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Discoveries & Inventions

Breakthroughs and inventions — from the cotton gin to the moon landing — that altered the American economy and the rhythm of American life.

ARPANET and the Birth of the Internet
The Cold War research network that grew into a global communications system
Edison's Incandescent Light Bulb
The 1879 Menlo Park demonstration that ended the gaslight era
Invention of the Telephone
The 1876 breakthrough that let the human voice travel by wire
Salk Polio Vaccine
The 1955 vaccine that ended summer polio epidemics — and the doctor who refused to patent it
The Cotton Gin
The 1793 invention that mechanized cotton — and entrenched slavery
The Ford Model T
The car — and the assembly line — that put America on wheels
The Manhattan Project
The secret World War II program that built the atomic bomb
The Telegraph
How Morse code severed the link between communication and travel
The Telephone
The 1876 invention that let the human voice travel across the wire
The Transistor
The tiny 1947 device that made the digital age possible
Wright Brothers' First Flight
The 12-second powered flight at Kitty Hawk that opened the aviation age