c. 500 BC---Pythagoras.
432 BC---Meton introduces
his calendar in Athens.
- 431-404 BC---Peloponnesian war between the Greek
city-states of Athens and Sparta, and their allies. Extensive
battles involving long-range oar-driven warships.
- 333 BC---Alexander the Great, of northern Greece,
defeats Persia's army at Issus, goes on to conquer the lands
from Egypt to India. He founds numerous cities named Alexandria,
including one in Egypt (still existing) which becomes a great
center of learning and site of a large library.
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.
- 200 BC (approx)---Parchment developed in the
city of Pergamum (now in Turkey), a superior writing material
made of animal skin. Pergamum's library rivals Alexandria's.
- 146 BC---Rome defeats and razes its main rival,
Carthago (near today's Tunis). It then begins building an
empire which ultimately covers much of Europe and North Africa.
Roman culture spreads and extends Greek culture, Romans (or
rather, their slaves) build water conduits, bridges and thousands
of miles of paved roads, causing cities to flourish.
c. 135 BC---Hipparchus discovers
precession of the equinoxes, estimates distance of the Moon.
- 48 BC---Julius Caesar seizes control of Rome.
After him Rome is ruled by a long line of emperors.
46 BC---Julius Caesar reforms
the Roman Calendar
- 30 to 36---estimated date of the crucifixion.
c. 140 ---Claudius Ptolmaeus (Ptolemy)
writes "He Mathematike Syntaxis" (known 1000 years later as "Almagest"),
proposing his world system.
- 313---The Roman Emperor Constantinus adops Christianity;
in 330 he builds new capital and names it Constantinople (now
Istanbul, Turkey). Roman empire gradually divides into western
and eastern parts ("Byzantine Empire"), with capitals at Rome
and Constantinople.
- 410---Alaric, leader of the Visigoths, captures
and sacks Rome. Decline of Rome: Attila king of the Huns devastates
much of its empire, reaches the gates of Constantinople and
later (452) of Rome. Beginning of Europe's "dark ages" which
continue to the Renaissance (see below): cities decay, trade,
shipping, literacy, scholarship and life expectancy all decline.
- 622---Mohammed flees to the city of Medina,
marking the beginning of Islam (and the starting date of the
Moslem calendar). His followers conquer the Near East, North
Africa and Spain.
c. 820 ---Caliph Al Ma'mun establishes "House of Wisdom" in
Baghdad (see link below).
c. 780-850---Al
Khorezmi. (c. 780-850)
- 1000-1400 Age of feudal lords
in Europe: castles, knights, religious fervor, only very rudimentary
science and technology. Also age of Vikings, some of
whom sailed as far as Greenland and America. Mongols
overrun and subjugate southern Russia.
1054--A supernova appears
in the constellation of the Crab, and is observed by Chinese astronomers,
who call it the "guest star."
- 1095-1291 Crusades
- 1460 Johann Gutenberg invents the
printing press with movable type. Combined with paper
(a Chinese invention which gradually reached Europe and displaced
parchement), the printed book is the major force behind a
cultural and technical growth spurt, the Renaissance
(French for "rebirth").
- 1492 Columbus discovers America,
followed by Spanish (and some Portugese) explorers. The main
powers in Europe are Spain, France, England, Turkey
and a confederation of German princes ("Holy Roman
Empire.")
1543---Nicholaus Copernicus
(1473-1543) publishes his theory of the solar system.
1572---Tycho
Brahe (1546-1601) observes a "new star." (See also here.)
1582---Pope
Gregory the 13th reforms the calendar.
1588 The "Spanish Armada," a
fleet attacking Britain, is destroyed by the British navy and
by storms. For the first time Britain is able to claim part
of the American continent.
- Europe and Asia are introduced to American crops--potatoes,
tomatoes, corn. Europe´s diet is also gradually enriched by
sugar, oranges and pepper, originating in India.
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.) .
---Johann
Kepler (1571-1630), using Tycho's observations, formulates
his first two laws of planetary motion (3rd law in 1619).
- After an abortive attempt (1586) to establish
a colony in Virginia, the first English settlers--the "Pilgrims"--land
in Massachussetts Bay in 1620 and establish a settlement.
- 1618-1648---The 30 years' war. A century after
Martin Luther broke away from the Roman church, a great religious
war sweeps Europe, devastates Germany and establishes Sweden
as a major military power. In the civil war in England, parliament
suspends monarchy 1645-1660, king beheaded 1649.
- 1683---TheTurkish army reaches Vienna
but is repelled; among the booty the victors discover coffee,
develop a taste for it. Englishmen begin smoking tobacco,
an American plant.
1686---Isaac
Newton (1642-1727) publishes "Philosophie Naturalis Principia
Mathematica," outlining laws of mechanics and law of gravity.
1704--Isaac Newton publishes his "Opticks"
describing (among other things) his work with prisms.
- 1708---Abraham Darby begins extensive iron production
in England, based on roasted coal (coke). As firewood gets
scarce, coal becomes England's choice fuel and coke
replaces charcoal in iron production. To run the pumps that
keep coal mines dry, Newcomen in 1712 invents a crude steam
engine.
- 1712---Russia's king (czar) Peter the Great
"opens a window to the West" by founding a new capital, which
he names St. Petersburg and which becomes Russia's
main port on the Baltic sea.
1769---James
Watt (1736-1819) devises the modern steam engine.
- 1775-83---US War of Independence. Britain's
colonies in America achieve a growing degree of self-sufficiency.
Benjamin Franklin prints books in Philadelphia, also demonstrates
(1749) that lightning is an electrical phenomenon. Later (1775-1783)
the colonies rebel against Britain, win their independence
and form a confederation. In 1787 they write a constitution
and form a federal republic.
- 1781---William Herschel, a German musician settled
in Britain, discovers the planet Uranus with a mirror
telescope he had constructed.
- 1783---The Montgolfière brothers in France,
owners of a paper factory, build the first hot air balloons;
balloons lifted by hydrogen follow.
- 1789---The French Revolution: France
rebels against its king, who is later deposed and executed.
The French follow the US example and set up a republic, but
a military officer, Napoleon Bonaparte, gradually gains power.
From 1798 to 1815 France under Napoleon fights a series of
wars and for a while rules or controls most of the European
continent.
- 1793---Alexander Mackenzie crosses Canada
from coast to coast.
- 1796---Edward Jenner in Britain introduces vaccination
against smallpox.
1798---Henry Cavendish
(1731-1810) first measures the force of gravity between two objects
in his laboratory.
- 1803---US purchases Louisiana from Napoleon. To explore
the new lands and the mountains beyond, Meriwether Lewis
and William Clark cross the continent from St. Louis
to the mouth of the Columbia River.
1806---William
Congreve devises military rockets; used 13 September 1814
in British attack on Baltimore.
- 1807---Robert Fulton uses steam to run the first commercial
paddlewheeler on the Hudson river;
- 1803---John Dalton, a chemist, argues that observations
in chemistry require matter to be composed of atoms.
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.
- 1811---Simón Bolivar begins a series of wars
to liberate Spain's colonies in South America, leading to
the independence of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru.
1820-- Hans Christian Oersted
observes the magnetic effect of electric currents.
1820--Andre-Marie Ampere describes magnetism
as the force between electric currents (see link above).
- The Industrial revolution: George Stephenson
in Britain (1825) and Peter Cooper in the US (1830) found
successful railroads, run by steam. Mass production of fabric
and paper. Henry Bessemer in 1856 finds a way to mass-produce
steel.
- 1826---crude photography by L.J.M. Daguerre,
greatly improved in the decades that follow.
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 the laws of mechanics in rotating
frame, including an extra force on moving objects.
- 1836---John Ericsson invents the ship's propeller.
- 1837--Samuel Morse invents his telegraph;
in 1844 first commercial telegraph line opens, by 1866 undersea
telegraph cables link Europe and America.
1838---Friedrich Bessel
and others first measure the 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.
- 1846---Anesthesia by ether is introduced
by William T. Morton in Boston.
- 1849---California gold rush.
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.
- 1856---Commodore Perry and a US fleet open up
Japan to western culture and technology; rapid modernization
follows, enabling Japan to defeat Russia in war less than
50 years later.
1857---
Christophorus Henricus Didericus Buys Ballot (1817-90) proposes
the rule for the swirl direction of large storms and hurricanes.
- 1859---Charles Darwin publishes "Origin
of the Species"
- 1859---Edwin Drake extracts petroleum
from an oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Beginning of
a world-wide effort to find and extract oil, refine it and
use its constituents for light, heat and later to run gasoline
and diesel engines.
- 1861---Italy unified under the king of
Piedmont; 1850-70, Germany unified under Prussian leadership.
- 1860-65---US Civil War
1864--James Clerk Maxwell
proposes his equations of electromagnetism and suggests that light
is an electomagnetic wave.
- 1865---Joseph Lister introduces antiseptics
to surgery, cutting its risks.
1869--Norman Lockyer
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)
- The Industrial revolution continues:
bicycles are introduced (high-wheelers, then "safety models"),
mass production of fabrics, also Brooklyn Bridge (1883), Statue
of Liberty (1886), Eiffel Tower (1889).
- 1870---Suez Canal opens, a shortcut between
Europe and Asia. Age of exploration and colonization in Africa.
- 1870---Railroad across the US. In 1891-1905,
the trans-Siberian railroad is built.
- 1876---Telephone invented
- 1879---Edison invents the electric lightbulb,
initially using a fragile carbon filament.
- 1882---Electric power stations in London
and New York. Large scale refrigeration.
- 1885-1900---After the introduction of electric
train engines, the construction of subways begins in
the major cities of Europe (starting with London, then Budapest)
and the US (starting with Boston, then New York).
1883---Ernst
Mach (1838-1916) publishes a critical study of Newtonian mechanics.
- 1884---Charles Parsons invents his steam
turbine, which ultimately becomes the preferred power
plant of electric power stations and ships. Diesel engine
introduced in 1897 by Rudolf Diesel.
1886--Heinrich Hertz
produces and detects electromagnetic waves, of what is later called
"radio."
- The beginning of automobiles (Marcus
1864 in Austria; Benz, 1887 in Germany; Duryea, 1893 in the
US).
- 1890---Nitrocellulose photographic film
introduced (George Eastman of Kodak, Rochester NY), making
possible the first "movies."
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 the "greenhouse effect"
warming the Earth.
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.
- 1906---Lee De Forest invents the triode--the
vacuum-tube device (based on the Edison effect) by which weak
electric signals can be greatly amplified. It makes possible
radio, sound films, loudspeakers and later a whole generation
of electronic devices.
1908--George
Ellery Hale finds that sunspots must be intensely magnetic.
- 1909---L.H.Baekeland introduces "bakelite",
first mass-produced plastic material. It is widely
used as electrical insulator.
- 1904-1914---Panama canal is built.
1911---Andre Bing in Belgium patents multistage rocket.
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---Amundsen reaches South Pole.
- 1912---Emperor overthrown in China, republic
proclaimed.
- 1914-1918---World War I. The main opponents
are Germany, Austria and Turkey, lined up against Russia,
France, Britain, Italy. In 1917 Russia withdrew, defeated,
and the Czar was overthrown by Communist workers (Russian
Revolution) but the US entered to help Britain, whose side
prevailed. A very large, destructive war, the first in which
technology played a major role, including airplanes, tanks,
machine guns, submarines and poison gas.
1916---Goddard tests rockets with De-Laval nozzles.
1926, 16 March---Goddard launches
his first liquid-fuel rocket.
- 1922 to 1925---Fascism, the creed of
a strong, all-controlling government, gains power in Italy
under Benito Mussolini.
- 1924---In Russia, Communist leader V.I. Lenin, dies; after
that Joseph Stalin gradually gains power, kills or
exiles all his rivals and institutes a reign of terror.
1927, 5 July---German "Society for
Space Travel" founded.
- 1927---Charles Lindbergh flies solo from
the US to Paris.
- 1929---The New York stock market crashes, beginning
a long economic depression, in the US and across the
world.
- 1929---Edwin Hubble concludes from astronomical
observations that distant galaxies recede from us in all directions,
and that therefore the universe is expanding.
- 1927-1930---Talking films (black and
white). "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) pioneers color movies, but
more than 10 years pass before color films become prevalent.
- 1930---In Germany, hard-hit by the economic
hardships following WW-I and by the world-wide depression,
the Fascist Nazi party under Adolph Hitler comes 2nd
in the polls in 1930, takes power 1933.
1932---1 November--Wernher Von Braun
(1912-1977) starts conducting rocket research for the German army.
1932--James
Chadwick discovers the neutron.
- 1932---Sulfa drugs, first new anti-bacterial
weapon. Penicillin follows during World War II, and other
antibiotics are developed after the war.
1936---Theodore von Karman
starts the Guggenheim Aeronautical Lab at the California Institute
of Technology, later leading to JPL.
- 1936---The DC-3, the first modern airliner,
can reach 210 mph with 21 passengers.
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.
- 1939-1945 World War II. A world-wide
conflict is started by Hitler's Germany, whose army annexed
Austria and Czechoslovakia, then attacked Poland. Germany
was allied with Italy and after December 1941 with Japan,
which launched its own war of expansion (it had invaded China
years before that). A war with unsurpassed destruction and
cruelty, including Hitler's attempt to exterminate the Jewish
people, of whom about 6 million were killed in a deliberate
plan. Technology played an even greater role than in World
War I, including long-range bombing raids, improved submarines,
jet engines, radar and towards the end, large military rockets
and nuclear bombs. Opposing Hitler were France (which fell
to the Germans), Britain, Russia and after 1941, the United
States: 1941-3 the Germans became bogged down in brutal winter
fighting in Russia, in 1943 the US and its allies invaded
Italy and forced its surrender, then in 1944 they invaded
France and in 1945 first Germany and then Japan surrendered.
In 1945 in San Francisco, the victors formed the "United Nations",
an international union whose major role was to ensure peace
and arbitrate conflicts.
1942, 2 December--The first nuclear reactor, designed by Enrico
Fermi, is successfully operated in Chicago.
- 1943---Oswald Avery at the Rockefeller Institute
in New York proves that DNA, a hitherto unexplained
substance in all nuclei of living cells, carries the genetic
information.
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.
- 1947---Transistor invented, compact solid-state
device that replaces the triode and is much more durable.
In 1956 Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley are awarded the Nobel
prize for this.
- 1947---India becomes independent, along
with a great number of colonies (especially in Africa), as
Britain and France dismantle most of their empires. Indonesia
is established in 1949.
- 1948-1949---The start of the "cold war"
between the western allies (Britain, France and the US) and
the Soviet Union, with a blockade of Berlin by the Soviets,
who try to force out the western allies. Contact is maintained
by a massive airlift.
1949, 24 February---"Bumper" 2-stage rocket reaches altitude of 393 km.
- 1949---A million TV receivers (black-and-white)
in the US; two years later the number reaches 10 million.
- 1949--Britain puts the first jet airliner
into service, the Comet. It is later withdrawn because of
structural faults, but by 1958 the French Caravelle and the
larger Boeing 707 jets enter service. Gradually jets begin
dominating air transport, while travel by ocean liners declines
sharply.
- 1950---The "Marshall Plan" led by US
general George C. Marshall revitalizes the European economy
by providing extensive but judicious aid.
- 1950---North Korea invades South Korea.
The US army stops the invasion and after a while enters North
Korea, but a major intervention by China's army forces a stalemate.
- 1951--UNIVAC, first large electronic computer,
built by Sperry-Rand.
- 1952---United States explodes "Mike", the first
hydrogen bomb, perhaps 500 times more powerful than
the nuclear "atomic" bomb.
- 1953---Edmund Hillary and Tenzing reach the
top of Mt. Everest.
- 1954---Following a supreme court ruling, the
US government outlaws Black/White segregation in public
schools.
- 1955--Radio emissions from Jupiter are detected,
mystify observers. They later turn out to come from the planet's
radiation belt.
- 1955---Jonas Salk develops vaccine against
polyomyelities, followed (1960) by Albert Sabin's oral vaccine;
the disease is effectively eradicated.
- 1953-1958---Watson and Crick show that DNA is
a double helix and its mode of replication is established.
By 1966 the "genetic code" is revealed, by which specific
proteins are created. The beginning of modern molecular biology.
- 1956--Soviet army crushes attempt of Hungary
to break away from Communist block.
- 1956---First large commercial nuclear power
station, at Calder Hall, opens in Britain.
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 a report on the discovery of the radiation belt.
1958--Eugene
Parker proposes the existence of a "solar wind."
- 1958---Interstate highway network in
the US started.
- 1958---NASA established by US President
Eisenhower.
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 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 becomes first American in orbit.
- ---14 December--Mariner 2 (launched August 27) passes by
planet Venus.
- 1962---The placing of Soviet Missiles on Cuba
produces international crisis, which ends when the missiles
are withdrawn.
- 1963---President J.F. Kennedy assassinated
in Dallas, Texas.
- 1963---Nuclear test ban treaty
1965---HARP
cannon operated on Barbados.
- ---23 March---first Gemini flight, carrying 2 US astronauts
together.
- ---14 July---Mariner 4 passes above Mars, returns first
pictures.
1968--Pulsars discovered by Anthony Hewish and Jocelyn Bell,
very regularly pulsating radio stars identified as neutron star
remnants of supernovas.
- 1968, 21-7 December---Apollo 8 with three astronauts loops
around the Moon, returns to Earth.
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 the
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,
arrives 4 December 1973 (5 December 1974; Saturn, 1 September
1979)
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.
- 1975---Viet Nam war ends.
- 1975---Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak create
the first personal computer, the "Apple"
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, August 23---The "Gossamer Condor," a human-powered
airplane designed by Paul MacCready, completes a prescribed circuit
and wins a trophy.
1978, August 12---ISEE 3 placed at the L1 point.
- 1979-88---Soviet armed intervention in Afghanistan
ends in withdrawal Govt. collapses in 1992, extremist Moslems
("Taliban") take over in 1996.
1979, 24 December---First flight of Europe's Ariane rocket.
1981, 12 April---First flight of the Space
Shuttle.
- 1981---AIDS begins spreading in the US.
1986, January 28---Space shuttle Challenger lost with
all its crew, exploding shortly after launch from Cape Canaveral
1986, February 20---Soviet space station "Mir" launched;
reentered the atmosphere 23 March 2001.
1986, 6 March---Russia's
Vega 1 flies past Comet Halley, after dropping French balloon experiment
on Venus.
1986,14 March---Europe's Giotto flies past Comet
Halley.
- 1986, 14 December---"Voyager"
airplane, designed by Burt Rutan and flown by his
brother Dick and by Jeanna Yaeger, circles the Earth nonstop,
without refueling.
1987, 24 February, supernova observed in
the larger Magellanic Cloud. This was the most prominent supernova
observed since the early 1600s and simultanous observations deep
underground of neutrinos produced there confirmed the accepted
theory of such explosions.
1988, 15 November---Soviet space shuttle "Buran"
conducts its first (unmanned) flight
1990, 2 April----"Hubble" telescope
deployed in Earth orbit
- 1990, 2 August---First Gulf War, after Iraq's
army overruns Kuwait. Cease fire, 3 March 1991.
- 1991, June--Croatia declares independence,
leading to the break-up of Yugoslavia and civil war between
its provinces. Bosnia hit hard, its capital Sarajevo under
siege from early 1994 to 15 Sept. 1995. With NATO and US pressure,
Dayton agreement ends war, 21 Nov. 1995.
- 7 Feb 1992, Treaty of European Union signed
at Maastricht, sets initial timetable for the European Common
Market...1 January 1999, a common currency, the "Euro," is
introduced, replaces national currencies in 3 years.
1994 14-22 July--Fragments of Comet
Shoemaker-Levy plunge into Jupiter's atmosphere.
1995, 18-30 December---Long time exposure by the
Hubble telescope ("Deep Field")
reveals the most distant galaxies.
1995, 7 December---"Galileo"
spacecraft reaches Jupiter, helped by "gravity assist"
maneuvers involving Venus and (twice) Earth.
- 1997, May 11---"Deep Blue", an IBM computer,
narrowly beats world chess champion Gary Kasparov in a series
of 6 games (2 wins, 1 loss, 3 draws).
1997, 4 July--"Mars Pathfinder" lands on Mars,
releases rover "Sojourner".
1999, 23 July--- "Chandra"
X-ray telescope launched.
- 12 October 1999--World population estimated
to have reached 6 billion. By the same estimate, it reached
1 bil. in 1800. 2 bil. in 1927, 3 bil. in 1960, 4 bil. in
1974 and bil. in 1987.
- 2001, 11 September---Arab extremists of "Al
Qaeda" with bases in Afghanistan hijack four civilian airliners
in a suicide plot. Two crash into the twin World Trade Center
towers in New York, causing both to collapse, with thousands
dead. One hits the Pentagon, one hits the ground in Pennsylvania
after passengers (apparently) fight hijackers. Widespread
anger leads to US invasion of Afganistan, ousting of Taliban;
Hamed Karzai new Afghan president, 22 December 2001.
2002,
17 October---Following strong early hints of a black hole at the
center of our galaxy,
observations are reported
on a star's orbit around it, suggesting the
black hole has the mass of 3.7 million suns.
- 2002, November--SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome) emerges in southern China. Previously unreported,
very infectious with high mortality, SARS apparently jumped
to humans from civets kept for food. Hundreds die in China,
Hong-Kong and also in Canada, to where SARS was carried by air
travelers in May 2003. Strict quarantines contained SARS and
ended the epidemic.
2003, 1 February--Space shuttle
"Columbia" disintegrates above Texas, during re-entry.
- 2003, March 20--US troops invade Iraq, suspecting
that country is developing weapons of mass destruction and
supporting Al-Qaeda. Baghdad taken April 9, Iraq dictator
Saddam Hussein hides, is later captured.
2003, 15 October---Yang Liwei, China's first astronaut,
launched into 14 orbits, returns safely.
2003, November 24---Small icy
planet (diameter ~1500 km) discovered beyond Pluto, on a long
elliptical orbit near its closest approach to the Sun. Named Sedna,
after the Inuit sea goddess.
|
