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Timeline

Dates extend to 1988; those marked "c." are approximate.
For an annotated timeline including for comparison other dates in the history of society and of technology, click here.

For a timeline of the exploration of the magnetic environment of the Earth, Sun and Planets, see here.

For an extensive list of links on the history of physics and astronomy, see the AIP Center for the History of Physics

• c. 500 BC
  • Pythagoras.
• 432 BC
  • Meton introduces his calendar in Athens.
• c. 270 BC
  • Aristarchus of Samos estimates the distance and size of the Sun, proposes Earth goes around it.
• c. 250 BC
  • Eratosthenes (276-192 BC) estimates size of the Earth.
• c. 135 BC
  • Hipparchus discovers precession of the equinoxes, estimates distance of the Moon.
• 46 BC
  • Julius Caesar reforms the Roman Calendar
• c. 140
  • Claudius Ptolmaeus (Ptolemy) writes "He Mathematike Syntaxis" (known 1000 years later as "Almagest"), proposing his world system.
• c. 820
  • Caliph Al Ma'mun establishes "House of Wisdom" in Baghdad
• c. 780-850
  • Al Khorezmi. (c. 780-850)
• 1054
  • A supernova appears in the constellation of the Crab, and is observed by Chinese astronomers, who call it the "guest star."
• 1543
  • Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) publishes his theory of the solar system.
• 1572
  • Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) observes a "new star."
• 1582
  • Pope Gregory the 13th reforms the calendar.
• 1609
  • Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) builds the first astronomical telescope and observes for the first time craters on the Moon, satellites around Jupiter, and the way Venus goes through phases like the Moon (crescent, etc.) .
• 1609
  • Johann Kepler (1571-1630), using Tycho's observations, formulates his first two laws of planetary motion (3rd law in 1619).
• 1686
  • Isaac Newton (1647-1727) publishes "Philosophie Naturalis Principia Mathematica," outlining laws of mechanics and law of gravity.
• 1706
  • Isaac Newton publishes his "Opticks" describing (among other things) his work with prisms.
• 1769
  • James Watt (1736-1819) devises the modern steam engine.
• 1798
  • Henry Cavendish (1731-1810) first measures the force of gravity between two objects in his laboratory.
• 1806
  • William Congreve devises military rockets; used 13 September 1814 in British attack on Baltimore.
• 1807
  • Humphrey Davy isolates a new metal, sodium, by the action of an electric current
• 1811
  • Amadeo Avogadro links the laws of gases and chemistry, providing a vital confirmation of the atomic nature of matter. His work was widely recognized only after 1860.
• 1820
  • Hans Christian Oersted observes the magnetic effect of electric currents.
• 1820
  • Andre-Marie Ampere describes magnetism as the force between electric currents.
• 1833
  • Michael Faraday derives the laws of electrical separation of compounds (as used by Davy in 1807), suggesting that atoms contain electrical charges.
• 1835
  • Gaspard Coriolis (1792-1843) publishes laws of mechanics in a rotating frame, including an extra force on moving objects.
• 1838
  • Friedrich Bessel first measures distance to the star 61 Cygni, using the diameter of the Earth's orbit as baseline.
• 1840
  • Louis Agassiz (1807-1873) publishes "Etudes sur les glaciers", proposes that giant glaciers once covered central Europe.
• 1843
  • James Prescott Joule (1818-89) measures "the exchange rate" between mechanical energy and heat.
• 1851
  • The 11-year sunspot cycle (observed in 1843 by Heinrich Schwabe) is generally recognized.
• 1852
  • Radanath Sikhdar (1813-70) identifies the highest peak on Earth, later named for Sir George Everest (1790-1866).
• 1854
  • Hermann von Helmholtz proposes that the Sun derives its energy from gravitational shrinkage.
• 1855
  • James Clerk Maxwell extends the 3-color theory of vision, following earlier work by Thomas Young.
• 1857
  • Christoph Hendrik Buys Ballot (1817-90) proposes the rule for the swirl direction of large storms and hurricanes.
• 1864
  • James Clerk Maxwell proposes his equations of electromagnetism and suggests that light is an electomagnetic wave.
• 1869
  • Norman Lokyer finds that a yellow spectral line observed in the Sun's spectrum during the 1868 eclipse must belong to a new element (later named helium)
• 1883
  • Ernest Mach (1838-1916) publishes a critical study of Newtonian mechanics.
• 1886
  • Heinrich Hertz produces and detects electromagnetic waves, of what is later called "radio."
• 1892
  • George Ellery Hale devises the "spectroheliograph" taking pictures of the Sun in the light of a single spectral color.
• 1895
  • William Ramsay extracts helium from a terrestrial mineral.
• 1895
  • Wilhelm Röntgen discovers X-rays.
• 1895
  • Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity.
• 1896
  • Svante Arrhenius credits carbon dioxide with global warming.
• 1897
  • J.J. Thompson discovers the electron.
• 1899
  • (19 October) Robert Goddard (1882-1945) climbs cherry tree, resolves to pursue his dream of spaceflight.
• 1900
  • Max Planck explains the way hot objects radiate light by postulating that light energy can only be emitted in discrete packets, later called "photons"
• 1903
  • 17 December--First successful flight by the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
• 1905
  • Einstein shows that the way light knocks electrons out of metals suggests it can only transmit energy in "photons" that depend on its wavelength.
• 1908
  • George Ellery Hale finds that sunspots must be intensely magnetic.
• 1911
  • Ernest Rutherford conducts his experiments with the scattering of alpha particles off atoms, concludes that the atom's mass and positive charge are concentrated in a tiny nucleus.
• 1911
  • Andre Bing in Belgium patents multistage rocket.
• 1916
  • Goddard tests rockets with De-Laval nozzles.
• 1926
  • 16 March--Goddard launches his first liquid-fuel rocket.
• 1927
  • 5 July--German "Society for Space Travel" founded.
• 1932
  • 1 November--Wernher Von Braun (1912-1977) starts conducting rocket research for the German army.
• 1932
  • James Chadwick discovers the neutron.
• 1936
  • Theodore von Karman starts the Guggenheim Aeronautical Lab at the California Institute of Technology, later leading to JPL.
• 1938
  • Hans Bethe proposes a nuclear fusion reaction for releasing energy in stars
• 1939
  • Nuclear fission discovered by Hahn, Meitner and Strassmann: when a uranium nucleus absorbs a neutron, it can be shaken up to the point that it splits in two fragments of comparable size, releasing a great amount of energy.
• 1942
  • 2 December--The first nuclear reactor, designed by Enrico Fermi, is successfully operated in Chicago.
• 1944
  • (8 September) V2 rockets begin falling on Britain
• 1945
  • The nuclear ("atomic") bomb is perfected in the US, tested in New Mexico, 16 July, dropped on the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9), leading to Japan's surrender.
• 1947
  • 14 October--X-1 rocket plane piloted by Chuck Yaeger breaks sound barrier.
• 1949
  • 24 February--"Bumper" 2-stage rocket reaches altitude of 393 km.
• 1957-8
  • The International Geophysical Year (extended to 18 months).
• 1957
  • 4 October--Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1
  • 3 November--Launch of Sputnik 2, carrying a dog named Laika.
  • 5 December--Vanguard disaster.
• 1958
  • 31 January--Launch of Explorer 1.
  • 26 March--Launch of Explorer 3.
  • 1 May--US National Academy receives from James Van Allen his report on the discovery of the radiation belt.
• 1958
  • Eugene Parker proposes the existence of a "solar wind."
• 1958-9
  • "Project Orion" to design nuclear-powered spaceships.
• 1959
  • 2 January--Luna 1 launched by Soviet Union, comes within 6000 km of Moon; Luna 2 (September) observes first signs of "solar wind"; Luna 3 (October) takes picture of Moon's far side.
• 1961
  • 12 April--Yuri Gagarin becomes first human to orbit Earth.
  • 5 May--Allan Shepard becomes first American in space, completes 15-minute suborbital hop.
  • 25 May--US president J.F. Kennedy announces project to land human on Moon within decade.
• 1962
  • 20 February--John Glenn becames first American in orbit.
  • 14 December--Mariner 2 (launched August 27) passes by planet Venus.
• 1965
  • HARP cannon operated on Barbados.
  • 23 March--first Gemini flight, 2 US astronauts together.
  • 14 July--Mariner 4 passes above Mars, returns first pictures.
• 1968
  • 21-7 December, Apollo 8 with three astronauts loops around the Moon, returns to Earth.
• 1968
  • Pulsars discovered by Anthony Hewish and Jocelyn Bell, very regularly pulsating radio stars identified as neutron star remnants of supernovas.
• 1969
  • 20 July--Apollo 11 astronauts land on the Moon.
• 1970
  • 11 February--First launch of a Japanese spacecraft, by Lambda 4S rocket.
  • 11-17 April--Apollo 13 astronauts narrowly escape failed spacecraft.
  • 24 April--First launch of a Chinese satellite, by a Long March 1 rocket.
  • 17 November--Soviet Russia lands remotely controlled vehicle. (Lunokhod) on the surface of the Moon.
• 1971
  • 2 December--Soviet Mars 3 entered orbit around Mars, landed capsule which transmitted for 20 seconds.
• 1973
  • 2 March (5 April)--Pioneer 10 (11) launched towards Jupiter, arrive 4 December 1973 (5 December 1974; Saturn, 1 September 1979) .
• 1973
  • 14 May---Skylab space station launched. Astronauts follow later, observe "coronal holes."
• 1974
  • 29 March--Mariner 10 (launched 3 November 1973) flies past the planet Mercury.
• 1975
  • 8 June--Soviet Venera 9 lands on Venus, returns pictures
  • 11 June, Venera 11 also lands, takes pictures.
• 1976
  • 20 July--Viking 1 soft-lands on Mars, takes pictures, searches for life.
• 1977
  • 5 September (August 20) --Voyager 1 (2) launched towards Jupiter. arriving 5 March (9 July) 1979, continuing to encounter Saturn 12 November 1980 (26 August 1981) . Voyager 2 continued to Uranus (25 January 1985) and Neptune (25 August 1989).
• 1977
  • ISEE 3 placed at L1
• 1979
  • 24 December--First flight of Europe's Ariane rocket.
• 1981
  • 12 April--First flight of the Space Shuttle.
• 1986
  • 6 March--Russia's Vega 1 flies past Comet Halley, after dropping French balloon experiment on Venus.
  • 14 March--Europe's Giotto flies past Comet Halley.
• 1988
  • 15 November--Soviet space shuttle "Buran" conducts its first (unmanned) flight.

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Author and Curator:   Dr. David P. Stern
     Mail to Dr.Stern:   stargaze("at" symbol)phy6.org .
Last updated 25 November 2001