Stuff that really effected what
science fiction writers wrote
If the picture glows, click on it to see a video.
• 1859: Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species(left)
• 1877: Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone(center)
• 1890’s: Guglielmo Marconi invents the radio(right)
• 1903: The Wright brothers fly at Kitty Hawk(left top)
• 1908: First year of the Model T(left bottom)
• 1914 – 1918: World War I(right)
• 1920’s: The Roaring 20’s. Making electricity, telephones,
engines, and flight much better
• 1927: Release of The Jazz Singer – the first talking movie (bottom)
• 1929: Stock Market crash – Black Monday. Start of the Great
Depression
• 1930’s: The Great Depression
• 1939: Hitler invades Poland
thus starting World War II
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1941:
1945:
1945:
1947:
Pearl Harbor is attacked
The Enola Gay drops two atomic bombs on Japan(left)
End of World War II and start of the Cold War
Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier in the X-1(right)
• 1950 – 1953: The Korean War
• 1953: Watson and Crick (actually it was Rosiland Franklin)
discover the double-helix of DNA
• 1950’s: TV makes its way into the homes of Americans(left)
• 1957: Russia launches Sputnik(right)
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1961, April: Russian Yuri Gagarin is the first human in space(left)
1961, May: Allan Shepard is the first American in space(right)
1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis
1965: The U.S. sends troops to Vietnam
“Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” (5:10)
“That’s one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.” (8:19)
• 1973: Skylab is the first American space station(left)
• 1975: Vietnam War ends
• 1977: Apple IIe is the first personal computer to successfully
enter the American home(right)
• 1979: Three Mile Island accident
• 1981: Space Shuttle Columbia first orbits the Earth(bottom)
• 1986: Challenger disaster
• 1989: The fall of the Berlin Wall
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1990: The Hubble Telescope is launched(left)
1991: Biosphere II starts its first “mission”(right)
Early 90’s the Internet is introduced and starts a revolution
Late 90’s the cell phone is introduced and starts a revolution
• 2003: Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
• 2004: SpaceShipOne is the first reusable private vehicle to
enter space and return(left)
• 2011: Space Shuttle program is retired
• 2011: Watson beats Ken Jennings in Jeopardy!(right)