| 250 BCE |
Archimedes' principle: Archimedes |
| 1514 |
Heliocentrism: Nicholas Copernicus |
| 1589 |
Galileo's Leaning Tower of Pisa experiment: Galileo Galilei |
|
| 1613 |
Inertia: Galileo Galilei |
| 1621 |
Snell's law: Willebrord Snellius |
| 1660 |
Pascal's Principle: Blaise Pascal |
| 1660 |
Hooke's law: Robert Hooke |
| 1676 |
Rømer's determination of the speed of light traveling from the moons of Jupiter. |
| 1687 |
Laws of Motion and Law of Gravitation and calculus: Isaac Newton |
| 1782 |
Conservation of matter: Lavoisier |
| 1785 |
Inverse square law for electric charges confirmed: Charles-Augustin de Coulomb |
| 1801 |
Wave theory of light: Thomas Young |
| 1803 |
Atomic theory of matter: John Dalton |
| 1806 |
Kinetic energy: Thomas Young |
| 1814 |
Wave theory of light, interference: Fresnel |
| 1820 |
Evidence for electromagnetic interactions: André-Marie Ampère, Jean-Baptiste Biot, Félix Savart |
|
| 1827 |
Electrical resistance, etc.: Ohm |
| 1831 |
Electromagnetic induction: Michael Faraday |
|
| 1838 |
Lines of Force, Fields: Michael Faraday |
| 1838 |
Earth's magnetic field: Wilhelm Eduard Weber and Carl Friedrich Gauss |
| 1843 |
Conservation of energy: Julius Robert von Mayer, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin |
|
| 1845 |
Faraday Rotation (light and electromagnetic): Michael Faraday |
| 1847 |
Conservation of energy 2: James Prescott Joule, Hermann von Helmholtz |
| 1851 |
Second law of thermodynamics: Rudolf Clausius, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin |
|
| 1859 |
Kinetic theory: James Clerk Maxwell |
| 1861 |
Black body: Gustav Kirchhoff |
| 1863 |
Entropy: Rudolf Clausius |
| 1864 |
A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field: James Clerk Maxwell |
| 1867 |
Dynamic Theory of Gases, James Clerk Maxwell |
| 1871–89 |
Statistical Mechanics: Ludwig Boltzmann, Josiah Willard Gibbs |
| 1884 |
Boltzmann derives Stefan's radiation law |
| 1887 |
Michelson–Morley experiment |
| 1887 |
Electromagnetic Waves: Heinrich Rudolf Hertz |
| 1893 |
Radiation Law: Wilhelm Wien |
| 1895 |
X-Rays discovered: Wilhelm Röntgen |
| 1896 |
Radioactivity: Henri Becquerel |
| 1897 |
Electron discovered: J. J. Thomson |
| 1900 |
Formula for Black-Body Radiation: Max Planck
Quantum Hypothesis: Max Planck |
|
| 1905 |
Special Relativity: Albert Einstein
Photoelectric Effect: Albert Einstein
Brownian Motion: Albert Einstein |
| 1911 |
Equivalence Principle: Albert Einstein
Discovery of the Atomic Nucleus: Ernest Rutherford
Superconductivity: Kamerlingh Onnes |
| 1913 |
Bohr Model of the atom: Niels Bohr |
| 1916 |
General Relativity: Albert Einstein |
| 1923 |
Stern–Gerlach experiment
Matter waves: Louis de Broglie
Galaxies: Edwin Hubble |
| 1925 |
Matrix Mechanics: Werner Heisenberg |
| 1926 |
Schrödinger Equation: Erwin Schrödinger |
| 1927 |
Big Bang: Georges Lemaître |
|
| 1927 |
Uncertainty Principle: Werner Heisenberg |
| 1928 |
Antimatter predicted: Paul Dirac |
| 1929 |
Expansion of the Universe Confirmed: Edwin Hubble |
| 1932 |
Antimatter discovered: Carl David Anderson
Neutron discovered: James Chadwick |
| 1937 |
Muon discovered: Carl David Anderson & Seth Neddermeyer |
| 1938 |
Superfluidity discovered: Pyotr Kapitsa
Nuclear Fission discovered: Otto Hahn |
| 1947 |
Pion discovered: C.F. Powell, Giuseppe Occhialini, César Lattes |
| 1948 |
Quantum Electrodynamics: Richard Feynman |
| 1956 |
Electron neutrino discovered |
| 1957 |
Parity violation discovered |
| 1957 |
Theory of Superconductivity |
| 1962 |
Theory of strong interactions
Muon neutrino discovered |
| 1964 |
Bell's Theorem initiates quantitative study of quantum entanglement |
| 1967 |
Theory of Weak interaction
Pulsars discovered |
| 1974 |
Charmed quark discovered |
| 1975 |
Tau lepton discovered |
| 1977 |
Bottom quark discovered |
| 1980 |
Quantum Hall effect discovered |
| 1980 |
Richard Feynman proposes quantum computing |
|
| 1981 |
Theory of cosmic inflation
Fractional quantum Hall effect discovered |
| 1984 |
W and Z bosons directly observed |
| 1984 |
First laboratory implementation of quantum cryptography |
| 1994 |
shor's algorithm discovered, initiating the serious study of quantum computation. |
| 1995 |
Top quark discovered |
| 1998 |
Accelerating universe discovered |
| 1998 |
Atmospheric neutrino oscillation established |
| 2000 |
Tau neutrino discovered |
| 2002 |
Solar neutrino oscillation established |
| 2012 |
Higgs Boson discovered |
| 2012 |
Reactor neutrino oscillation established |
| 2015 |
Gravitational waves detected |