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#Science & Technology

71 entries

People (16)
Alexander Graham Bell
Scottish-American inventor of the telephone, 1847–1922
Benjamin Banneker
Self-taught astronomer, mathematician, and the first Black man to receive a presidential appointment
Benjamin Franklin
Printer, diplomat, and scientist who helped engineer American independence
Eli Whitney
Inventor of the cotton gin who accidentally expanded slavery and deliberately built American mass production
Grace Hopper
Pioneer of computer programming and inventor of the first compiler
Henry Ford
Industrialist who put the automobile within reach of ordinary Americans
J. Robert Oppenheimer
Director of the Manhattan Project and father of the atomic bomb
John Wesley Powell
The one-armed Civil War veteran who ran the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon
Jonas Salk
Developer of the first effective polio vaccine, 1955
Neil Armstrong
The first human to set foot on the moon
Nikola Tesla
Serbian-American inventor who built the modern electrical world
Rachel Carson
Marine Biologist and Author Whose Silent Spring Launched the Environmental Movement, 1907–1964
Robert Goddard
Pioneer of modern rocketry who launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket in 1926
Sally Ride
The first American woman in space
Thomas Edison
Inventor of the phonograph, the practical light bulb, and the modern research laboratory
Wright Brothers
Wilbur and Orville Wright, pioneers of powered flight
Places (4)
Cape Canaveral
The Florida Launch Site That Has Carried American Ambitions Into Space Since 1950
Niagara Falls
The Great Lakes-fed waterfall that powered the second industrial revolution
Oak Ridge, Tennessee
The Secret City That Built the Uranium for the Hiroshima Bomb
Silicon Valley
How a stretch of California orchards became the engine of the digital age
Events (14)
Lewis and Clark Expedition
The 1804–1806 Corps of Discovery that mapped the American West to the Pacific
Lindbergh's Transatlantic Flight
The 1927 solo crossing that made Charles Lindbergh a global icon
Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
The 1986 explosion that killed seven astronauts and shook America's faith in its space program
Spindletop
The 1901 gusher that launched the American oil age
Sputnik
The 1957 Soviet satellite that started the Space Race
The 1918 Flu Pandemic
The "Spanish flu" that killed more Americans than all the century's wars
The AIDS Epidemic
A public-health catastrophe that reshaped medicine and activism
The Manhattan Project
The secret World War II program that built the atomic bomb
The Moon Landing
Apollo 11 and humanity's first steps on another world, July 1969
The Space Race
The Cold War competition between the United States and Soviet Union to conquer space
The Space Shuttle
The reusable spacecraft that defined American spaceflight for three decades
Three Mile Island
The 1979 nuclear accident that ended the American nuclear power era
World War II
America's 1941–1945 war that defeated the Axis and made it a superpower
Wright Brothers' First Flight
The 12-second powered flight at Kitty Hawk that opened the aviation age
Concepts (2)
American Innovation
How a culture of invention turned the United States into the engine of the modern world
The Industrial Revolution
The transformation of American labor, production, and daily life, 1820–1900
Organizations (21)
Amazon
The online bookstore that became the everything store, founded 1994
Apple
The company that made the computer personal — and beautiful, founded 1976
Boeing
The company that built America's airliners and warplanes, founded 1916
General Electric
The Edison company that grew into an industrial empire, founded 1892
Google
The search engine that organized the web — and its advertising, founded 1998
IBM
The company that ran on data, from punch cards to the computer age
Microsoft
The software giant that put a computer on every desk, founded 1975
NASA
The space agency founded in 1958 that won the race to the Moon and became the symbol of American ambition
The American Museum of Natural History
New York's temple of dinosaurs, dioramas, and science, founded 1869
The Bell System (AT&T)
The telephone monopoly that wired America, 1877–1984
The CDC
The nation's front line against disease, from malaria to pandemics, 1946
The Food and Drug Administration
The agency that guards the nation's food and medicine, 1906
The Ford Motor Company
The company that put America on wheels, founded 1903
The Mayo Clinic
The Minnesota clinic that pioneered team-based medicine, 1889
The National Geographic Society
The society that brought the world to America, founded 1888
The NSA
The codebreaking agency founded in secret in 1952 to intercept the world's communications
The Rockefeller Foundation
The oil fortune turned to fighting disease and funding science, 1913
The Smithsonian Institution
The national museum complex born from a mysterious English bequest, 1846
The United States Air Force
The youngest branch, born from the rise of air power, 1947
The World Health Organization
The UN's global health agency — and America's fraught partner in it, 1948
Tuskegee Institute
Booker T. Washington's school for Black self-reliance, founded 1881
Technology (14)
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
Nuclear Weapons
The weapon that redefined war, power, and the survival of nations
Radio
The medium that first brought live voices into the American home
Salk Polio Vaccine
The 1955 vaccine that ended summer polio epidemics — and the doctor who refused to patent it
Television
The screen that became the center of American life
The Automobile
How the car became the machine that reshaped American life
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 Internet
The network that gave everyone a printing press — and remade media
The Moving Assembly Line
The 1913 innovation that made mass production — and the modern economy
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
All Tags
Politics 169 Economy 147 Military 115 Presidency 113 Civil Rights 112 Reform 111 Law & Justice 99 Founding Era 95 Foreign Policy 90 Race 82 Constitution 74 Industry 71 Science & Technology 71 Cold War 62 Civil War 61 Protest 58 Westward Expansion 57 Arts & Culture 56 Revolution 55 Slavery 54 Women 51 War 49 Modern America 46 Indigenous 42 Diplomacy 41 Media & Press 38 Labor 33 Immigration 31 Supreme Court 30 Religion 29 Environment 28 Congress 28 World War II 28 Exploration 24 Disaster 22 Reconstruction 22 Abolition 21 Progressive Era 21 Finance 20 Democracy 19 Assassination 15 Education 14 Colonial America 13 Gilded Age 12 Public Health 12 Suffrage 11 World War I 8 Sports 8 Corruption 8 Prohibition 1