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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1855 | - 1855: Isaac Singer patents the sewing machine motor.
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| 2 | 1856 | - 1856: Louis Pasteur invents pasteurisation.
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| 3 | 1857 | - 1857: James Buchanan president of the USA 1857-1861.
- 1857: George Pullman invents the Pullman Sleeping Car for train travel.
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| 4 | 1858 | - 1858: Jean Lenoir invents an internal combustion engine.
- 1858: Hamilton Smith patents the rotary washing machine.
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| 5 | 1861 | - 1861: USA Civil War begins.
- 1861: Abraham Lincoln president of the USA 1861-1865.
- 1861: Elisha Otis patents elevator safety brakes, creating a safer elevator.
- 1861: Linus Yale invents the Yale lock or cylinder lock.
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| 6 | 1862 | - 1862: Alexander Parkes invents the first man-made plastic.
- 1862: Dr. Richard Gatling patents the machine gun.
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| 7 | 1865 | - 1865: USA Civil War ends.
- 1865: Abraham Lincoln shot by John Wilkes Booth on 14 Apr 1865 and dies the next day.
- 1865: Andrew Johnson president of the USA 1865-1869. Andrew Johnson, vice president under Abraham Lincoln, sworn in as president upon Lincoln's death.
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| 8 | 1866 | - 1866: Englishmen Robert Whitehead invents a torpedo.
- 1866: J. Osterhoudt patents the tin can with a key opener.
- 1866: Alfred Nobel invents dynamite.
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| 9 | 1867 | - 1867: Christopher Scholes invents the first practical and modern typewriter.
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| 10 | 1868 | - 1868: J P Knight invents traffic lights.
- 1868: George Westinghouse invents air brakes.
- 1868: Robert Mushet invents tungsten steel.
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| 11 | 1869 | - 1869: Ulysses Grant president of the USA 1869-1877.
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| 12 | 1872 | - 1872: A.M. Ward issues the first mail-order catalog.
- 1872: J.S. Risdon patents the metal windmill.
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| 13 | 1873 | - 1873: Joseph Glidden invents barbed wire.
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| 14 | 1874 | - 1874: American, C. Goodyear, Jr. invents the shoe welt stitcher.
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| 15 | 1876 | - 1876: Nicolaus August Otto invents the first practical four-stroke internal combustion engine.
- 1876: Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.
- 1876: Melville Bissell patents the carpet sweeper.
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| 16 | 1877 | - 1877: Rutherford Hayes president of the USA 1877-1881.
- 1877: Thomas Edison invents the cylinder phonograph or tin foil phonograph.
- 1877: Eadweard Muybridge invents the first moving pictures.
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| 17 | 1878 | - 1878: Sir Joseph Wilson Swan was the first person to invent a practical and longer-lasting electic lightbulb.
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| 18 | 1880 | - 1880: Englishmen, John Milne invents the modern seismograph.
- 1880: The British Perforated Paper Company invents a form of toilet paper.
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| 19 | 1881 | - 1881: James Garfield president of the USA 1881. James Garfield wounded by assassin's bullet on 3 Jul 1881 and dies 19 Sep 1881.
- 1881: Chester A. Arthur president of the USA 1881-1885. Chester A. Arthur, vice president under James Garfield, sworn in as president upon the death of Garfield.
- 1881: David Houston patents the roll film for cameras.
- 1881: Alexander Graham Bell invents the first crude metal detector.
- 1881: Edward Leveaux patents the automatic player piano.
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| 20 | 1884 | - 1884: James Ritty invents the first working, mechanical cash register.
- 1884: Charles Parson patents the steam turbine.
- 1884: Lewis Edson Waterman invents the first practical fountain pen.
- 1884: George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film.
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| 21 | 1885 | - 1885: Grover Cleveland president of the USA 1885-1889.
- 1885: Karl Benz invents the first practical automobile to be powered by an internal-combustion engine.
- 1885: Harim Maxim invents a machine gun.
- 1885: Gottlieb Daimler invents the first gas-engined motorcycle.
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| 22 | 1886 | - 1886: John Pemberton invents Coca Cola.
- 1886: Josephine Cochrane invents the dishwasher.
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| 23 | 1887 | - 1887: German, Heinrich Hertz invents radar.
- 1887: Emile Berliner invents the gramophone.
- 1887: F.E. Muller and Adolph Fick invent the first wearable contact lenses.
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| 24 | 1888 | - 1888: John Boyd Dunlop patents a commercially successful pneumatic tire.
- 1888: Nikola Tesla invents the AC motor and transformer.
- 1888: Marvin Stone patents the spiral winding process to manufacture the first paper drinking straws.
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| 25 | 1889 | - 1889: Benjamin Harrison president of the USA 1889-1893.
- 1889: Sir James Dewar and Sir Frederick Abel co-invent Cordite - a type of smokeless gunpowder.
- 1889: Joshua Pusey invents the matchbook.
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| 26 | 1891 | - 1891: Jesse W. Reno invents the escalator.
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| 27 | 1892 | - 1892: Sir James Dewar invents the Dewar flask or vacuum flask.
- 1892: Rudolf Diesel invents the diesel-fueled internal combustion engine.
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| 28 | 1893 | - 1893: Grover Cleveland president of the USA 1893-1897.
- 1893: American, W.L. Judson invents the zipper.
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| 29 | 1895 | - 1895: Lumiere Brothers invent a portable motion-picture camera, film processing unit and projector called the Cinematographe. The Lumiere Brothers using their Cinematographe are the first to present a projected motion picture to an audience of more that one person.
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| 30 | 1896 | - 1896: American, H. O'Sullivan invents the rubber heel.
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| 31 | 1897 | - 1897: William McKinley president of the USA 1897-1901. William McKinley dies in Buffalo, NY, 1901.
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| 32 | 1898 | - 1898: Spanish-American War: United States vs Spain 1898.
- 1898: Edwin Prescott patents the roller coaster.
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| 33 | 1899 | - 1899: J.S. Thurman patents the motor-driven vacuum cleaner.
- 1899: I.R. Johnson patents the bicycle frame.
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| 34 | 1900 | - 1900: The zeppelin invented by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin.
- 1900: Charles Seeberger redesigned Jesse Reno's escalator and invented the modern escalator.
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| 35 | 1901 | - 1901: Theodore Roosevelt president of the USA 1901-1909. Theodore Roosevelt, vice president under William McKinley, sworn in as president upon death of McKinley.
- 1901: King Camp Gillette invents the double-edged safety razor.
- 1901: The first radio receiver, successfully received a radio transmission.
- 1901: Hubert Booth invents a compact and modern vacuum cleaner.
- 1901: Edward VII. Ruler of England 1901-1910. House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha: Eldest son of Victoria, married Alexandra, Princess of Denmark.
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| 36 | 1902 | - 1902: Willis Carrier invents the air conditioner.
- 1902: French physicist George Claude invents neon light.
- 1902: The lie detector or polygraph machine is invented by James Mackenzie.
- 1902: The birth of the Teddy Bear.
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| 37 | 1903 | - 1903: Edward Binney and Harold Smith co-invent crayons.
- 1903: Bottle-making machinery invented by Michael J. Owens.
- 1903: The Wright brothers invent the first gas motored and manned airplane.
- 1903: Mary Anderson invents windshield wipers.
- 1903: William Coolidge invents ductile tungsten used in lightbulbs.
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| 38 | 1904 | - 1904: Teabags invented by Thomas Suillivan.
- 1904: Benjamin Holt invents a tractor.
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| 39 | 1905 | - 1905: Albert Einstein published the Theory of Relativity and made famous the equation, E = mc2.
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| 40 | 1906 | - 1906: William Kellogg invents Cornflakes.
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| 41 | 1907 | - 1907: Color photography invented by Auguste and Louis Lumiere.
- 1907: The very first piloted helicopter was invented by Paul Cornu.
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| 42 | 1908 | - 1908: The gyrocompass invented by Elmer A. Sperry.
- 1908: Cellophane invented by Jacques E. Brandenberger.
- 1908: Model T automobile first sold.
- 1908: J W Geiger and W Müller invent the geiger counter.
- 1908: Fritz Haber invents the Haber Process for making artificial nitrates.
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| 43 | 1909 | - 1909: William Taft president of the USA 1909-1913.
- 1909: Instant coffee invented by G. Washington.
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| 44 | 1910 | - 1910: Thomas Edison demonstrated the first talking motion picture.
- 1910: Georges Claude displayed the first neon lamp to the public on December 11, 1910, in Paris.
- 1910: George V. Ruler of England 1910-1936. House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): 2nd son of Edward VII, married Princess Mary of Teck. Accession, Jan 20, abdication, Dec 10.
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| 45 | 1911 | - 1911: Charles Franklin Kettering invents the first automobile electrical ignition system.
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| 46 | 1912 | - 1912: Motorized movie cameras invented, and replaced hand-cranked cameras.
- 1912: The first tank patented by Australian inventor De La Mole.
- 1912: Clarence Crane created Life Savers candy in 1912.
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| 47 | 1913 | - 1913: Woodrow Wilson president of the USA 1913-1921.
- 1913: The crossword puzzle invented by Arthur Wynne.
- 1913: The Merck Chemical Company patented, what is now known as, ecstasy.
- 1913: Mary Phelps Jacob invents the bra.
- 1913: Gideon Sundback invents the modern zipper.
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| 48 | 1914 | - 1914: World War I begins. Triple Alliance: Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary vs. Triple Entente: Britain, France, and Russia. The United States joined on the side of the Triple Entente in 1917.
- 1914: Garrett A. Morgan invents the Morgan gas mask.
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| 49 | 1915 | - 1915: Eugene Sullivan and William Taylor co-invented Pyrex in New York City.
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| 50 | 1916 | - 1916: Radio tuners invented that received different stations.
- 1916: Stainless steel invented by Henry Brearly.
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| 51 | 1918 | - 1918: World War I ends.
- 1918: Charles Jung invented fortune cookies.
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| 52 | 1919 | - 1919: The pop-up toaster invented by Charles Strite.
- 1919: Short-wave radio invented.
- 1919: The arc welder invented.
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| 53 | 1920 | - 1920: The tommy gun patented by John T Thompson.
- 1920: The Band-Aid invented by Earle Dickson
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| 54 | 1921 | - 1921: Warren Harding president of the USA 1921. Warren Harding dies of an embolism in San Francisco. He had taken ill on 31 Jul 1921.
- 1921: Calvin Coolidge president of the USA 1921-1929. Calvin Coolidge, vice president under Warren Harding, sworn in as president the day after Harding dies.
- 1921: Artificial life begins -- the first robot built.
- 1921: John Larson, a University of California medical student, invented the modern lie detector (polygraph), used by police since 1924.
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| 55 | 1922 | - 1922: Insulin invented by Sir Frederick Grant Banting.
- 1922: The first 3-D movie (spectacles with one red and one green lens) is released.
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| 56 | 1923 | - 1923: Garrett A. Morgan invents a traffic signal.
- 1923: The television or iconoscope (cathode-ray tube) invented by Vladimir Kosma Zworykin.
- 1923: John Harwood invented the self-winding watch.
- 1923: Clarence Birdseye invents frozen food.
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| 57 | 1924 | - 1924: The dynamic loudspeaker invented by Rice and Kellogg.
- 1924: Notebooks with spiral bindings invented.
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| 58 | 1925 | - 1925: The mechanical television a precursor to the modern television, invented by John Logie Baird.
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| 59 | 1926 | - 1926: Robert H. Goddard invents liquid-fueled rockets.
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| 60 | 1927 | - 1927: JWA Morrison invents the first quartz crystal watch.
- 1927: Philo Taylor Farnsworth invents a complete electronic TV system.
- 1927: Technicolor invented.
- 1927: Erik Rotheim patents an aerosol can.
- 1927: Warren Marrison developed the first quartz clock.
- 1927: Philip Drinker invents the iron lung.
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| 61 | 1928 | - 1928: Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.
- 1928: Bubble gum invented by Walter E. Diemer.
- 1928: Jacob Schick patented the electric shaver.
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| 62 | 1929 | - 1929: Herbert Hoover president of the USA 1929-1933.
- 1929: American, Paul Galvin invents the car radio.
- 1929: Yo-Yo re-invented as an American fad.
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| 63 | 1930 | - 1930: Scotch tape patented by 3M engineer Richard G. Drew.
- 1930: The "differential analyzer", or analog computer invented by Vannevar Bush at MIT in Boston.
- 1930: Frank Whittle and Dr Hans von Ohain both invent a jet engine.
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| 64 | 1931 | - 1931: Harold Edgerton invented stop-action photography.
- 1931: Germans Max Knott and Ernst Ruska co-invent the electron microscope.
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| 65 | 1932 | - 1932: Polaroid photography invented by Edwin Herbert Land.
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| 66 | 1933 | - 1933: Franklin Roosevelt president of the USA 1933-1945.
- 1933: Frequency modulation (FM radio) invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong.
- 1933: Stereo records invented.
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| 67 | 1934 | - 1934: Charles Darrow claims he invented the game Monopoly.
- 1934: Joseph Begun invents the first tape recorder for broadcasting - first magnetic recording.
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| 68 | 1935 | - 1935: Wallace Carothers and DuPont Labs invents nylon (polymer 6.6.).
- 1935: The first canned beer made.
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| 69 | 1936 | - 1936: Bell Labs invents the voice recognition machine.
- 1936: Samuel Colt patents the Colt revolver.
- 1936: Edward VIII. Ruler of England 1936. House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): Eldest son of George V.
- 1936: George VI. Ruler of England 1936-1952. House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): 2nd son of George V, Duke of York; married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.
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| 70 | 1937 | - 1937: Chester F. Carlson invents the photocopier.
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| 71 | 1938 | - 1938: The ballpoint pen invented by Ladislo Biro.
- 1938: Roy J. Plunkett invented tetrafluoroethylene polymers or Teflon.
- 1938: Nescafe or freeze-dried coffee invented.
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| 72 | 1939 | - 1939: World War II begins. Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan vs. Major Allied Powers: United States, Great Britain, France, and Russia. 1939-1945.
- 1939: Igor Sikorsky invents the first successful helicopter.
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| 73 | 1940 | - 1940: Peter Goldmark invents modern color television system.
- 1940: Karl Pabst invents the jeep.
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| 74 | 1941 | - 1941: Konrad Zuse's Z3, the first computer controlled by software.
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| 75 | 1942 | - 1942: John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry built the first electronic digital computer.
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| 76 | 1943 | - 1943: Richard James invents the slinky.
- 1943: James Wright invent silly putty.
- 1943: Swiss chemist, Albert Hofmann discovered the hallucinogenic properties of LSD.
- 1943: Emile Gagnan and Jacques Cousteau invent the aqualung.
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| 77 | 1944 | - 1944: The kidney dialysis machine invented by Willem Kolff.
- 1944: Synthetic cortisone invented by Percy Lavon Julian.
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| 78 | 1945 | - 1945: World War II ends.
- 1945: Harry Truman president of the USA 1945-1953.
- 1945: The atomic bomb invented.
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| 79 | 1946 | - 1946: The microwave oven invented by Percy Spencer.
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| 80 | 1947 | - 1947: British/Hungarian scientist, Dennis Gabor, developed the theory of holography.
- 1947: Mobile phones first invented.
- 1947: Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley invent the transistor.
- 1947: Earl Silas Tupper patented the Tupperware seal.
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| 81 | 1948 | - 1948: The Frisbee® invented by Walter Frederick Morrison and Warren Franscioni.
- 1948: Velcro ® invented by George de Mestral.
- 1948: Robert Hope-Jones invented the Wurlitzer jukebox.
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| 82 | 1949 | |
| 83 | 1950 | - 1950: Korean War: United States (as part of the United Nations) and South Korea vs. North Korea and Communist China 1950-1953.
- 1950: The first credit card (Diners) invented by Ralph Schneider.
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| 84 | 1951 | - 1951: Super glue invented.
- 1951: Power steering invented by Francis W. Davis.
- 1951: Charles Ginsburg invented the first videotape recorder (VTR).
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| 85 | 1952 | - 1952: Mr. Potato Head patented.
- 1952: The first patent for bar code (US Patent #2,612,994) issued to inventors Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver.
- 1952: The first diet soft drink sold called the "No-Cal Beverage" a gingerale sold by Kirsch.
- 1952: Edward Teller and team build the hydrogen bomb.
- 1952: Elizabeth II. Ruler of England 1952-present. House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): Elder daughter of George VI, acceded Feb 6, 1956.
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| 86 | 1953 | - 1953: Dwight Eisenhower president of the USA 1953-1961.
- 1953: Radial tires invented.
- 1953: The first musical synthesizer invented by RCA.
- 1953: Transistor radio invented by Texas Instruments.
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| 87 | 1954 | - 1954: Oral contraceptives invented.
- 1954: The first nonstick pan produced.
- 1954: The solar cell invented by Chaplin, Fuller and Pearson.
- 1954: Ray Kroc started McDonalds.
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| 88 | 1955 | - 1955: Optic fiber invented.
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| 89 | 1956 | - 1956: The first computer hard disk used.
- 1956: The hovercraft invented by Christopher Cockerell.
- 1956: Bette Nesmith Graham invented "Mistake Out," later renamed Liquid Paper, to paint over mistakes made with a typewriter.
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| 90 | 1957 | - 1957: Fortran (computer language) invented.
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| 91 | 1958 | - 1958: The modem invented.
- 1958: Gordon Gould invents the laser.
- 1958: The Hula Hoop invented by Richard Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin.
- 1958: The integrated circuit invented by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce.
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| 92 | 1959 | - 1959: The internal pacemaker invented by Wilson Greatbatch.
- 1959: Barbie Doll invented.
- 1959: Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce both invent the microchip.
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| 93 | 1960 | - 1960: USA Vietnam War Begins
- 1960: The halogen lamp invented.
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| 94 | 1961 | - 1961: Bay of Pigs Invasion: United States vs Cuba 1961.
- 1961: John F. Kennedy president of the USA 1961-1963.
- 1961: Valium invented.
- 1961: The nondairy creamer invented.
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| 95 | 1962 | - 1962: The audio cassette invented.
- 1962: The fiber-tip pen invented by Yukio Horie.
- 1962: Spacewar, the first computer video game invented.
- 1962: Dow Corp invents silicone breast implants.
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| 96 | 1963 | - 1963: John F. Kennedy assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas, 22 Nov 1963.
- 1963: Lyndon B. Johnson president of the USA 1963-1969. Lyndon B. Johnson, vice president under John F. Kennedy, sworn in as president aboard Air Force One upon death of Kennedy.
- 1963: The first videodisc invented.
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| 97 | 1964 | - 1964: Acrylic paint invented.
- 1964: Permanent-press fabric invented.
- 1964: BASIC (an early computer language) is invented by John George Kemeny and Tom Kurtz.
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| 98 | 1965 | - 1965: Astroturf invented.
- 1965: Soft contact lenses invented.
- 1965: NutraSweet invented.
- 1965: The compact disk invented by James Russell.
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