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First eletric motor
The conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy by electromagnetic means was demonstrated by the British scientist Michael Faraday in 1821. -
Telegraph
While a professor of arts and design at New York University in 1835, Samuel Morse proved that signals could be transmitted by wire. -
Plutonium implosion bomb
Los Alamos scientists successfully test a plutonium implosion bomb in the Trinity shot at Alamogordo, New Mexico. -
Mike Test
The Atomic Energy Commission detonates the first thermonuclear device, code-named "Mike," at Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific. The device explodes with a yield of 10.4 megatons. -
SNAP
The U.S. launches the first nuclear reactor in space (SNAP-10A). SNAP stands for Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power -
First Energy Crisis
The Yom Kippur War breaks out in the Middle East. October 17, 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries declares an oil embargo, sparking the first "energy crisis." -
First Alaskin Oil Pipe
The first pipe is laid on the Alaska Pipeline, which will move crude oil 800 miles through a 48-inch pipe from the North Slope of Alaska to the ice-free port of Valdez, Alaska. Construction is completed in two years. -
Big Accident
A major nuclear accident occurs at Chernobyl Reactor #4 near Pripyat, Ukraine in the Soviet Union, spreading radioactive contamination over a large area. -
Last nuclear test
The United States conducts its last underground nuclear weapons test. Congress imposes a temporary moratorium on nuclear weapons testing. -
Yucca Mountain
Workers complete drilling of the five-mile long, horseshoe-shaped exploratory tunnel through Yucca Mountain at the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository in Nevada.
