Technology

John Kay invents flying shuttle.

Sputnik I and Sputnik II are launched by the Russians.

Spinning jenny invented by James Hargreaves.

E-mail invented by Ray Tomlinson.

Optical fiber invented by Basil Hirschowitz, C. Wilbur Peters, and Lawrence E. Curtiss.

Robert Goddard experiments with liquid-fueled rockets.

Vaccination invented by Edward Jenner.

Powered airplane invented by Wilbur Wright and Orville Wright.

Antibiotics, penicillin invented by Alexander Fleming.

Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species.

Eyeglasses invented.

German mathematician-philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, recognised as one of the founding fathers of calculus, designs a calculating machine called the Step Reckoner.