Timeline of fundamental physics discoveries
This table provides an overview of the scientific relevant discoveries which would have to be predicted in its entirety by a theory of everything, in order to claim itself as a success.
| 250 BCE | Archimedes' principle: Archimedes |
| 1514 | Heliocentrism: Nicholas Copernicus |
| 1589 | Galileo's Leaning Tower of Pisa experiment: Galileo Galilei |
| 1600 | Earth's magnetic field discovered : William Gilbert |
| 1613 | Inertia: Galileo Galilei |
| 1621 | Snell's law: Willebrord Snellius |
| 1660 | Pascal's Principle: Blaise Pascal |
| 1660 | Hooke's law: Robert Hooke |
| 1687 | Laws of motion and law of gravity: Newton |
| 1780 | |
| 1782 | Conservation of matter: Lavoisier |
| 1785 | Inverse square law for electric charges confirmed: Coulomb |
| 1801 | Wave theory of light: Young |
| 1803 | Atomic theory of matter: Dalton |
| 1805 | |
| 1806 | Kinetic energy: Young |
| 1814 | Wave theory of light, interference: Fresnel |
| 1820 | Evidence for electromagnetic interactions: Ampère, Biot, Savart |
| 1824 | Ideal gas cycle analysis, internal combustion engine: Sadi Carnot |
| 1827 | Electrical resistance, etc.: Ohm |
| 1830 | |
| 1838 | Lines of force, fields: Michael Faraday |
| 1838 | Earth's magnetic field: Weber |
| 1842–3 | Conservation of energy: Mayer, Kelvin |
| 1842 | Doppler effect: Kelvin |
| 1845 | Faraday rotation (light and electromagnetic): Faraday |
| 1847 | Conservation of energy 2: Joule, Helmholtz |
| 1850–1 | Second law of thermodynamics: Clausius, Kelvin |
| 1855 | |
| 1857–9 | Kinetic theory: Clausius, Maxwell |
| 1861 | Black body: Kirchhoff |
| 1863 | Entropy: Clausius |
| 1864 | Dynamical theory of the electromagnetic field: Maxwell |
| 1867 | Dynamic theory of gases, Maxwell |
| 1880 | |
| 1871–89 | Statistical mechanics: Boltzmann, Gibbs |
| 1884 | Boltzmann derives Stefan's radiation law |
| 1887 | Electromagnetic waves: Hertz |
| 1893 | Radiation law: Wien |
| 1895 | X-rays: Röntgen |
| 1896 | Radioactivity: Becquerel |
| 1897 | Electron: Thomson |
| 1900 | Formula for Black body radiation: Planck |
| 1905 | |
| 1905 | Special relativity: Einstein Photoelectric effect: Einstein Brownian motion: Einstein |
| 1911 | Equivalence principle Discovery of the atomic nucleus: Rutherford Superconductivity: Kamerlingh Onnes |
| 1913 | Bohr model of the atom: Bohr |
| 1916 | General relativity: Einstein |
| 1919 | Light bending confirmed |
| 1922 | Friedmann proposes expanding universe |
| 1923 | Stern–Gerlach experiment Matter waves Galaxies Particle nature of photons confirmed |
| 1925–7 | Quantum mechanics |
| 1925 | Stellar structure understood |
| 1927 | Big Bang: Lemaître |
| 1928 | Antimatter predicted: Dirac |
| 1929 | Expansion of universe confirmed: Hubble |
| 1930 | |
| 1932 | Antimatter discovered: Anderson Neutron discovered: Chadwick |
| 1933 | Invention of the electron microscope: Ernst Ruska |
| 1937 | Muon discovered: Anderson & Neddermeyer |
| 1938 | Superfluidity discovered Energy production in stars understood |
| 1939 | Uranium fission discovered |
| 1944 | Theory of magnetism in 2D: Ising model |
| 1947 | Pion discovered |
| 1948 | Quantum electrodynamics |
| 1955 | |
| 1948 | Invention of the maser and laser - Charles Townes |
| 1956 | Electron neutrino discovered |
| 1956–7 | Parity found violated |
| 1957 | Superconductivity explained |
| 1959–60 | Role of topology in quantum physics, predicted and confirmed |
| 1962 | SU(3) theory of strong interactions Muon neutrino found |
| 1963 | Quarks predicted = Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig |
| 1967 | Unification of weak and electromagnetic interactions Solar neutrino problem found Pulsars (neutron stars) discovered |
| 1968 | Experimental evidence for quarks found |
| 1968 | Dark matter theories - Vera Rubin |
| 1970–3 | Standard Model of elementary particles invented |
| 1971 | Helium 3 superfluidity |
| 1974 | Black hole radiation predicted Renormalization group Charmed quark found |
| 1975 | Tau lepton found |
| 1977 | Bottom quark found |
| 1980 | |
| 1980 | Quantum Hall effect |
| 1981 | Theory of cosmic inflation proposed |
| 1982 | Fractional quantum Hall effect |
| 1995 | Bose–Einstein condensate found: Wolfgang Ketterle |
| 1995 | Top quark found |
| 1998 | Accelerating expansion of universe found |
| 1999 | Slow light experimentally demonstrated: Lene Vestergaard Hau |
| 2000 | Tau neutrino found |
| 2003 | WMAP observations of cosmic microwave background |
| 2005 | |
| 2012 | Higgs Boson found |