History of Physics and Astronomy

From schoolphysics.co.uk

Big Bang to 0 AD

This section shows the important events in Physics and Astronomy from the Big Bang until 0 AD. The names of people are highlighted in blue, important people are in bold blue.

1.4x10¹⁰ years ago Big Bang
300000 years later Universe becomes dark
A billion years later Star – first one appears
4.5x10⁹ years ago Origin of the Earth
500 000 years ago Human race appears
3400 BC Ten - use of the symbol for 10 in Egypt
2700 BC Babylonian astronomers named the constellations
2000 BC Water clocks in Mesopotamia
1400 BC Iron Smelting
900 BC Pulleys
624-547 BC Thales of Miletus
572- 492 BC Pythagoras
500-428 BC Anaxagoras
460-370 BC Democritus – idea of atoms
444 BC Empedocles- optical tentacles theory of vision
400-355 BC Eudoxus – spheres theory
427-347 BC Plato
400 BC Tortoise paradox
384-322 BC Aristotle
332 BC Alexandria founded
310 -230 BC Aristarchus – heliocentric theory
300 BC Euclid – laws of reflection of light
275-194 BC Eratosthenes – size of the Earth- 24000 miles
287-212 BC Archimedes
200 BC Hero of Alexandria
46 BC Calendar introduced by Julius Caesar

0 AD to 1500 AD

This section shows the important events in Physics and Astronomy from 0 AD years until 1500 AD. The names of people are highlighted in blue, important people are in bold blue.


50 Cleomedes studied refraction
70-147 Ptolemy
77 Pliny – watching gladiators through an emerald
662 Arabic numerals in west – Severus Sebockt
800 School of Science founded in Baghdad
930 –1003 Gerbert - pope
965 -1038 Al Hazan
990 Pope Sylvester III labels beads in the abacus
1350 Spectacles
1450 Printing – invention of printing
1452-1519 Leonardo da Vinci
1472 Halley's comet observed – Johannes Regiomontanus
1473-1543 Copernicus
1476 Printing press - Caxton

1500 AD to 1599 AD

This section shows the important events in Physics and Astronomy from 1500 AD years until 1599 AD. The names of people are highlighted in blue, important people are in bold blue.


1510 Helicopter design – Leonardo da Vinci
1519-1522 Magellan sails round the world
1543 Copernican system published
1544-1603 Gilbert
1546-1601 Tycho
1560 Eclipse of the Sun
1560 First scientific society founded in Naples – Della Porta
1564-1642 Galileo
1571-1630 Kepler
1572 Supernova in Cassiopeia observed by Tycho
1576 Observatory constructed – Tycho
1576 Stars scattered through space – Thomas Digges
1580-1637 Vernier
1581 Galileo studies medicine in Pisa
1581 Pendulum theory – Galileo (?1582)
1590 g – same for lead and wax spheres – Stevin de Groot
1591 Pisa - weights dropped from the tower by Galileo (?)
1591-1626 Snell, Willebrod
1596 Mira – variable star – observed by David Fabricius
1596-1650 Descartes
1597 Air thermometer – Galileo
1598-1647 Cavalieri – lens makers formula

1600 AD to 1699 AD

This section shows the important events in Physics and Astronomy from 1600 AD until 1699 AD. The names of people are highlighted in blue, important people are in bold blue.


1600 Dip circle
1600 Magnets – William Gilbert
1602-1686 Guericke – air pump
1604 Supernova
1608 Telescope – Lippershey
1608-1647 Toricelli
1609 Compound microscope
1609 Galilean telescope – first use for astronomy
1609 Kepler's laws
1610 Jupiter's satellites discovered – Galileo
1610 Stars in the Milky Way - Galileo
1610 Sunspots discovered – Galileo
1614 Naperian logarithms
1617 Napier's bones
1618 Kepler's third law
1618- 1663 Grimaldi
1621 Slide rule – William Oughtred
1621 Snell's law
1623-1662 Pascal
1624 Theory of tides - Galileo
1627-1691 Boyle, Robert
1629 Parabolic mirrors – free from spherical aberration
1629-1695 Huyghens
1631 Transit of Mercury observed by Gassendi. Predicted by Kepler.
1632 Constant acceleration of gravity – Galileo
1632 'Dialogo dei due massimi sistemi del Mondi' published – Galileo
1632 Water thermometer – John Ray
1632-1723 Leeuwenhoek - microscopes
1633 Galileo – "Confession"
1634 Somnium – Kepler's science fiction story of mans voyage to the Moon
1635 Alcohol thermometer - Duke Ferdinand of Tuscany
1635-1703 Hooke
1636 Speed of sound - Mersenne
1638 Snell's law published – Descartes
1638 Variable star – Mira Ceti was the first to be observed
1638-1675 Gregory
1639 Micrometer used to measure the diameter of Sun and planets - Gasgoine
1639 Transit of Venus first observed – Horrox and Crabtree
1642 Mechanical calculator – Blaise Pascal
1642- 1727 Newton
1643 Mercury thermometer
1644-1710 Römer
1645 First accurate lunar map – Hevelius
1646- 1716 Leibnitz
1651 Magdeburg hemispheres (?1660)
1655 Rings of Saturn – Huygens
1656 Pendulum clock – Huygens
1656-1742 Halley
1657 Fermat's principle
1660 Alcohol thermoscope
1660 Boyle's law (?1662)
1660 Magdeburg hemispheres – Otto von Guericke
1661 Corpuscular theory of matter – Robert Boyle
1662 Royal Society founded by Charles II
1663-1729 Newcomen
1665 Chromatic aberration – Newton
1665 Diffraction – Grimaldi
1665 Huygens' principle
1665 Micrographia – microscope - Hooke
1665 Newton's rings
1665 Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society first appeared
1665-1666 Plague and fire of London
1668 Conservation of momentum – Wallace
1669 Polarisation in Iceland spar – double refraction - Bartholinus
1671 Newtonian reflector
1672 g - variation – Richer - pendulums
1672 Spectrum experiments - Newton
1673 Centripetal acceleration - proof of formula for– Huygens (v²/r)
1675 Greenwich observatory established
1676 Hooke's law published
1678 Inverse square law of gravity – Robert Hooke
1678 Polarisation of light Huygens
1678 Secondary wavelets - Huygens
1679 Römer – speed of light – 192 000 miles per second (?1676)
1683-1757 Reamur
1686-1736 Fahrenheit
1687 Principia published
1688 Plate glass invented in Normandy
1690 First steam piston engine - Newcomen
1690 Traité de la lumiere published – Huygens wave theory
1693 National debt founded
1693-1762 Bradley (aberration of light)
1693- 1776 Harrison (grid iron pendulum)
1699 Simple laws of friction - Amontons

1700 AD to 1799 AD

This section shows the important events in Physics and Astronomy from 1700 AD until 1799 AD. The names of people are highlighted in blue, important people are in bold blue.

1700-1782 Bernouilli
1701 Newton's law of cooling
1704 Newton's rings
1704 Opticks first edition published - Newton
1705 Electroscope – Haukesbee
1705 Halley's comet – predicts return
1706-1790 Franklin
1717 Opticks published – Newton (date clash?)
1720 Mercury thermometer – Fahrenheit (?1714)
1724 Fahrenheit temperature scale
1724 Supercooling of water - Gabriel Fahrenheit
1728 Aberration of light – Bradley
1728-1799 James Black – fluid theory of heat
1730-1799 Ingen Hauz
1731-1810 Cavendish
1732-1811 Maskelyne – astronomer royal
1733 Electric charge - distinction between positive and negative - Charles du Fay
1735 Cobalt discovered – Brandt
1736-1806 Coulomb
1736-1819 Watt
1737-1798 Galvani
1738-1822 Herschel
1740 G – Chimborazo in the Andes – Bouguer
1740 Positive and negative electricity - Franklin
1742 Celsius scale of temperature
1744 Gyroscope - Serson
1745 Leyden jar for storage of static electric charge
1745-1827 Volta
1746 Angular momentum conservation
1749-1814 Bramah
1750 Inverse square law for magnetic fields – John Michell
1750 Lightning experiments - Franklin
1752 Gregorian calendar in Britain
1752 Viscosity - Jean d'Alembert
1753 Lightning conductor - Franklin
1753-1814 Rumford
1755 Island universes proposed – Kant
1756 War – Seven years war began
1756-1827 Chladni
1757 Cook – voyage to Australia
1758 Achromatic lens – Dolland
1759 Quebec captured by Wolfe
1760 Lambert's cosine law
1760 Latent and specific heat – Black
1760 Yard – standard version made – John Bird
1764 Spinning Jenny – Hargreaves
1766 Hydrogen – isolation by Cavendish
1766 Inverse square law for force between electric charges – Joseph Priestley
1766-1832 Leslie (Leslie's cube)
1766-1844 Dalton
1767 Nautical almanac
1768 Royal Academy founded
1769 Venus – transit of Venus observed
1769 Watt patents the steam engine
1770 Quadrant electrometer
1770 Torsion balance
1770-1831 Seebeck
1771 Force between two charges (law proposed) (see 1766)
1773-1829 Young
1774 G – Schiehallion
1775-1836 Ampere
1777 Singing flame – Higgins
1777-1835 Kater (Kater's compound pendulum)
1777-1855 Gauss
1778-1829 Davy
1779 Friction law – Coulomb
1779-1869 Roget
1781 Messier's catalogue of nebulae
1781 Uranus discovered – Herschel
1781-1848 Stephenson
1782 Double acting steam engine
1782 Sun's motion through space - William Herschel
1783 Hot air balloon - Montgolfier
1784 Atwood's machine (moment of inertia of a disc)
1784 Cepheid variable – delta Cephei – discovered - Goodricke
1784 Magnetism – inverse square law
1785 Horse power as a unit of power – Watt
1786 Frogs legs - Galvani
1786-1853 Arago
1787 Charles' Law
1787-1826 Fraunhofer
1787-1854 Ohm
1788-1827 Fresnel
1789 French Revolution
1789 Herchel's 49" reflector completed
1790 Definition of metric system in France
1790-1845 Daniell – Daniell cell
1791-1867 Faraday
1792 Prevost's theory of exchanges – heat
1794 Colour blindness – Dalton
1796-1832 Carnot
1798 Canon boring experiments - Rumford
1798 G - Cavendish experiment
1798 Uranium discovered
1799 Ice blocks rubbed together gives heat energy – Davy
1799 Interference first mentioned by Young
1799 Metre – standard version made
1799-1878 Henry

1800 AD to 1849 AD

This section shows the important events in Physics and Astronomy from 1800 AD until 1849 AD. The names of people are highlighted in blue, important people are in bold blue.

1800 Atomic theory - Dalton
1800 Infra red radiation - Herschel
1800 Voltaic pile
1801 Ceres discovered – first minor planet - Piazzi
1801 Electric arc – Humphrey Davy
1801 Newtonian bending of light by the Sun predicted – Johann von Soldner
1801 Ultra violet - Ritter
1801-1803 Young's slits
1801-1892 Airy
1802 Double stars are bodies in mutual orbit - William Herschel,
1802 Gay Lussac – work on Charles' Law
1802 Pallas - second asteroid discovered - Heinrich Olbers
1802 Steam boat – first successful one made
1802-1875 Wheatstone
1803-1853 Doppler
1804 Dalton's law of partial pressures
1804 Hope's apparatus – liquid expansion
1804- 1864 Lenz
1806 Transit circle – Groombridge – mapped 4000 stars
1807 Colour theory – three colour theory of vision
1807 Slave trade abolished
1807 Vesta - third asteroid discovered - Heinrich Olbers
1808 Polarisation by reflection – Etienne Malus
1808 Sound – speed of sound in solids – Biot
1809- 1882 Darwin
1811-1899 Bunsen
1812 Decomposition of waves, harmonic analysis – Fourier
1813-1885 Andrews
1814 Photography
1814 Spectroscope - Joseph von Fraunhofer
1814-1824 Fraunhofer lines
1814-1874 Angström
1815 Brewster's Law
1815 Davy lamp
1815 Interference – rediscovered by Fresnel
1816 Diffraction – Fresnel theory of diffraction
1816 Photoelastic effect - Brewster
1817 Kater's pendulum
1817 Real coefficient of expansion – du Long and Petit
1817 Stirling engine patented
1818-1889 Joule
1819 Du Long and Petit's Law
1819-1868 Foucault
1819-1896 Fizeau
1819-1903 Stokes
1820 Deflection of magnet by current – Oersted
1820 Electromagnets - Sturgeon
1820 Royal Astronomical Society founded
1821 Electric motor - Faraday
1821 Seebeck effect - thermocouple
1821-1894 Helmholtz
1822 Prototype calculating machine - Charles Babbage
1822 Sound – speed of sound - Arago
1822 Two wires carrying an electric current attract - Andre Ampere
1822-1888 Clausius
1823 Ampere's theorem
1823 Olbers' paradox – why is the sky dark?
1824 Carnot cycle
1824 Electromagnetic induction
1824 Silicon identified – Jöns Jacob Berzelius
1824- 1887 Kirchoff
1824-1907 Kerr
1824- 1910 Huggins
1825 Stockton to Darlington railway
1825-1898 Balmer
1826 Light sensitivity of silver bromide
1826 Ohm's Law
1826-1911 Stoney
1827 Brownian motion first observed
1827 University College London founded
1828 Potential in electricity – Green
1828 Thorium discovered – Berzelius (1829?)
1829 Graham's gas diffusion law
1829 Inductance – self and mutual – Henry
1829 Nicol prism
1830 Thermopile – Nobili and Melloni
1831 Capillarity – theory of capillarity – Poisson
1831 Dynamo – Faraday
1831-1879 Maxwell
1832 Absolute units – Gauss
1832 Electrolysis – Faraday's laws
1832-1919 Crookes
1833 Self inductance - Joseph Henry (paper published)(discovered ?1829)
1833 Wheatstone Bridge – Christie
1834 Electric motor – Jacobi
1834 Entropy idea proposed Clapeyron
1834 Lenz's law
1834 Thermo-electric effect – Peltier
1834-1907 Mendeleev
1835 Coriolis force - Gustav-Gaspard Coriolis
1835-1893 Stefan
1836 Galvanometer – moving coil
1837 Lloyd's mirror
1837 Tangent galvanometer – Pouillet
1837-1923 Van der Waals
1838 Oliver Twist published
1838 Parallax measurement of distance of 61 Cygni – Bessel, Henderson, Struve
1838-1916 Mach
1839 Gravitation – inverse square law measurement
1839 Grove cell
1839 Photoelectricity
1839-1882 Leclanche
1839-1894 Kundt
1839-1903 Gibbs
1840 Chemical deposition of silver for mirrors
1840 Rosse – six foot reflector
1841 Potentiometer – Poggendorff
1841 Uranium – isolation by Eugene-Melchoir Peligot
1841-1902 Cornu (Cornu's spiral)
1842 Doppler effect
1842 Mayer – forerunner of Joule's experiment
1842-1912 Reynolds
1842-1919 Rayleigh
1843 First mechanical programmable calculator - Howard Aiken
1844- 1906 Boltzmann
1845 Joule-Kelvin experiment
1845 Polarisation – rotation of plane of polarisation in a magnetic field
1845-1923 Rontgen
1846 Carbon arc lighting in Paris opera house
1846 Neptune discovered Adams and Leverrier, Johanne Galle
1847 Communist manifesto published – Karl Marx
1847 Conservation of energy principle
1847 Mechanical equivalent of heat – Joule
1848 Absolute temperature scale - William Thomson (Lord Kelvin)
1848-1901 Rowland
1849 Haidinger fringes
1849 Light – speed of light measurement – Fizeau – toothed wheel

1850 AD to 1899 AD

This section shows the important events in Physics and Astronomy from 1850 AD until 1899 AD. The names of people are highlighted in blue, important people are in bold blue.

1850 Light - speed of light measurement – Foucault – rotating mirror
1850 Thermodynamics – second law of thermodynamics Rudolf Clausius,
1851 Foucault pendulum
1851 Ruhmkorff coil
1851-1901 Fitzgerald
1852 Gyroscope – Foucault
1852 Joule-Thompson effect
1852 Polarisation using Herapathite
1852- 1909 Becquerel
1852-1931 Michelson
1853-1928 Lorentz
1854 Geissler – good vacuum
1854 Heat death of the universe - Hermann von Helmholtz,
1854 Thermodynamic temperature scale (?1848)
1854-1856 Crimean War
1854-1912 Poincare
1855 Spiral galaxies - William Parsons
1855-1944 Boys
1856-1940 Thomson, J.J
1857 Kinetic theory – Clausius
1857 Nature of Saturn's rings - James Clerk Maxwell
1857-1894 Hertz
1858 Matrices – Cayley
1858 Mean free path of a molecule – Clausius
1858-1947 Planck
1859 Anomolous perihelion shift of Mercury - Urbane Le Verrier
1859 Cathode rays - Hittorf and Plucker
1859 Origin of the Species - Darwin
1859-1906 Curie, Pierre
1860 Internal combustion engine
1860 Kinetic theory of gases – proof of the formula
1860 Kirchoff's Law - heat
1860 Molecular velocity distribution in a gas – Maxwell
1861 Andrews experiments with carbon dioxide
1862 Constant flow calorimeter (C_p) - Regnault
1862 Hydrogen observed in the sun - Anders Angstrom
1862 Phototelegraphy – Abbe Caselli
1863-1932 Wolf
1864 Coefficient of expansion – Fizeau – using Newton's rings
1864 Electromagnetic theory – Maxwell
1864-1928 Wien
1864 Coefficient of expansion – Fizeau – using Newton's rings
1864 Electromagnetic theory – Maxwell
1864-1928 Wien
1865 Entropy – Clausius
1865 Leclanche cell
1866 Sound – speed of sound – Kundt's dust tube method
1867-1934 Curie, Marie
1868 Doppler effect in the spectra of stars – Huggins
1868 Helium identified and named in the Sun's spectrum - Joseph Lockyer
1868 Helium lines observed in the Sun's spectrum - Pierre-Jules Janssen
1868-1951 Sommerfield
1868- 1953 Millikan
1869 Cathode rays – Hittorf
1869 Dynamite
1869 Mendeleev table of the elements
1869 Spectroscope used in a total eclipse of the Sun
1869-1952 Lees (Lees disc)
1870 Fibre optics – Tyndall
1870-1942 Perrin, Jean – Perrin tube
1871 Helium – name for the new element
1871 Light scattering and why the sky is blue - Tyndall and Rayleigh
1871- 1937 Rutherford
1872 Clark cell
1872 Van der Waals equation
1872-1934 De Sitter
1873 Photocell – selenium
1874 Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge founded – Maxwell as director
1874 Electron – particle named by Stoney who also estimated its mass
1874 Half wave plate - Laurent
1874-1945 Marconi
1874-1954 Lyman
1875 Kerr effect
1876 Cathode rays – named by Goldstein
1876 Telephone – commercial version invented
1877 Gramophone invented - Edison
1877 Moons of Mars discovered - Asaph Hall
1877 Oxygen liquefied – Pictet
1877 Resistance thermometer – Callendar
1877-1945 Aston
1877-1956 Soddy
1878 Electric light bulb – Edison
1878 Helium discovered in solar spectrum – Lockyer (?1868)
1878 Microphone – carbon microphone – Hughes
1878 Wimshurst machine
1879 Light - speed of light – Michelson – rotating prism
1879 Stefan-Boltzmann Law for Black Body radiation
1879 Telephone exchange – first one in London
1879-1955 Einstein
1879-1960 Von Laue
1879-1968 Hahn
1880 Piezo electric effect – P and J. Curie
1881 Bolometer – Langley
1881 Electron – name proposed for the fundamental unit of charge (?)
1881 Mass of electrified particle increases as speed increases
1881 Optical interferometer - Albert Michelson
1882 Comet – the great comet became the first one to be photographed
1882 Diffraction grating – Rowland
1882- 1944 Eddington
1882-1945 Geiger
1882-1945 Goddard
1884 Nipkow disc
1884 Photometer – wax block photometer
1884 Stefan-Boltzmann Law
1884 Turbine – Parsons
1885 Balmer series in hydrogen
1885 Classification of stars – E.C.Pickering
1885-1962 Bohr, Niels
1886 Canal rays – Goldstein
1886 Dynamic method for saturated vapour pressure – Ramsay and Young
1886 Germanium discovered - Clemens Winkler
1886 Interference fringes – surface map of a material - Laurent
1886 Joly differential steam calorimeter
1887 Callendar and Griffiths bridge
1887 Car – Daimler
1887 Michelson-Morley experiment – absence of ether drift
1887 Photoelectric effect discovered - Hallwachs
1887 Wireless waves detected - Hertz
1887-1961 Schrödinger
1888 Contact lenses
1888 Tyre - pneumatic – Dunlop
1888-1946 Baird, James Logie
1889 Length contraction - George Fitzgerald
1889 Metre – modern standard metre introduced
1889 Turbine – de Laval
1889-1953 Hubble
1890 C_v - Joly
1890 Rydberg constant
1891 Minor planet – first to be discovered by photography – Wolf
1892 Blooming of lenses – Taylor
1892 Dewar flask
1892 Metre – number of cadmium waves in a metre - Michelson
1892 Units – rationalised system – Heaviside
1892- 1987 De Broglie
1892- 1894 Oxygen liquefied
1892-1962 Compton, A.H
1893 Black body displacement law derivation - Wilhelm Wien
1893 Diesel engine
1893 Fitzgerald contraction
1893 Greenwich 28" refractor completed
1893 Motion picture – first one made
1894 Argon discovered – Ramsay and Rayliegh
1894 Greenwich 28" refractor opened
1895 Carbon dioxide discharge tube
1895 Cathode rays – negatively charged
1895 Curie point for magnetic materials identified
1895 G – Boys method
1895 Hampson and Linde process
1895 Helium isolated
1895 Lorentz transformation – first form - Hendrick Lorentz
1895 Tsiolkovsky publishes first ideas of space travel
1895 X rays discovered – Röntgen
1896 Black body radiation curve - Wien
1896 Nobel died
1896 Radioactivity discovered in uranium ore - Becquerel
1896 Rayleigh refractometer
1896 Zeeman effect – Pieter Zeeman
1897 Cathode ray oscilloscope – Braun
1897 Electrons 'discovered' – J.J.Thomson
1897 Infra red – Lummer and Pringsheim
1897 Interferometer – Fabry-Perot
1897 Yerkes 40" refractor opened
1897-1967 Cockcroft, James
1898 Hydrogen liquefied - Dewar
1898 Lees disc
1898 Polonium discovered
1898 Radium discovered - Curies
1898 Wireless message – first paid one
1899 Alpha, beta and gamma rays discovered by Rutherford
1899 Diffraction of X rays
1899 Hydrogen solidified - Dewar
1899-1902 War - Boer War

1900 AD to 1924 AD

This section shows the important events in Physics and Astronomy from 1900 AD until 1924 AD. The names of people are highlighted in blue, important people are in bold blue.

1900 Black body radiation – Rayleigh- Jeans law
1900 Conduction in metals due to electron motion demonstrated - Drude
1900 Conductivity of gases – Geitel and Wilson
1900 Cosmic rays predicted – Wilson
1900 Gamma rays identified – Villard
1900 Quantum theory - Planck
1900 Searle's apparatus for elasticity
1900-1958 Pauli
1901 Black body radiation curve – Planck
1901 MKS units Giorgi
1901 Nobel prizes instituted
1901 Radio signal – first transatlantic
1901 Röntgen – Nobel prize for Physics
1901-1954 Fermi
1901-1958 Lawrence
1902 Constant flow method for J – Callendar and Barnes
1902 Liquefaction of air – Claude
1902 Lorentz and Zeeman - Nobel prize for Physics
1902 Spontaneous disintegration - Soddy
1903 Aeroplane – first flight – Wright brothers
1903 Curies and Becquerel – Nobel prize for Physics
1903 Thermionic emission theory - Richardson
1903 Ultra microscope
1904 Alpha particle experiments - Rutherford
1904 Planetary model of the atom proposed - Hantaro Nagaoka
1904 Thermionic diode – Fleming (first vacuum tube patented)
1904 Wireless pulses – depth finding
1904-1967 Oppenheimer

1905 Lennard – Nobel prize for Physics
1905 Lowell – search for a planet beyond Neptune
1905 Photoelectric cell
1905 Photon theory for photoelectric effect - Albert Einstein
1905 Relativity (special) – Einstein
1905-1950 Jansky
1906 Alpha particle – e/m measurement – Rutherford
1906 Earthquake waves used by Oldham to prove that the Earth has a core
1906 Lyman series in hydrogen
1906 Thermodynamics– third law – Nernst
1906 Thomson, J.J – Nobel prize for Physics
1906 Triode – Forrest
1907 Domain theory of ferromagnetism – Weiss
1907 Expansion – Henning's method
1907 Michelson – Nobel prize for Physics
1907 Zeeman – Nobel prize for Physics
1908 Coal mines – eight hour day
1908 Helium liquefied – Kammerlingh Onnes – 0.7K
1908 Mount Wilson 100" opened
1908 Sunspots – large magnetic field discovered - Hale
1908 Superfluidity - Kammerlingh Onnes
1909 Alpha particle - identification of the alpha particle – Rutherford and Royds
1909 Alpha particle scattering

1910 Halley's comet returns
1910 Knudsen gauge
1911 Cosmic ray detection in balloons – Victor Hess
1911 Millikan's method for the electron charge
1911 Nuclear atom theory – Rutherford
1911 Superconductivity – Onnes
1912 Cepheid – period-luminosity relation
1912 Cloud chamber – Wilson
1912 Continental drift theory proposed – Wegener
1912 Curvature of space- time - Einstein
1912 Mass spectrograph – Thomson
1912 Planck's constant - measurement by Millikan
1912 Red shift of galaxies observed – Vesto Slipher
1912 Titanic sunk
1912 X ray diffraction – Laue
1912 X ray wavelength measured using crystal diffraction - Braggs
1913 Atomic theory – Bohr orbits
1913 Hertzsprung- Russel diagram finalised
1913 Isotopes – Soddy
1913 Positive ray analysis – neon isotopes
1913 Stark effect
1913 X ray diffraction – Friedrich and Knipping
1913 X ray tube – Coolidge
1913 X rays – Moseley
1914 Beta particle spectra - Chadwick
1914 Frank and Hertz – stationary states in the atom – energy levels
1914 Laue – Nobel Prize for Physics
1914 The World Set Free – H.G.Wells
1914-1918 War - First World War

1915 Bragg – Nobel prize for Physics
1915 Diffusion pump - Gaede
1915 Relativity (General Theory)
1915 White dwarfs – first discovered
1916 Elliptical orbits– Sommerfield
1916 Photoelectric equation – Millikan
1917 Mount Wilson 100" opened (date clash?)
1918 Barton's pendulums
1918 Planck – Nobel prize for Physics
1919 Aston mass spectrograph
1919 Deflection of light in a gravitational field – total solar eclipse
1919 Gravitational lensing predicted – Oliver Lodge
1919 Milky Way layout described – Shapley
1919 Rutherford – director of Cavendish Laboratory
1919 Rutherford – transmutation of atom
1919 Stark – Nobel prize for Physics

1920 Proton – name suggested by Rutherford
1920 Radio broadcasting is regular in USA
1921 Einstein – Nobel prize for Physics
1921 Light – speed of light in water - Michelson
1922 Aston and Bohr – Nobel prize for Physics
1922 BBC founded
1922 Cosmic rays – electroscopes in balloons
1923 Andromeda galaxy –distance – Hubble – Cepheids and 100" reflector
1923 Compton effect
1924 De Broglie – wave equation for a particle (l=h/p)
1924 Galaxies shown to exist outside the Milky Way - Hubble
1924 Stellar spectral classification – Henry Draper catalogue published

1925 AD to 1949 AD

This section shows the important events in Physics and Astronomy from 1925 AD until 1949 AD. The names of people are highlighted in blue, important people are in bold blue.

1925 Cosmic rays – term introduced
1925 Electron spin – Uhlenbeck and Goudsmit
1925 Franck and Hertz – Nobel prize for Physics
1925 Ionosphere detected by reflected radio waves - Appleton
1925 Pauli exclusion principle
1926 Fermi-Dirac statistics
1926 Helium solidified – Keesom
1926 Perrin – Nobel prize for Physics
1926 Rocket – liquid propellant – Goddard
1926 Wave mechanics – particle-wave equation – Schrödinger
1927 Big Bang Theory - Lemaitre
1927 Electron diffraction – Davisson, Germer and Thomson
1927 Milky Way rotation detected - Oort
1927 Uncertainty principle – Heisenberg
1927 Wilson and Compton – Nobel prize for Physics
1928 Complementarity
1928 De Broglie – Nobel prize for Physics
1928 Electron – negative energy states – Dirac
1928 Electron – relativistic quantum mechanical description - Dirac
1928 Kerr cell
1928 Wave mechanical alpha emission – Gamov
1928 Wave mechanical barrier penetration
1928 Zero point energy
1929 Anti- matter predicted - Dirac
1929 Coincidence counters
1929 Electrostatic accelerator – Cockcroft and Walton
1929 Expansion of Universe demonstrated - Hubble
1929 Fusion suggested as the energy of the stars
1929 Hubble's Law
1929 Isotopes of oxygen discovered in nature
1929 Pentode
1929 Quartz crystal clock invented
1929 Radio astronomy - Jansky – merry go round aerial
1929 Rocket motors – Soviets begin development
1929 Television – first experimental TV service - BBC
1929 Television tube – Zworykin

1930 Pluto discovered
1930 Quantum mechanics – Dirac
1930 Raman – Nobel prize for Physics
1930 Schmidt telescope
1930 Superfluid helium produced
1930 Tape recorder
1931 Diffraction of molecules – Strong
1931 Electron- microscope
1931 Neutrino - Pauli
1931 Van de Graaff generator
1932 Cyclotron – Lawrence
1932 Deuterium – Urey and Washburn
1932 Heisenberg – Nobel prize for Physics
1932 High voltage generator – Cockcroft and Walton
1932 Methane and ammonia discovered in the giant planets
1932 Neutron – Chadwick
1932 Polaroid invented – Land
1932 Positron discovered – Anderson
1933 Adiabatic demagnetisation perfected
1933 Dirac – Nobel prize for Physics
1933 Guided weapons – Germans experiment with these
1933 Magnetron
1933 Meissner effect detected in superconductors
1934 Accelerator – smoke ring accelerator proposed
1934 Cerenkov radiation
1934 Fission proposed by Fermi
1934 Neutrino theory of beta decay
1934 Phase contrast microscope – Zernike
1934 Radioactivity – artificial radioactivity - Curie and Joliot
1934 Tritium discovered – Oliphant

1935 Mesons predicted - Yukawa
1935 Nuclear force theory – Yukawa
1935 Weber introduced as a unit of magnetic flux
1936 Anderson – Nobel prize for Physics
1936 Liquid drop model of the nucleus – Bohr
1936 Neutron diffraction
1936 Radar – Watson-Watt
1936 TV station opened at Alexandra Palace in north London
1937 Electron microscope – Ruzcka
1937 Rocket tests at Peenmünde
1937 Technetium discovered - Segre
1937 Thermodynamics - Third law of thermodynamics
1937 Thomson and Davisson – Nobel prize for Physics
1937 TV – first regular 405 line TV broadcasting - BBC
1938 Cloud chamber – continuously sensitive – Langsdorf
1938 Fermi – Nobel prize for Physics
1938 Fission - Uranium fission – Hahn and Strassman
1938 Magnetic resonance principle
1938 Superfluidity – Kapitza
1939 Klystron – Varian
1939 Lawrence – Nobel prize for Physics
1939 Photometric source – standard – melting platinum
1939-1945 War – Second World War

1940 Carbon 14 discovered and used in carbon dating
1940 Isotope separation - Urey
1940 Neptunium discovered
1941 Betatron - Kerst
1941 Jet aircraft – first British jet aircraft flew
1942 Chain reaction – first nuclear chain reaction – Chicago – Fermi
1942 Plutonium discovered
1942 Rocket - V2 rocket – first successful one flew
1942 Solar radio emission detected
1943 Electronic computer developed – Turing
1943 Enigma decoded – Bletchley park
1943 Mars – a little water vapour detected
1944 Curium discovered – element 96
1944 Rabi – Nobel prize for Physics
1945 Meteors – observation by radar – Hey and Stewart
1945 Nuclear explosion – first nuclear explosion – Alamogordo desert in the USA
1945 Hiroshima – nuclear bomb
1945 Nagasaki – nuclear bomb
1945 Pauli – Nobel prize for Physics
1945 Radar signals reflected off the Moon
1945 Synchrocyclotron
1946 Atomic bomb – first British A bomb – Bikini Atoll
1946 Computer - electronic
1946 Electronic computer – ENIAC – general purpose
1946 Linear accelerator
1946 Reactor – fast reactor – Los Alamos
1946'Strange' particles detected in cosmic ray experiments – named later
1946 Synchrotron – electron synchrotron
1946 Two fluid theory – superfluids – Landau
1947 Atomic pile – British version at Harwell
1947 Lamb shift
1947 Mars – small amount of carbon dioxide detected – Kuiper
1947 Microwave ovens first go on sale
1947 Neutron diffraction – Zinn
1947 Photomultiplier tube
1947 Pi meson discovered
1947 V particle discovered
1948 Cygnus A radio source discovered
1948 Decay of the neutron - Snell and Miller
1948 Mesons first produced in the laboratory
1948 Palomar 200" reflector completed and goes into operation
1949 Berlelium (element 97) – Ghiorso, Seaborg and Thompson
1949 Holography – Gabor
1949 Lambda 0 discovered
1949 Plutonium bomb – USSR
1949 Polarisation of starlight by interstellar dust observed
1949 Steady state theory – Hoyle
1949 TV – colour
1949 Yukawa – Nobel prize for Physics

1950 AD to 1974 AD

This section shows the important events in Physics and Astronomy from 1950 AD until 1974 AD. The names of people are highlighted in blue, important people are in bold blue.

1950 Field ion microscope
1950 Powell – Nobel prize for Physics
1951 Cockcroft and Walton – Nobel prize for Physics
1951 Positronium
1951 Radio galaxy identified - Smith and Baade
1951 Twenty one cm line – hydrogen – radio map of the galaxy
1951 Ultra violet observations of the Sun by rockets
1952 Bubble chamber – Glaser
1952 CERN set up
1952 H bomb – Edward Teller USA
1952 Jupiter – 12th satellite discovered
1952 Nuclear breeder reactor
1952 Sigma particle
1953 Conservation of strangeness
1953 Everest climbed
1953 Fibre optics
1953 H bomb – USSR
1953 Neutrino detected – Reines and Cowan
1953 Servomechanisms
1953 Strangeness - Gell-Mann and Nishijima
1953 Zeta particle discovered
1954 Born – Nobel prize for Physics
1954 H bomb – USA – trawler Lucky Dragon
1954 Maser
1954 Nautilus (nuclear submarine) launched
1954 Solar batteries

1955 Atomic clock
1955 Lamb – Nobel prize for Physics
1955 Unified field theory – Einstein
1956 Anti-neutrino detection
1956 Anti-proton
1956 Dubna research centre opened
1956 FORTRAN programming language introduced
1956 Hovercraft – first model version
1956 Non conservation of parity – Lee and Yang
1956 Nuclear batteries
1956 Nuclear power station - Calder Hall began operation
1956 Telephone cable - transatlantic
1957 Chelyabinsk nuclear accident – Urals
1957 Jodrell Bank – 250' radio telescope
1957 Parity violation in weak decays - Chien-Shiung Wu
1957 Sputnik I launched
1957 Sputnik II – dog Laika
1957 Windscale disaster (renamed Sellafield)
1957 Yang and Lee – Nobel prize for Physics
1957 ZETA opened at Harwell
1958 Carbon gas observed from lunar crater Alphonsus – Kosirev
1958 Cerenkov – Nobel prize for Physics
1958 Explorer I launched
1958 Tamm and Franck – Nobel prize for Physics
1958 Vanguard I
1959 Chamberlain and Segré – Nobel prize for Physics
1959 Dounreay critical
1959 Impossibility of observation of contraction - Terrell
1959 Lunik I becomes the first artificial planet
1959 Lunik II crashed into the Moon
1959 Lunik III– first pictures of the far side of the Moon
1959 Maser echo from Venus
1959 Mössbauer effect
1959 Nuclear powered aircraft carrier Sanvanah
1959 Pioneer 4 - orbit round the Sun
1959 Radar contact with the Sun
1959 Xerox photocopier

1960 Glaser – Nobel prize for Physics
1960 Gravitational red shift – Pound and Rebka
1960 Krypton 86 as basic length unit
1960 Laser – ruby laser invented by Theodore Maiman
1960 Mossbauer effect discovered
1960 Quasar identified optically – Matthews and Sandage
1960 Sea floor spreading theory proposed
1960 Space flight – Sputnik V – 4500 kg – Strlka and Belka recovered alive
1960 Synchrotron – 28 GeV machine at CERN
1961 Eight fold way
1961 Neutrino (n_m) discovered
1961 Nuclear aircraft carrier Enterprise in service
1961 Nuclear power station – Calder Hall opened by the Queen
1961 Space flight – chimpanzee in Mercury capsule
1961 Space flight – first manned orbital flight – Yuri Gagarin
1961 Space flight – Mercury 3 – Alan Sheppard
1961 Space flight – Mercury 4 – Gus Grissom
1961 Space flight – Titov – 17 orbits
1962 Cuban crisis
1962 Eta 0 discovered
1962 First hologram produced - Leith and Upatnieks
1962 Josephson junction
1962 Kzi 0 discovered
1962 Landau – Nobel prize for Physics
1962 Nuclear power stations – Bradwell and Berkeley built
1962 Quasars discovered
1962 Semiconductor laser
1962 Space flight - Ariel – British satellite
1962 Space flight – Mariner 2 flies close to Venus – surface temperature 700 K
1962 Space flight – Mercury 6 – John Glenn – three orbits
1962 Space flight – Mercury 7
1962 Space flight – Mercury 8
1962 Space flight – Vostok 3 – 64 orbits
1962 Space flight – Vostok 4 – 48 orbits
1962 Telstar – first communications satellite launched
1962 Two types of neutrino - Lederman, Steinberger, Schwartz
1963 Geostationary satellite launched for the first time
1963 Holograms – first successful ones produced
1963 Mars – water vapour – Dolfus – Mount Wilson 100"
1963 Nuclear test ban treaty signed
1963 Space flight - Mercury 9 – 22 orbits – final Mercury flight
1963 Space flight – Vostok 5 – 81 orbits
1963 Space flight – Vostok 6 – 48 orbits – Tereschkova – first woman in space
1963 Wigner, Goeppert- Mayer and Jensen – Nobel prize for Physics
1964 A bomb - China
1964 Hunterston nuclear power station opened
1964 Omega minus discovered - Barnes
1964 Principle of unitary symmetry
1964 Quark – hunting of the quark begun
1964 Quark theory of hadrons - Gell-Mann, Zweig
1964 Space flight – Gemini unmanned test flight
1964 Space flight – Ranger 7 – close up photos of the Moon
1964 Space flight – Voshkod I – 16 orbits of the Earth – three astronauts
1964 Townes, Prokharov and Basov – Nobel prize for Physics

1965 Feynmann, Schwinger and Tomaga – Nobel prize for Physics
1965 Nuclear power stations – Dungeness A, Hinkley Point A, Trawsfyndd
1965 Space flight – Gemini 3
1965 Space flight – Gemini 4
1965 Space flight – Gemini 6 and 7 rendezvous in orbit (206 orbits Gemini 7)
1965 Space flight – Voshkod II – seventeen orbits – first space walk
1965 Trident – automatic landing
1965 TV – Early Bird satellite first used for TV
1966 Herstmonceux 98" reflector completed
1966 Kastler – Nobel Prize for Physics
1966 Linear accelerator – 20 GeV opened at Stanford California
1966 Nuclear power station – Oldbury
1966 Nuclear power station - Sizewell
1966 Nuclear reactor – fast reactor - Dounreay at 60 MW
1966 Space flight – final Gemini flights – 8,9,10,11,12
1966 Space flight – Luna 9 – first soft landing on the Moon
1966 Space flight – Lunar Orbiter – view of Earth from the Moon
1966 Space flight – Surveyor I – soft landing on the Moon
1967 Accelerator – smoke ring accelerator – USSR
1967 Atomic clock – caesium adopted as standard of time – 9,192,631,770 Hz
1967 Bethe – Nobel prize for Physics
1967 Electro-weak forces – unification. Weinberg and Salam
1967 Herstmonceux 98" reflector opened
1967 Pulsars – Bell and Antony
1967 Space flight – first space fatalities one USSR. Three USA
1967 Space flight - Saturn V – test firing to 11000 miles
1967 Space flight - Soyuz I
1967 Space flight – USSR – link up of two unmanned satellites
1967 Space flight – Venus 4 probe soft landing on Venus
1968 Alvarez – Nobel Prize for Physics
1968 Concorde flies
1968 Element 104 discovered
1968 Space flight - Apollo 7 orbits the Earth
1968 Space flight – Apollo 8 – men orbit the Moon
1968 Space flight – Luna 14 into lunar orbit
1968 Space flight – Soyuz 3
1968 Space flight – Zond 5 and 6 – round the Moon and back
1968 Time variance observed
1969 Black hole at the centre of galactic nuclei - Donald Lynden-Bell
1969 Boeing 747 flies
1969 Gell-Mann – Nobel prize for Physics
1969 Pulsar – first optical identification in Crab nebula
1969 Space flight – Apollo 9
1969 Space flight – Apollo 10
1969 Space flight – Apollo 11 Men land on the Moon
1969 Space flight – Apollo12
1969 Space flight – Mariner photographs Mars
1969 Space flight – rocket USSR 10 million pounds of thrust, explodes on ground
1969 Space flight – Soyuz 4 and 5 – first manned orbital link up
1969 Space flight – Soyuz 6,7 and 8 – first space welding
1969 Tu144 flies

1970 Space flight - Apollo 13
1970 Dark matter suggested – Rubin and Ford
1971 Lunar rover vehicle first used on the Moon
1971 Mars 2 capsule – first Mars landing
1972 Apollo 17 – the final Apollo mission
1973 Celestial gamma ray source
1973 Supersymmetry - Wess and Zumino
1974 Charmed quark – Ting and Richter
1974 Cygnus X1 – possible black hole
1974 Grand Unified Theory, prediction of proton life - Georgi and Glashow

1975 AD to 2007 AD

This section shows the important events in Physics and Astronomy from 1975 AD until 2007 AD. The names of people are highlighted in blue, important people are in bold blue.

1975 Tau lepton - Martin Perl
1976 Supergravity - Ferrara, Freedman, Nieuwenhuizen
1977 Bottom quark - Fermilab
1977 Computer – first successful PC
1977 Rings of Uranus discovered by James Elliot
1978 Charon – part of Pluto double planet system discovered
1979 Gluons - evidence for in hadron jets – DESY
1979 Image of a quasar doubled by gravitational lensing
1979 Jupiter fly-by by Voyagers 1 and 2
1979 Three Mile island nuclear power plant accident
1979 Voyager spacecraft discovers the rings of Jupiter

1980 Quantised Hall effect observed
1980 Voyager space probes pass Saturn
1981 Inflationary early universe – Alan Guth
1981 Non-isotropic cosmic background radiation detected
1981 ZX81 computer released by Sinclair
1982 Space shuttle operational
1982 Superstring theory – Green and Schwarz
1984 Optical disk for the storage of computer data developed
1985 Ozone hole over the Antarctic detected
1986 High temperature superconductivity – Bednorz and Mueller
1986 Return of Halley's comet
1987 Detection of neutrinos from a supernova - Masatoshi Koshibas
1988 Greenhouse Effect named
1989 Cold fusion debate

1990 Hubble Space telescope launched
1992 COBE – fluctuations in cosmic microwave background radiation
1993 Hubble Space telescope repaired
1994 Top quark – Fermilab
1995 First extra solar planet – Mayor and Queloz
1995 Pearl, Reines – Nobel prize for Physics
1997 Cassini space probe launched by NASA to Saturn
1997 Pathfinder – first roving robot on Mars
1999 Cassini passes 600 km from Venus
1999 Total solar eclipse observed from parts of Britain

2000 Alferov and Kroemer, Kilby - Nobel prize for Physics
2001 Russian space station Mir burns up on return to Earth
2002 Riccardo Giaconni – Nobel prize for Physics – cosmic X ray sources
2003 Beagle 2 spacecraft mission to land on Mars – contact lost
2003 Concorde – last flight 24th October
2003 Ion drive spacecraft launched to the Moon
2003 LCD televisions available in Britain
2003 Mars comes closer to Earth than it will be for 60 000 years
2003 Spaceflight – Chinese launch manned orbital spacecraft
2003 Concorde – last flight 24th October
2003 American spacecraft lands on Mars
2004 Transit of Venus
2005 Huyghens probe launched from Cassini space craft lands safely on Titan
2006 New Horizons mission to Pluto launched on January 19th at 19:00 UT
2006 Solar System includes twelve planets – August
2007 'True' planets reduced to eight. Pluto now a minor planet.
2008 NASA Pheonix probe lands safely on Mars (May 23th)