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1930s | ||
 RADAR Radar is developed in the U.S., Britain, and elsewhere. | |
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1930 | |||
Smoot-Hawley tariff signed into law; Bank of United States fails. | |
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1930 | ||
TAPE 3M ships the first roll of Scotch tape to a customer. | |
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1930 | ||
ACCELERATOR Ernest O. Lawrence proposes smashing atoms together, an idea that leads to the accelerator. | |
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1931 | |||
George Washington Bridge opens. | |
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1933 | |||
Tennessee Valley Authority created by Congress to control floods and produce power through a system of nine major dams in seven states. | |
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1934 | ||
NYLON DuPont chemist Wallace C. Carothers develops nylon. | |
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1935 | |||
George H. Gallup begins polling citizens. | |
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1935 | |||
Rural Electrification Administration established to subsidize the adoption of electrical service in rural parts of America. | |
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1936 | |||
Economist John Maynard Keynes publishes The General Theory. | |
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1936 | ||
HOOVER DAM The Boulder Dam, renamed the Hoover Dam, starts sending hydroelectric power to Los Angeles. | |
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1937 | ||
JET ENGINE The first jet plane engine is produced. | |
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1937 | |||
The German dirigible Hindenburg explodes at Lakehurst, N.J., killing 36 people. | |
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1938 | |||
Broadcast of radio program based on H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds announcing an attack on New Jersey by Martian invaders. | |
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1938 | |||
Major oil finds made in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. | |
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1939 | |||
Igor Sikorsky builds the first successful helicopter prototype. | |
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1939 | ||
COLOR MOVIES Full-length color films like The Wizard of Oz draw droves of moviegoers. | |
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1939 | ||
TELEVISION Commercial-grade TV wows the public at the New York World's Fair. | |
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1942 | ||
XEROX Physicist Chester Carlson receives a patent for the process of electrophotography that led to the Xerox machine. | |
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1942 | ||
CHEMOTHERAPY The use of chemotherapy drugs to fight cancer begins. | |
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1942 | |||
Manhattan Project, the U.S. government's secret project to develop the atomic bomb, is begun. | |
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1943 | |||
The first portable FM two-way radio, or "walkie-talkie," is developed and used for battlefield communications in the South Pacific. | |
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1944 | ||
V-2 ROCKET Nazi Germany fires V-2 rockets on London. | |
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1945 | |||
In his report Science: The Endless Frontier, Vannevar Bush advocates strong government support of university research. | |
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1945 | |||
First edition of Dr. Benjamin Spock's Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care published. | |
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1945 | ||
MICROWAVE OVEN Percy L. Spencer creates the microwave oven. | |
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1945 | ||
ATOM BOMB The atom bomb is detonated at the Trinity test site in New Mexico. | |
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1946 | ||
ENIAC The giant ENIAC computer is officially dedicated. | |
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1947 | ||
TRANSISTOR Walter Brattain, John Bardeen, and William Shockley discover the transistor. | |
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1947 | ||
POLAROID Edwin Land introduces the Polaroid, the first instant camera. | |
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1947 | |||
Abraham Levitt constructs the first suburban housing development, on Long Island. | |
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1947 | ||
OFFSHORE DRILLING Kerr-McGee drills the first major offshore oil wells. | |
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1950s | ||
PESTICIDES The desire to improve crop yields leads to the introduction of pesticides. | |
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1952 | ||
HYDROGEN BOMB Hydrogen bomb exploded in the Pacific, unleashing 700 times the force of the Hiroshima explosion. | |
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1953 | |||
IBM introduces the first of 700 series of computers. | |
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1953 | ||
GENETIC ENGINEERING James Watson and Francis Crick discover the structure of DNA, the double helix. | |
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1954 | ||
SOLAR CELLS The solar cell is developed by Bell Labs researchers. | |
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1955 | ||
POLIO VACCINE Jonas Salk's polio vaccine is released. | |
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1955 | ||
BIRTH CONTROL PILL Gregory Pincus and John Rock develop the birth-control pill. | |
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1955 | |||
Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California. | |
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1956 | |||
Sociologist William Whyte publishes The Organization Man. | |
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1956 | ||
INTERSTATE The U.S. begins building the interstate highway system. | |
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1956 | ||
TRANSATLANTIC CABLE The first transatlantic submarine telephone cable is laid. | |
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1957 | ||
SPUTNIK The Soviets launch Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the earth. | |
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1957 | ||
SATELLITES Since Sputnik, hundreds of satellites have been launched for everything from eavesdropping to transmitting live TV signals. | |
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1958 | |||
Ford introduces a new model, the Edsel, which bombs. | |
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1958 | |||
First heart pacemaker implanted. | |
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1959 | ||
ROBOT MANUFACTURING A robotic arm is first used in industry, at a General Electric plant. | |
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1959 | |||
German Felix Wankel successfully tests rotary-piston engine. | |
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1960 | ||
LASER The first laser beams are generated in Theodore H. Maiman's lab. | |
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1961 | |||
IBM begins selling its "golf ball" Selectric typewriter. | |
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1961 | |||
Newton Minow, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, blasts TV programming as "a vast wasteland." | |
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1962 | |||
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring published. | |
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1963 | |||
Eastman Kodak introduces the Instamatic camera, which uses a film cartridge. | |
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1964 | |||
U.S. surgeon general declares cigarette smoking a health hazard. | |
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1964 | |||
The first "bullet" train in Japan travels at top speed of 130 mph; later trains will exceed speeds of 190 mph. | |
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1965 | |||
Engineer Ray Dolby develops a way to reduce background noise in recordings. | |
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1966 | |||
Medicare health insurance plan for the elderly begins. | |
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1967 | ||
MICROCHIP An early IBM chip hints at the semiconductor revolution to come. | |
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1967 | |||
Dr. Christiaan N. Barnard performs the first whole heart transplant. | |
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1968 | |||
Oil discovered in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. | |
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1969 | ||
MOON America successfully completes the first manned mission to the moon. | |
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1970s | ||
SUPERCOMPUTER Cray Research launches supercomputers for extraordinarily complex tasks. | |
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1970s | ||
VIDEO GAMES Video games put out by such makers as Nintendo invade the market for kids' games. | |
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1970s | ||
WINDMILLS The old technology of wind power is reborn in modern wind turbines. | |
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1970 | |||
Environmental Protection Agency is created. | |
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1970 | ||
FIBER-OPTIC CABLE Corning researchers produce the first optical fiber for use in telecommunications. | |
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1971 | |||
First microprocessor made by Intel. | |
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1972 | |||
Apollo 17 safely accomplishes the last manned space mission to the moon. | |
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1973 | |||
The universal product code and supermarket scanners begin to be used. | |
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1975 | ||
VCR The VCR is introduced and soon triggers a war between VHS and Betamax technologies. | |
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1976 | |||
Genentech, the first company to synthesize insulin, is founded. | |
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1978 | ||
IN VITRO FERTILIZATION Dr. Patrick C. Steptoe delivers Louise Brown, the first "test-tube" baby. | |
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1978 | |||
Chlorofluorocarbons banned as spray propellants. | |
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1979 | ||
WALKMAN Sony launches the Walkman personal stereo system. | |
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1979 | ||
THREE MILE ISLAND The Three Mile Island accident deals a severe blow to the nuclear power industry. | |
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1980s | ||
MODIFIED CROPS Biologists succeed at manipulating the genes of plants to produce desired characteristics. | |
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1980s | ||
PERSONAL COMPUTERS Apple, Microsoft, and IBM launch the PC. | |
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1980 | |||
World Health Organization announces the worldwide eradication of smallpox has been achieved. | |
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1980 | |||
Ted Turner creates CNN, the first all-news cable-TV channel. | |
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1980 | |||
In-line skates designed by two hockey players. | |
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1980s | ||
ELECTRIC CAR Electric cars return after being ignored by auto makers for decades. | |
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1981 | ||
STEALTH Lockheed completes development of the Stealth bomber. | |
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1982 | |||
Japanese auto manufacturer Honda begins auto production at Marysville, Ohio. | |
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1983 | ||
CELLULAR PHONE Motorola launches the first portable-cellular phone system. | |
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1986 | |||
Microsoft goes public. | |
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1986 | |||
NASA's space shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after takeoff, killing all seven crew members on board. | |
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1986 | |||
Partial meltdown at nuclear reactor in Chernobyl, Ukraine, accompanied by radioactive emissions. | |
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1987 | |||
U.S. trade deficit reaches a record $160 billion. | |
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1988 | |||
Antidepressant Prozac introduced. | |
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1989 | |||
