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NOTABLEACHIEVEMENTS THIS CENTURY. ..
COMMUNICATIONS
AND INFORMATION
1900 Radio in infancy.
1929 First transmission of
color TV.
1944 First digital computer,
Mark 1(5 tons, 8 ft.
high, 51 ft. long, 500
miles of wiring), in
operation, Harvard
University.
1952 Japanese introduce
pocket-size transistor
radios.
1962 Era of transatlantic TV
begins as
communications
satellite Telstar is
launched by U.S.
1971 The microprocessor
(microchip) is
introduced.
TRANSPORT, TRADE
AND TRAVEL
1903 Ford begins car production.
1914 Opening of Panama Canal.
1916 Electronic beacons on coastlines
allow ships to make all-weather
bearings.
1959 Saint Lawrence Seaway allows
seagoing vessels to sail lo Lake
Superior, heart of U.S.
1965 Prepacked truck-train containers
for seaborne container ships
booms.
1981 France's Train Grande Vitesse
becomes world's fastest !rain,
achieving a speed of 235 mph
(380 km/h), supplanting the
previous record-holding Japanese
Bulle! trains.
MEDICINE AND HEALTH
1901 Pioneering work in serums inlensifies.
1914 England uses first biological and sale treatment of
public sewage.
1941 Penicillin enters clinical use, thereafter
development of other antibiotics grows.
1950s Open heart surgery becomes possible and human
organ transplants begin: kidneys, 1954;
heart, 1967.
1953 Double-helix model of DNA molecule explains how
genetic information can be stored and how
chromosomes duplicate and divide.
1970s, Genelic engineering by fusion of genetic
1980s characteristics of different living things promises
human benefits and dangers.
AVIATION AND SPACE
1903 First powered flight by Wright brothers.
1927 Lindbergh flies the Atlantic.
1933 Radio astronomy allows deep probe of
space.
1939 Jet age begins with German gas turbine
jet engine.
1957 Sputnik 1is launched by Soviets.
1969 American astronauts land on moon.
1976 Concord becomes first supersonic airliner.
1970s, Space frontier exploited by rockets,
1980s satellites, space stations; space probes to
Mars, Jupiter, other planets; development
of reusable Space Shuttle.
ENERGY, INDUSTRY AND CONSTRUCTION
1903 First fully automatic bottle-making machine. By 1920 most
bottles in U.S.A. so made.
1904 Stainless and high-speed steels developed.
1905 Albert Einstein proposes his Special Theory of Relativity,
expressed in !he equation E= mc
2 .
1907 Tower refiner for continuous gasoline and petrol production
developed.
1909 Age of plastic begins with Bakelite.
1910 Air pollution from factory chimneys first reduced by electrostatic
precipitators.
1913 High quality sheet glass starts to be produced by continuous
process machines.
1920s High voltage electricity developed to mee! increasing power
demands.
1930s Hoover Dam and many other huge dams constructed or begun;
gas turbines, geothermal and solar powered electrical
generating sources later developed.
1931 The Empire State Building, 1,248 ft. (380.4m) high, is
completed.
1947 Offshore oil drilling pioneered.
1970s Deep offshore oil exploitation developed; nuclear energy
becomes significan! source of electrical power in many nations.
1980s New super-strong plastics and ceramics are introduced,
revolutionizing material production.