MCPS - Global Access

Historical Events and Inventions Timeline

Pilgrims establish Plymouth, 1620

First magazine published in the United States, 1741

United States Declaration of Independence signed, 1776

First daily newspaper in the United States, 1783

Washington becomes first United States president, 1789

Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin, 1793

First successful steamboat in the United States, 1807

The Erie Canal opens, 1825

First steam locomotive developed and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad opened, 1830

Texas declares independence from Mexico

Steam-powered elevator invented, 1850

Pullman invents sleeping cars for railroad trains, 1867

Typewriter and air brakes invented, 1868

Barbed wire invented, 1873

Bell invents telephone, 1876

Edison invents first commercially practical incandescent bulb, cash register invented, 1879

Fountain pen invented, 1884

Adding machine invented, 1885

Roll film invented, 1889

First successful automobile built in the United States, 1894

First radio signal, 1895

First American subway opened in Boston, 1897

Vacuum clearer invented, 1889

Wright brothers make first successful airplane flight, 1903

Panama Canal opens, 1910

First regular airline service started, 1914

First commercial radio broadcast, 1920

Lindbergh crosses the Atlantic, first talking movie, 1927

First regular TV broadcast in the United States, 1936

First successful helicopter flight in the United States, 1940

Color television begins, 1953

First U.S. satellite, Explorer, launched from Cape Canaveral, 1958

First U.S. astronaut, John Glen, orbits the Earth, 1962

Edward White took the first U.S. "space walk," 1965

U.S. astronauts land on the moon, 1969


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1988

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Return to Grandma Essie's Covered Wagon lesson.



Last updated on April 4, 1997
Maintained by John L. Day
<jday@umd5.umd.edu>