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English Civil War Glorious Revolution War of the Spanish Succession Seven Years War American Revolutionary War French Revolution Napoleonic Wars World War I Great Depression World War II Cold War European Union (Maastricht era onward)
Industrial Revolution Russian Revolution COVID-19 Pandemic
Artificial Intelligence Named as a Field Perceptron Announced Industrial Robot Unimate Installed Shakey the Robot Developed Expert Systems Gain Traction Industrial Robot Adoption Expands in Manufacturing Backpropagation Popularised Deep Blue Defeats Garry Kasparov Roomba Popularises Domestic Robotics Autonomous Vehicle Challenges Accelerate IBM Watson Wins Jeopardy! Deep Learning Breakthrough in Image Recognition AlphaGo Defeats Lee Sedol Large Language Model Era Takes Off Generative AI Enters Mass Adoption Humanoid Robots Re-enter Public Attention Release of GPT-4o
Electrical Telegraph Postal Reform and Penny Post First Successful Transatlantic Telegraph Cable Typewriter Commercial Adoption Telephone Patented Phonograph Invented Wireless Radio Transmission Demonstrated Wireless Telegraphy at Sea Expands Public Address Systems Spread Public Radio Broadcasting Begins Television Broadcasting Expands Transistor Radio Era Begins Communications Satellite Era Begins Communication Satellites in Geostationary Orbit Fibre Optic Communication Develops Fax Machines Become Mainstream
Analytical Engine Concept Ada Lovelace Publishes Notes on Computation Boolean Algebra Published Hollerith Tabulating Machine Turing Machine Concept Published Zuse Z3 Completed Colossus Operational Stored-Program Architecture Formalised ENIAC Unveiled Transistor Invented FORTRAN Released Integrated Circuit Developed UNIX Created Microprocessor Released Graphical User Interfaces Mature Personal Computer Era Takes Off World Wide Web Proposed Open Source Software Movement Expands
Voltaic Pile Oersted Links Electricity and Magnetism Ohms Law Published Faradays Electromagnetic Induction Electric Motor Development Advances Telegraph Relay and Long-Distance Electrical Signalling Improves Maxwells Electromagnetic Theory First Practical Dynamo Incandescent Light Bulb Commercialised Hydroelectric Power Generation Begins First Large Public Power Stations AC Power Systems Expanded Tesla Polyphase AC Motor Patented Rural Electrification Expands Solar Photovoltaic Cell Demonstrated Nuclear Power Station Connected to Grid
Glider Experiments Advance Aeronautics Airship Development Expands Wright Brothers First Powered Flight Autopilot Demonstrated First Scheduled Airline Services All-Metal Aircraft Development Jet Engine Patented Pressurised Cabin Technology First Jet-Powered Aircraft Fly Radar Integrated into Air Defence and Navigation Helicopter Becomes Practical Supersonic Flight Achieved Commercial Jet Airliner Era Begins Boeing 747 Enters Service Concorde Enters Service Fly-by-Wire Airliners Become Mainstream
Coke Smelting Perfected Coke smelting process developed Newcomen Atmospheric Engine Newcomen steam engine first used commercially Flying Shuttle Spinning Jenny Spinning Jenny invented Improved Steam Engine Patented by James Watt Water Frame Water Frame patented Watt steam engine improvements Cromford Mill opens Spinning Mule Puddling and Rolling Process Power Loom Power loom introduced Cotton Gin Interchangeable Parts Popularised Jacquard Loom Machine Tool Standardisation Expands Stockton and Darlington Railway opens Liverpool and Manchester Railway opens Factory Act Great Western Railway completed (initial route) Sewing Machine Patented Telegraph network expands across Britain The Great Exhibition Bessemer Process Bessemer process introduced London Underground opens Open-Hearth Steelmaking Expands
Packet Switching Concepts Developed ARPANET Goes Live Email Emerges on Networked Systems Usenet Created First Commercial Mobile Phones TCP/IP Becomes Standard on ARPANET Domain Name System Introduced First SMS Sent Public World Wide Web Expansion Wi-Fi Standardised Search Engines Become Mainstream Social Media Platforms Reshape Communication Smartphone Era Begins App Store Ecosystems Launch 4G Mobile Broadband Expands 5G Network Rollout Begins
Smallpox Vaccination Developed Sthoscope Invented Anaesthesia Enters Surgical Practice Germ Theory Gains Acceptance Antiseptic Surgery Introduced Clinical Thermometer Enters Practice X-Rays Discovered Blood Groups Identified Insulin Isolated Penicillin Discovered First Successful Blood Bank Systems Polio Vaccine Developed CT Scanning Introduced MRI Scanning Developed First IVF Birth Human Genome Project Draft Announced
Liquid-Fuel Rocket Demonstrated V-2 Rocket Reaches Edge of Space Sputnik 1 Launched Explorer 1 and Early Scientific Satellites Weather Satellites Become Operational First Human in Space Telstar Communications Satellite Apollo 11 Moon Landing First Space Station Launched GPS Satellite Navigation Development Space Shuttle Era Begins Hubble Space Telescope Launched Mars Rover Era Begins International Space Station Assembly Begins Private Orbital Spaceflight Achieved Reusable Commercial Rocket Landings
Trevithick High-Pressure Steam Locomotive First Commercial Steamboat Service Stockton and Darlington Railway Opens Stephensons Rocket Rainhill Trials Liverpool and Manchester Railway Opens First Practical Screw Propeller Ships Great Western Railway Expands First Sleeping Cars Gain Popularity London Underground Opens Transcontinental Railroad Completed in the United States First Underground Electric Railway Lines Trans-Siberian Railway Construction Begins Diesel-Electric Locomotive Development High-Speed Rail Era Begins in Japan Magnetic Levitation Rail Demonstrations Expand
