hawaii becomes the 50th (Aug. 21). -
“I Have a Dream”
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech before a crowd of 200,000 during the civil rights march on Washington, DC -
Mobile phone
The first handheld cellular phone call was made on April 3, 1973 by Motorola engineer Martin Cooper from sixth Avenue and New York walking between 53rd and 54th St. -
First personal stereo
The first patented personal stereo was the Stereobelt, devised by West German-Brazilian Andreas Pavel in 1977. Pavel attempted to commercialise his belt design but failed. The Sony Walkman was released in 1979, created by Akio Morita, Masaru Ibuka (the co-founders of Sony) and Kozo Ohsone -
Department of Energy was founded
On August 4, 1977 President Jimmy Carter signed the department of energy organization act of 1977 which created the 12th cabinet level department -
3D Printing
Chuck Hull of 3D systems invented the first 3-D printing technology in the early 1980s -
Internet
There are conflicting dates as to when the Internet was built, how many agree that it’s in 1984 -
Micro machines
The first Micromachines wave ever was made in 1987. It consisted of 11 packs of 5 vehicles each, including two sets with aircraft and one with boats -
First African American President
On November 4, 2008, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois defeats Senator John McCain of Arizona to become the 44th U.S. president, and the first African American elected to the White House. -
Bitcoin
January 9, 2009 Nakamoto release version .1 of bitcoin software on source forge and launched the network -
World’s largest 3D printer
In October 2019, the University of Maine unvailed the world largest 3-D printer as well as the worlds largest 3-D printed object: a 25 foot 5000 pound boat -
Covid-19
The novel human coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first reported in Wuhan, China, in 2019, and subsequently spread globally to become the fifth documented pandemic since the 1918 flu pandemic.