Paleolithic period (Old Stone Age), marked by rudimentary tools designed for collecting and processing wild food sources, ends. Neolithic period (New Stone Age), marked by herding and more complex stone implements for low-level agriculture, begins. Shift most probably caused by population pressure. While human prehistory is marked by tool use, and hence technology, science is essentially nonexistent.

People in Mesopotamia use clay tokens to record numbers of animals and other trade goods, a practice that gradually develops into writing over the next 5,000 years.

In Middle East, the potter's wheel is introduced. Soon after, the first wheeled vehicles appear in the same region.

Egyptians use papyrus to record hieroglyphics and numbers, while in Mesopotamia pictographs are incised into clay tablets that are then baked. Transition to civilization and the invention of written records marks beginning of "history" proper. Gilgamesh in Sumerian cuneiform is first known written legend; it tells of a great flood in which man is saved by building an ark.

Sumerians develop a cuneiform script alphabet of some 600 simplified signs; this is based on their earlier language using thousands of ideograms.

Alphabetic script developed in Mesopotamia is a refinement of the simplified cuneiform alphabet of 2500 B.C.E.

Genesis 2 first written.

Hippocrates establishes a school of rational medicine and moral standards for physicians.430 B.C.E.  Democritus

(c460-370) proposes that all matter is made from small geometrical particles he calls atoms (see 1803).

Aristarchus (c. 310-230) proposes that Earth and the planets revolve around the Sun and makes first rough calculation of distance and size of moon.

New Testament scriptures written (in Greek). By about 400, most Christian churches come to accept the NT as it is known today.

Fall of Rome and beginning of Dark Age, as the empire's systems of agriculture, transportation, and government decayed. Spiritual and political leaders often clash during the rise of the Catholic Church. Dark age ends during Renaissance in Italy during the late 13th century, with renewed interest in secular learning and classical values.

The Black Death in Europe, about one third of population dies.

Johannes Gutenberg originates a method of printing with movable type, used without significant change until the 20^th century.

Martin Luther sets off the Protestant Reformation, calling into question the validity of received religious authority and ultimately aiding in the secularization of modern society.

Copernicus initiates the Scientific Revolution with his work On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, which argued that the Earth revolves around the Sun; Andreas Vesalius publishes his work On the Fabric of the Human Body, first modern reference on human anatomy.

Girolamo Fracastoro theorizes that contagious diseases are caused by invisible bodies that pass from one person to another (see 1861).

Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno, having hypothesized the existence of multiple worlds and rejected the geocentric astronomy, is burned at the stake after an 8 year trial by the Inquisition.

Jamestown settlers arrive in Virginia, first permanent British settlement in North America.

Hans Lipperhey invents the telescope in Holland.

Galileo's Starry Messenger announces the existence of myriads of new stars, shows the moon to be deformed by huge mountains and craters rather than being a perfect sphere, and reveals the existence of four moons orbiting Jupiter.

In his work "Concerning the Use of Biblical Quotations in the Matters of Science," Galileo argues that faith and reason cannot be in contradiction because the Bible and creation are both of divine origin. However, in questions concerning nature, science supersedes theology when there appears to be a contradiction, since the Bible was intended to be understood by common people and can be readily reinterpreted in a way that nature cannot be.

William Harvey describes blood circulation and explains the function of the valves in the veins.

Galilieo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican is the clearest and best argument yet of  the Copernican system. A literary work, set in the form of a dialogue and aimed at the largest popular audience, it angers the pope and is banned.

Roman Catholic Inquisition forces Galileo to recant his Copernican view.

Galileo dies, Pope Urban VIII prohibits any monument to his memory. Isaac Newton born.

Ussher and Lightfoot date creation of Earth at 9:00 a.m. on October 26, 4004 B.C.

First scientific journals are published, one of which is the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London

Robert Hooke, who believed that fossils were the remains of once living animals, claims that it was not the biblical flood but earthquakes that caused fossils to be found on mountaintops.

After beginning his correspondence with the Royal Society of London first describing his describing his discoveries under the microscope, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek reports his observations of "very little living animalcules" in dental plaque—the first recorded mention of bacteria.

Issac Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy culminates the Scientific Revolution and becomes foundation of physics for next two centuries, forming basis of the scientific method. It contains the laws of motion and gravity with geometric and algebraic arguments establishing them. First English trans. 1727.

London's first daily newspaper, the Daily Courant, begins publication; it will have twenty competitors by the end of the century.

Thomas Newcomen makes first practical steam engine to use piston and cylinder, changing the course of the Industrial Revolution.

Jacques Vaucanson completes first of his robotic musicians, later constructs a mechanical duck.

Abraham Trembley publishes his memoir reporting investigations on the polyp.

James Watt greatly improves upon Newcomen steam engine.

James Cook and Joseph Banks time the transit of Venus across the Sun from Tahiti, enabling astronomers to use the data to establish the size of the solar system.

Baron Paul Henri Thiry D'Holbach's The System of Nature.

Congress adopts Declaration of Independence.

Henry Cort develops "puddling" process for smelting iron using coal, a key to initiating the Industrial Revolution. For, this would stimulate the growth of the coal industry, which would lead to the creation of steam engines to clear the mines, while the steam engine and the need to transport large quantities of coal would lead to the railroad, which would then lead back to an enormous increase of iron production in an upward-spiraling, symbiotic process. A further consequence is that a population of rural farmers would become a population of urban factory workers.

Constitution ratified by states, establishing a thoroughly secular government. God and Christianity are intentionally not mentioned witin it, and Article 6 states that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States;" Washington elected first president.

Edward Jenner inoculates a child with cowpox, thereby conferring immunity against smallpox. He calls the technique vaccination.

First of five volumes (last in 1827) of P. S. Laplace's work Celestial Mechanics published. In this work he conceptually culminates the tradition of the Classical sciences by formulating a mathematically complete universe based on the fundamental laws of mechanics established by Newton and showing that divine intervention is not necessary to preserve the equilibrium of the solar system. Laplace would also argue that if all of the forces on all objects at any one time are known, then the future can be completely predicted; Thomas Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population.

A perfectly preserved Mammoth is found frozen in Siberia.

Alessandro Volta announces his invention of the electric battery, first source of a steady electric current; Federal Govt. moves from Philadelphia to Washington, on the Potomac River; U.S. Census 5.3 million, including 1 million blacks, of whom 90% are enslaved; Humphry Davy discovers that nitrous oxide, which he calls laughing gas, can be used as an anesthetic.

John Dalton argues that matter consists of small particles called atoms that are all alike, elevating chemistry to a quantitative science; Louisiana Purchase; Meriwether Lewis and William Clark begin 3 year expedition.

Noah Webster issues his Compendius Dictionary of the English Language with the basic intent of formulating a standardized English language in the U.S. (see 1828).

French physician Itard publishes Reports on the Savage of Aveyron after working for 5 years to train and educate an 11 or 12 year old boy found naked and wild in the forest. 

George Cuvier explains his theory of the extinctions of animal groups in catastrophes and founds                                    vertebrate paleontology, also identifies from a drawing the first known pterodactyl fossil.

John Blenkinsop builds first practical locomotive; War of 1812, will end in 1814.

Baltimore, Maryland becomes first U.S. city to institute a gas company for the purpose of street lighting (using coal gas); John Pickering publishes Vocabulary, a dictionary of some 500 indigenous American words and phrases.

Mary Anning now discovers the first known fossil of a plesiosaur at age 21; Catholic church lifts its ban on teaching the Copernican system; First women's collegiate-level school in U.S. is founded in NY, The Waterford Academy for Young Ladies.

Discovery of first fossil recognized to be a dinosaur, named iguanodon; Joseph Niepce makes first permanent photograph, which he calls a heliograph.

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die, concluding the revolutionary epoch of U.S. history.

Comte establishes positivism as a philosophical school; first volume of Charles Lyell's The Principles of Geology begins a massive study showing that Earth must be at least several hundred million years old; The English geologist Henry Thomas De la Beche draws the first realistic and scientifically informed pictorial reconstruction of extinct animals, will greatly influence later attempts to envision early life and opens door to use of visual images to popularize knowledge about prehistoric creatures; Louis A. Godey begins publishing Godey's Lady's Book in Philadelphia, the first successful women's magazine.

William Whewell proposes the word "scientist;" First issue of the Knickerbocker Magazine appears, will become most popular and influential literary magazine in U.S. until it ceases publication. in 1859; Great Britain no longer allows slavery in her colonies.

The Beagle reaches the Galapagos Islands; Catholic church removes Galileo's Two Chief World Systems from its Index of prohibited books.

Ocean steamships connect England and U. S.; Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel is the first to measure the distance to a star; Cherokee Indians are forced by Federal troops to travel westward on "Trail of Tears;" The Underground Railroad is organized to help black slaves escape to the North.

John William Draper makes first known photograph of a celestial object, the moon. His son, Henry Draper, becomes the first to photograph the spectrum of a star (Vega) in 1872 and a nebula (Orion) in 1880.

Darwin writes a 35 page abstract of his theory of evolution; Richard Owen coins the term "dinosaur;" Crawford Williamson Long first uses ether as an anesthetic in surgery.

Thomas Savage and Jeffries Wyman give first detailed description of the gorilla; James Young Simpson discovers that chloroform can be used as an anesthetic in humans; Ignaz Semmelweis (Hungarian) orders doctors and medical students to wash their hands in a chlorine solution before examining a patient, beginning the modern use of antiseptics.

David Friederich Strauss' s The Life of Jesus Critically Examined; U.S. signs Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending war with Mexico and giving U.S. over 500,000 square miles to make it a transcontinental republic.

In Rochester, New York, Margaret and Kate Fox begin the Spiritualism movement that will become a national cult, with many people regularly holding séances.

The first world's fair, the Great International Exhibition, opens in London. The machinery on display in the monumental iron and glass ''Crystal Palace" exemplify the powerful effects of the Industrial Revolution, begun less than a century before. Also exhibited are full size reconstructions of prehistoric creatures, first major display of its kind; Isaac Singer patents the first practical sewing machine; Urban population of England now exceeds 50%.

Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is published as a complete novel, selling over one million copies within a year; First appearance of Uncle Sam occurs in a weekly comic publication in NY; Massachusetts passes first compulsory school attendance law in U.S.

Europeans see first live gorilla; Elmira (NY) Female College is first institution of higher education to grant academic degrees to women.

Gregor Mendel begins experiments to work out laws of heredity; U. S. cities have higher death rates than any other places in the world--with tuberculosis causing roughly 400 deaths per 100,000 population (the disease is not considered contagious).

Transatlantic telegraph cable; London's Linnean Society hears a paper on the survival of the fittest in the struggle for existence in nature presented by Alfred Russell Wallace and Charles Darwin.

Darwin publishes Origin of Species; Gustav Kirchoff relates dark lines in solar spectrum to bright spectra of elements; in addition to the theory of evolution, the development of the new technique of spectroscopy during the early 1860's would have a profound effect on debate about life on other worlds; Etienne Lenoir invents first practical internal combustion engine; First Winchester repeating rifle goes into production; First "dime novel" published in NY by Erastus Beadle and Robert Adams; Pasteur sterilizes milk by heating it; John Brown leads attack on Harper's Ferry and is hung.