1628★★★★★
Harvey describes the circulation of the blood
William Harvey publishes De Motu Cordis, demonstrating that the heart pumps blood in a continuous circuit around the body.
Science· United Kingdom, Germany
Timeline
14 events17th century
- December 25, 1642★★★★★
Birth of Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton, founder of classical mechanics and co-inventor of calculus, is born at Woolsthorpe, England.
BirthScience· United Kingdom - July 5, 1687★★★★★
Newton publishes the Principia
Isaac Newton publishes "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica", setting out the laws of motion and universal gravitation.
Science· United Kingdom
18th century
- May 14, 1796★★★★★
Jenner's smallpox vaccination
Edward Jenner inoculates the boy James Phipps with cowpox material, pioneering vaccination against smallpox.
ScienceDisease· United Kingdom
19th century
- 1831★★★★★
Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction
Michael Faraday discovers that a changing magnetic field induces an electric current, the principle behind generators and transformers.
Science· United Kingdom - 1854★★★★★
John Snow traces the Broad Street cholera outbreak
The physician John Snow links a London cholera outbreak to a public water pump, a founding moment of modern epidemiology.
ScienceDisease· United Kingdom - November 24, 1859★★★★★
Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species
Charles Darwin sets out the theory of evolution by natural selection.
Science· United Kingdom - 1865★★★★★
Maxwell's electromagnetic theory
James Clerk Maxwell publishes "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field", unifying electricity, magnetism and light.
Science· United Kingdom
20th century
- 1911★★★★★
Rutherford's model of the atomic nucleus
From alpha-particle scattering experiments, Ernest Rutherford proposes that the atom has a small, dense, positively charged nucleus.
Science· United Kingdom - September 28, 1928★★★★★
Fleming discovers penicillin
Alexander Fleming notices Penicillium mould killing bacteria, paving the way for the antibiotic era.
Science· United Kingdom - April 25, 1953★★★★★
Structure of DNA published
James Watson and Francis Crick publish the double-helix model of DNA in Nature, drawing in part on Rosalind Franklin's X-ray diffraction data.
Science· United Kingdom - July 5, 1996★★★★★
Birth of Dolly the sheep
Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell, is born at the Roslin Institute in Scotland.
Science· United Kingdom
21st century
- April 14, 2003★★★★★
Human Genome Project completed
The Human Genome Project announces it has sequenced the vast majority of the human genome.
Science· United States, United Kingdom - December 8, 2020★★★★★
First approved COVID-19 vaccination
The United Kingdom gives the first doses of the fully authorised Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, beginning a global vaccination campaign.
ScienceDisease· United Kingdom