NZM / Timeline
Timeline
Choose a field to open its full timeline. Every dot in the overview marks one milestone.
Physics
28 milestonesBiology
40 milestonesTechnology
44 milestonesAstronomy
151 milestonesSpace Race
56 milestones← All timelines
Physics
28 milestonesFollow the blue line across each row: first left to right, then right to left. Dates refer to a publication, experiment or discovery. The earliest date is approximate. Select a year for more detail.
- Archimedes explains buoyancy in fluids.
- Copernicus publishes the heliocentric model.
- Kepler describes elliptical planetary orbits.
- Galileo observes Jupiter’s moons.
- Rømer finds evidence that light has finite speed.
- Newton publishes laws of motion and gravity.
- Volta builds the first electric battery.
- Ørsted links current and magnetism.
- Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.
- Maxwell unifies electricity, magnetism and light.
- Röntgen discovers X-rays.
- Becquerel discovers natural radioactivity.
- Thomson identifies the electron.
- Planck introduces energy quanta.
- Einstein publishes special relativity.
- Rutherford reveals the small, dense atomic nucleus.
- Einstein completes general relativity.
- Heisenberg develops matrix quantum mechanics.
- Chadwick discovers the neutron.
- The first controlled nuclear chain reaction runs.
- The Higgs field mechanism is proposed.
- Cosmic microwave background discovery is published.
- CERN discovers the W and Z bosons.
- The first Bose–Einstein condensate is made.
- CERN confirms discovery of the Higgs boson.
- LIGO directly detects gravitational waves.
- NIF achieves laser-target fusion ignition.
- Pulsars reveal evidence of a gravitational-wave background.
Biology and medicine
40 milestonesFollow the green line in the same serpentine direction. Select any date for an illustrated explanation; the oldest dates are approximate. Select a year for more detail.
- Hippocratic texts study illness by observation.
- Aristotle systematically describes animals.
- Herophilus studies human anatomy.
- Avicenna compiles the Canon of Medicine.
- Vesalius publishes a new human anatomy.
- Harvey describes blood circulation.
- Hooke names the cell.
- Leeuwenhoek observes living microorganisms.
- Linnaeus advances systematic classification.
- Jenner tests smallpox vaccination.
- Schleiden and Schwann formulate cell theory.
- Ether anesthesia is publicly demonstrated.
- John Snow investigates a London cholera outbreak.
- Darwin publishes natural selection.
- Pasteur tests spontaneous generation.
- Mendel presents inheritance patterns.
- Miescher isolates “nuclein,” later recognized as DNA.
- Koch links a bacterium to anthrax.
- Koch identifies the tuberculosis bacillus.
- Landsteiner identifies major blood groups.
- Insulin is isolated for diabetes treatment.
- Fleming observes penicillin mold.
- Experiments identify DNA as hereditary material.
- The DNA double helix is proposed.
- The Salk polio vaccine proves effective.
- The first genetic codon is deciphered.
- The first human-to-human heart transplant.
- Recombinant DNA enables gene cloning in bacteria.
- DNA sequencing methods emerge.
- The first IVF baby is born.
- The polymerase chain reaction, PCR, is conceived.
- The Human Genome Project begins.
- Dolly is born from an adult cell nucleus.
- The Human Genome Project completes its reference sequence.
- Adult cells are reprogrammed into stem cells.
- CRISPR-Cas9 becomes a programmable DNA tool.
- The first CAR-T cell therapy is approved in the US.
- The first COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are authorized.
- The first CRISPR-based treatment is approved.
- A first patient receives personalized gene editing.
Technology
44 milestonesFollow the red line from early evidence of fire use to modern computers and fusion experiments. Ancient dates are approximate, and inventions often emerged gradually in several places. Select a year for more detail.
- Evidence of controlled fire use.
- Farming changes ways of life.
- Early irrigation systems.
- Wheels appear in workshops and transport.
- Bronze expands metalworking.
- Writing records trade and government.
- Sails harness wind for travel.
- Ironworking becomes more widespread.
- Rome builds the Aqua Appia aqueduct.
- Cai Lun improves Chinese papermaking.
- Early gunpowder recipes emerge in China.
- Bi Sheng develops movable type.
- Magnetic compasses aid sea navigation.
- Gutenberg develops European movable-type printing.
- Newcomen’s steam engine pumps mine water.
- Watt patents a separate steam condenser.
- Volta builds a steady-current battery.
- The Stockton–Darlington Railway opens.
- Morse sends a famous telegraph message.
- The Bessemer process speeds steel production.
- Bell patents the telephone.
- Carbon-filament lamps become practical.
- Benz patents a gasoline automobile.
- Marconi demonstrates radio communication.
- The Wright brothers make a controlled powered flight.
- Farnsworth demonstrates electronic television.
- Chicago Pile-1 sustains a controlled nuclear reaction.
- Bell Labs builds a working transistor.
- Sputnik 1 becomes the first artificial satellite.
- Kilby demonstrates an integrated circuit.
- ARPANET links its first computer nodes.
- Intel 4004 puts a processor on a chip.
- A handheld mobile phone makes a call.
- ARPANET switches to TCP/IP.
- Berners-Lee proposes the World Wide Web.
- GPS reaches full operational capability.
- Deep Blue defeats Kasparov in a match.
- The iPhone popularizes touch-screen smartphones.
- AlexNet accelerates deep learning.
- AlphaGo defeats Lee Sedol at Go.
- Sycamore runs a specialized quantum benchmark.
- ChatGPT sparks a wave of generative AI.
- NIF achieves laser-target fusion ignition.
- AlphaFold 3 predicts complex biomolecular structures.
Astronomy
151 milestonesFollow the yellow line from the oldest reliable evidence of sky study to discoveries today. Ancient dates are approximate. Select a year for more detail.
- Warren Field pits may have tracked lunar months.
- Goseck Circle aligns with the winter solstice.
- Egyptians develop a 365-day calendar.
- Giza pyramids align closely with cardinal directions.
- Stonehenge aligns with the solstices.
- Mesopotamian observers systematically record the sky.
- Bronze Age Kokino has possible solar alignments.
- The Nebra Sky Disc depicts celestial motifs.
- A copy of Babylonian Venus observations survives.
- A solar eclipse enters the story of Thales.
- Pythagoreans link Earth’s shape with geometry.
- Babylonian records reveal an eclipse cycle.
- Babylonians develop a twelve-part zodiac.
- Democritus proposes that the Milky Way is many stars.
- Aristotle argues for a spherical Earth in a geocentric cosmos.
- Aristarchus proposes a Sun-centered arrangement.
- Eratosthenes estimates Earth’s circumference with shadows.
- The Antikythera Mechanism models celestial cycles.
- Hipparchus recognizes precession of the equinoxes.
- The Dendera Zodiac depicts the ancient sky.
- Ptolemy compiles the Almagest.
- Aryabhata describes Earth’s rotation.
- The Dunhuang chart maps stars.
- Al-Khwarizmi compiles astronomical tables.
- Al-Battani refines the length of the year.
- Al-Sufi compiles a star atlas.
- Ibn al-Haytham develops experimental optics.
- Astrolabes help calculate celestial positions.
- Sacrobosco writes an influential astronomy textbook.
- Al-Tusi introduces a new planetary geometry.
- The Alfonsine Tables compile planetary positions.
- Ulugh Beg builds a major observatory in Samarkand.
- Ulugh Beg’s observatory compiles a star catalogue.
- Copernicus circulates the Commentariolus manuscript.
- Copernicus publishes a heliocentric model.
- Tycho Brahe observes a new star.
- Tycho Brahe establishes Uraniborg.
- Tycho Brahe places a comet beyond the Moon.
- Giordano Bruno is executed after an Inquisition trial.
- Kepler derives laws of planetary motion.
- Galileo turns a telescope toward the sky.
- Galileo’s drawings reveal lunar terrain.
- Galileo discovers Jupiter’s four large moons.
- Venus’s phases reshape the debate over planets.
- Kepler publishes his third law of planetary motion.
- Kepler publishes the Rudolphine Tables.
- Gassendi observes the predicted transit of Mercury.
- Galileo is tried over his Dialogue on two world systems.
- Huygens explains Saturn’s rings.
- Newton builds a practical reflecting telescope.
- Rømer shows that light travels at a finite speed.
- Newton unifies motion and gravity.
- Halley predicts a comet’s return.
- Jantar Mantar measures celestial positions.
- Bošković publishes his Theory of Natural Philosophy.
- Halley’s Comet returns as predicted.
- Lagrange describes special solutions to the three-body problem.
- Herschel discovers Uranus.
- Orfelin publishes the Eternal Calendar.
- Caroline Herschel discovers her first comet.
- Herschel completes his 40-foot telescope.
- Laplace advances the solar nebula hypothesis.
- Herschel discovers infrared radiation.
- Stojković publishes a three-volume Physics in Serbian.
- Fraunhofer maps lines in the solar spectrum.
- Bessel measures a reliable stellar parallax.
- Draper makes a surviving Moon daguerreotype.
- Lord Rosse sees the spiral structure of M51.
- Neptune is found after a mathematical prediction.
- A total solar eclipse is photographed.
- Kirchhoff and Bunsen develop spectral analysis.
- Le Verrier describes an anomaly in Mercury’s orbit.
- A spectral clue to helium appears in sunlight.
- Secchi expands stellar spectral classification.
- Stanojević publishes The Starry Sky of Independent Serbia.
- Belgrade’s astronomical and meteorological observatory is founded.
- Michelson and Morley test the proposed luminiferous ether.
- Andonović publishes Cosmography.
- Belgrade Observatory moves into its own building.
- Yerkes Observatory opens its giant refractor.
- Tsiolkovsky publishes the mathematics of spaceflight.
- Einstein publishes special relativity.
- The temperature–luminosity diagram emerges.
- Leavitt links Cepheid period and luminosity.
- Slipher measures large radial velocities of spiral nebulae.
- General relativity introduces a new account of gravity.
- An eclipse tests the bending of light.
- Shapley and Curtis debate the scale of the universe.
- A Cepheid reveals Andromeda is a distant galaxy.
- Vojislav Mišković is appointed to lead the Belgrade Observatory.
- Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket.
- Lemaître links relativity to an expanding universe.
- Redshift and distance reveal cosmic expansion.
- Lemaître proposes the “primeval atom.”
- Jansky detects radio waves from space.
- The new Belgrade Observatory opens at Zvezdara.
- Grote Reber builds a parabolic radio telescope.
- Milanković publishes his synthesis of insolation and ice ages.
- Spitzer argues for a telescope above Earth.
- Alpher and Gamow develop early-universe element formation.
- The Hale Telescope is dedicated at Palomar.
- The steady-state universe model is proposed.
- The phrase “Big Bang” enters public discussion.
- The 21-centimeter hydrogen line is detected.
- Milanković briefly directs the Belgrade Observatory.
- The Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank tracks early spaceflight.
- Sputnik 1 becomes the first artificial satellite.
- Explorer 1 becomes the first successful US satellite.
- NASA is founded as a civilian US space agency.
- The Parkes radio telescope opens in Australia.
- Gagarin becomes the first human in space.
- Giacconi’s team discovers a strong cosmic X-ray source.
- 3C 273 is identified as a quasar.
- Penzias and Wilson notice unexplained microwave noise.
- The cosmic microwave background is discovered.
- Mariner 4 returns the first close-up Mars images.
- Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovers the first pulsar.
- Apollo 8 carries the first humans around the Moon.
- Apollo 11 lands humans on the Moon.
- Venera 7 transmits data from a planet’s surface.
- Uhuru begins systematic X-ray astronomy.
- The 100-meter Effelsberg radio telescope is inaugurated.
- Mariner 9 reveals Martian volcanoes and canyons.
- Pioneer 10 heads toward Jupiter and the outer planets.
- Venera 9 and 10 return the first images from Venus’s surface.
- Deep-sea sediments support Milanković’s orbital cycles.
- Viking 1 successfully explores the Martian surface.
- Voyager 1 launches toward the outer planets.
- Voyager discovers active volcanoes on Jupiter’s Io.
- IRAS maps the cool infrared sky.
- Voyager 2 makes the first close study of Uranus.
- NASA launches COBE to study the early universe.
- Voyager 2 reveals Neptune’s storms and Triton’s plumes.
- The Hubble Space Telescope launches.
- Voyager 1 images Earth as a Pale Blue Dot.
- COBE measures tiny fluctuations in ancient radiation.
- Wolszczan and Frail confirm planets around a pulsar.
- Astronauts correct Hubble’s optics.
- The exoplanet 51 Pegasi b is confirmed.
- Hubble images the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula.
- The Hubble Deep Field reveals distant galaxies.
- Supernovae reveal accelerating expansion.
- Hubble Key Project narrows the expansion rate.
- The Vidojevica observing station opens.
- Kepler begins a large exoplanet survey.
- Kepler-186f advances the search for rocky worlds.
- LIGO directly detects gravitational waves.
- The Milanković telescope begins observing at Vidojevica.
- The shadow of black hole M87* is imaged.
- Webb opens a new deep field.
- Webb confirms the very early galaxy MoM-z14.
Space Race
56 milestonesFollow the white line. The color of each circle and year identifies a country or organization; successes and disasters are included. Wan Hu is a legend. Select a year for more detail.
USAUSSR / RussiaChinaJapanIndiaEurope / ESAInternationalRussian EmpireGermany 1933–45
- Wan Hu and his rocket chair: a legend, not a verified flight.
Tsiolkovsky publishes the mathematics of spaceflight.
Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket.
Von Braun’s team successfully tests the A-4 rocket.- V-2 attacks begin; test flights reach the edge of space.
- Fruit flies fly beyond the edge of space and return alive.
Dogs Dezik and Tsygan survive a suborbital flight.
Sputnik 1 becomes the first artificial satellite.- Laika flies into orbit without a return plan.
- Vanguard TV3 explodes seconds after liftoff.
- Explorer 1 becomes the first successful US satellite.
- Luna 1 misses the Moon and enters solar orbit.
- Luna 2 reaches the Moon by impact.
- Luna 3 photographs the Moon’s far side.
- A rocket explosion at Baikonur kills many people.
- Gagarin becomes the first human in space.
Shepard makes the first US suborbital flight.- John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit Earth.
- Mariner 2 successfully flies by Venus.
- Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.
- Leonov makes the first spacewalk.
- Mariner 4 returns the first close-up Mars images.
- Luna 9 survives a landing on the Moon.
- The Apollo 1 fire kills three astronauts.
- Komarov dies during Soyuz 1’s return.
- Apollo 8 carries the first humans around the Moon.
- The second Soviet N1 rocket crashes and wrecks its launch pad.
- Apollo 11 lands humans on the Moon.
Ōsumi becomes Japan’s first satellite.
Dongfanghong 1 becomes China’s first satellite.- Lunokhod 1 drives across the Moon.
- Venera 7 transmits data from a planet’s surface.
- Salyut 1 becomes the first space station.
- The Soyuz 11 crew dies after cabin depressurization.
- Apollo and Soyuz dock in orbit.
- Viking 1 successfully explores the Martian surface.
- Voyager 1 launches toward the outer planets.
Ariane 1 opens an independent European route to orbit.- Columbia makes the first orbital shuttle flight.
- Challenger breaks apart after launch, killing seven.
- The first Mir space-station module launches.
- The Hubble Space Telescope launches.
The Zarya module begins assembly of the ISS.- Columbia breaks apart on reentry, killing seven.
- Shenzhou 5 carries China’s first astronaut.
- Huygens lands on Saturn’s moon Titan.
- Hayabusa returns samples from an asteroid.
- Philae touches down on a comet.
- Chang’e 4 lands on the Moon’s far side.
- Hayabusa2 returns samples from asteroid Ryugu.
- Tianwen-1 lands a Chinese rover on Mars.
Chandrayaan-3 lands in the Moon’s southern region.- Chang’e 6 returns samples from the Moon’s far side.
- India docks two spacecraft in orbit.
- Blue Ghost successfully lands on the Moon.
- Artemis II carries people around the Moon.
Sources
MacTutor History of Mathematics · NASA Science · American Physical Society · NobelPrize.org · CERN · U.S. Department of Energy · LIGO · NANOGrav · National Library of Medicine · National Institutes of Health · National Human Genome Research Institute · Nobel Prize · World Health Organization · Centers for Disease Control and Prevention · U.S. Food and Drug Administration · Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia · Wikimedia Commons · Smithsonian Human Origins Program · British Museum · Science Museum Group · Computer History Museum · NASA · Nature · OpenAI · Google DeepMind · English Heritage · UNESCO · Louvre · ESA · Library of Congress · ESO · American Astronomical Society · Event Horizon Telescope · Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum · JAXA · ISRO · CNSA · China Manned Space Agency · Hronologija svemirske trke (dostavljeni PDF)