This article contains, in chronological order, a selective list of discoveries from natural philosophy. These are the findings which have helped us understand the laws of physics, the universe and our place in it. The time-line is not complete and many more scientists will have the privilege of contributing to its future.
- -585: Thales of Miletus, prediction of an eclipse
- -580: Thales of Miletus, birth of scientific thought
- -580: Thales of Miletus, water as the basic element
- -580: Thales of Miletus, magnets and attraction to rubbed amber
- -560: Thales of Miletus, first cosmologies
- -550: Anaximenes, flat Earth
- -525: Pythagoras, understanding the world and mathematics
- -520: Anaximander, Earth surface is curved (cylinder)
- -515: Parmenides, paradoxes of change and motion
- -500: Pythagoreans, Earth is a sphere
- -480: Oenopides, finds angle of Earth's tilt to ecliptic
- -480: Protagoras, reality comes from the senses
- -480: Heraclitus, fire as primary substance
- -480: Heraclitus, change is the essence of being
- -475: Parmenides, Earth is a sphere
- -470: Anaxagoras, materials are made of "seeds" (atoms)
- -470: Anaxagoras, sun, moon and stars are made of same material as Earth
- -470: Anaxagoras, sun as a hot glowing rock
- -460: Eudoxus, Celestial spheres
- -460: Empedocles, Four elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water
- -455: Philolaus, Earth Rotates
- -450: Zeno, paradoxes of discrete or continuous space and time
- -445: Leucippus, indivisble atoms
- -425: Democritus, Atomic theory
- -390: Plato, theory of knowledge
- -390: Plato, ether as a fifth element
- -385: Democritus, Milky Way is composed of many stars
- -370: Aristotle, Free falling bodies accelerate but heavier bodies fall faster
- -360: Heracleides, Venus and Mercury orbit the sun
- -352: Chinese, recorded observation of a supernova
- -350: Heracleides, Rotation of the Earth
- -340: Aristotle, Earth is a sphere
- -340: Aristotle, Space is continuous and always filled with matter
- -335: Kiddinu, precession of equinoxes
- -335: Strato, experiments with falling bodies and levers
- -330: Aristotle, physics and metaphysics
- -330: Aristotle, geocentric cosmology
- -325: Pytheas, tides are caused by moon
- -306: Epicurus, support for atomic theory
- -295: Euclid, elements of mathematics
- -265: Zou Yan, five elements: water, metal, wood, fire and earth
- -260: Aristarchus of Samos, ratio of Earth-Sun distance to Earth-Moon distance from angle at half moon
- -260: Aristarchus of Samos, distance and size of moon from Earth's shadow during lunar eclipse
- -260: Aristarchus of Samos, heliocentric cosmology
- -250: Chinese, free bodies move at constant velocity
- -240: Archimedes, Principle of levers and compound pulley
- -240: Archimedes, Archimedes' principle of hydrostatics
- -235: Eratosthenes, Measurement of Earth's circumference
- -190: Seleucus, further support for heliocentric theory
- -170: Chinese, record of sun spots
- -150: Hipparchus, precession of the equinoxes
- -130: Hipparchus, size of moon from parallax of eclipse
- 83: Chinese, loadstone compass
- 100: Bhaskara, diameter of the Sun
- 100: Hero of Alexandria, expansion of air with heat
- 100: Hero of Alexandria, laws of light reflection
- 130: Ptolemy, geocentric cosmology of epicycles
- 180: Egypt, alchemy
- 550: Johannas Philoponus, impetus keeps a body moving
- 721: Abu Hayyan, preparation of chemicals such as nitric acid
- 890: Al-Razi, atomic of matter and space
- 890: Al-Razi, andromeda galaxy
- 1000: Ali Al-hazen, reflection, refraction and lenses
- 1000: Ali Al-hazen, pinhole camera to demonstrate that light travels in straight lines to the eye
- 1054: China and Arabia Supernova of Crab Nebula recorded
- 1121: Al-khazini gravity acts towards centre of Earth
- 1155: Bhaskara first description of a perpetual motion machine
- 1225: Jordanus Nemorarius, mechanics of lever and composition of motion
- 1250: Albertus Magnus, isolation of arsenic
- 1260: Roger Bacon, empiricism
- 1267: Roger Bacon, magnifying lens
- 1269: Pierre de Maricourt, experiments with magnets and compass
- 1304: Theodoric of Freibourg, experiments to investigate rainbows
- 1320: William of Occam, Occam's Razor
- 1355: Jean Buridan, physics of impetus
- 1440: Nicolas Cusanus, Earth is in motion
- 1440: Nicolas Cusanus, infinite universe
- 1450: Johann Gutenberg, first printing press in Europe
- 1472: Johannes Regiomontanus, observation of Halley's comet
- 1480: Leonardo de Vinci, description of parachute
- 1480: Leonardo de Vinci, compares reflection of light to reflection of sound waves
- 1490: Leonardo de Vinci, capillary action
- 1492: Leonardo de Vinci, foresees flying machines
- 1494: Leonardo de Vinci, foresees pendulum clock
- 1514: Nicolaus Copernicus, writes about heliocentric theory but does not yet publish
- 1515: Leonardo Da Vinci, progress in mechanics, aerodynamics and hydraulics
- 1537: Niccolo Tartaglia, trajectory of a bullet
- 1551: Girolamo Cardano, studies of falling bodies
- 1553: Giambattista Benedetti, proposed equality of fall rates
- 1543: Nicolaus Copernicus, heliocentric theory published
- 1546: Gerardus Mercator, Magnetic pole of Earth
- 1572: Tycho Brahe, witnesses a supernova and cites it as evidence that the heavens are not changeless
- 1574: Tycho Brahe, Observes that a comet is beyond the moon
- 1576: Tycho Brahe, constructs a planetary observatory
- 1576: Thomas Digges, illustration of an infinite universe surrounding a Copernican solar system
- 1577: Tycho Brahe, observes that a comet passes through the orbits of other planets
- 1581: Galileo Galilei, constancy of period of pendulum
- 1581: Robert Norman, dip of compass shows that Earth is a magnet
- 1584: Giordano Bruno, suggests that stars are suns with other Earth's in orbit
- 1585: Giovanni Benedetti, impetus theory is better than Aristotle's physics
- 1585: Simon Stevin, law of equilibrium
- 1586: Simon Stevin, pressure in column of liquid
- 1586: Simon Stevin, verification of equality of fall rates
- 1589: Galileo Galilei, showed that objects fall at the same rate independent of mass
- 1592: Galileo Galilei, suggests that physical laws of the heavens are the same as those on Earth
- 1592: Galileo Galilei, primitive thermometer
- 1593: Johannes Kepler, related planets to platonic solids
- 1596: David Fabricius, observes a variable star, (Mira Ceta)
- 1600: Galileo Galilei, study of sound and vibrating strings
- 1600: William Gilbert, static electricity and magnetism
- 1604: Johannes Kepler, mirrors, lenses and vision
- 1604: Galileo Galilei, distance for falling object increases as square of time
- 1608: Hans Lippershey, optical telescope
- 1609: Lippershey and Janssen, the compound microscope
- 1609: Johannes Kepler, 1st and 2nd laws of planetary motion
- 1609: Thomas Harriot, maps moon using a telescope
- 1609: Johannes Kepler, notion of energy
- 1609: Galileo Galilei, builds a telescope
- 1610: Galileo Galilei, observes the phases of Venus
- 1610: Galileo Galilei, observes moons of Jupiter
- 1610: Galileo Galilei, observes craters on the moon
- 1610: Galileo Galilei, observes stars in the Milky Way
- 1610: Galileo Galilei, observes structures around Saturn
- 1611: Fabricius, Galileo, Harriot, Scheiner, sunspots
- 1611: Marco de Dominis, explanation of rainbows
- 1611: Johannes Kepler, principles of the astronomical telescope
- 1612: Simon Marius, Andromeda galaxy
- 1612: Galileo Galilei, hydrostatics
- 1613: Galileo Galilei, principle of inertia
- 1615: S. de Caus, forces and work
- 1618: Francesco Grimaldi, interference and diffraction of light
- 1619: Johannes Kepler, 3rd law of planetary motion
- 1619: Johannes Kepler, explains why a comets tail points away from the Sun
- 1619: Rene Descartes, vision of rationalism
- 1620: Francis Bacon, the empirical scientific method
- 1620: Francis Bacon, heat is motion
- 1620: Jan Baptista van Helmont, introduces the word "gas"
- 1621: Willebrod Snell, the sine law of refraction
- 1624: Galileo Galilei, theory of tides
- 1626: Godfried Wendilin, verification of Kepler's laws for moons of Jupiter
- 1630: Cabaeus, attraction and repulsion of electric charges
- 1631: Pierre Gassendi, observes a transit of Mercury
- 1632: Galileo Galilei, Galilean relativity
- 1632: Galileo Galilei, Support for Copernicus' heliocentric theory
- 1632: John Ray, water thermometer
- 1636: G. Pers de Roberval, gravitational forces are mutual attraction
- 1636: Marin Mersenne, speed of sound
- 1637: Rene Descartes, inertia, mechanistic physics
- 1637: Rene Descartes, refraction, rainbow and clouds
- 1638: Galileo Galilei, motion and friction
- 1639: Jeremiah Horrocks, observes a transit of Venus
- 1640: Evangelista Torricelli, theory of hydrodynamics
- 1641: Ferdinand II, sealed thermometer
- 1642: Blaise Pascal, mechanical calculator
- 1644: Evangelista Torricelli, mercury barometer and artificial vacuum
- 1645: Ismael Boulliau, inverse square law for central force acting on planets
- 1648: Blaise Pascal, explains barometer as a result of atmospheric pressure
- 1650: Otto von Guericke, demonstration of the power of vacuum using two large hemispheres and 8 horses
- 1654: Ferdinand II, sealed thermometer
- 1656: Christiaan Huygens, rings and moons of Saturn
- 1657: Christiaan Huygens, pendulum clock
- 1657: Pierre Fermat, Fermat's principle in optics
- 1659: Christiaan Huygens, surface features on Mars
- 1660: Otto von Guericke, electrostatic machine
- 1660: Robert Boyle, sound will not travel in a vacuum
- 1661: Robert Boyle, corpuscular theory of matter
- 1661: Robert Boyle, chemical elements, acids and alkalis
- 1662: Robert Boyle, Boyle's law for ideal gases relating volume to pressure
- 1663: Blaise Pascal, isotropy of pressure
- 1663: James Gregory, describes a reflecting telescope
- 1663: Huygens, Wallace and Wren, laws of elastic collisions
- 1664: Robert Hooke, the great red spot of Jupiter
- 1664: Rene Descartes, published support for Copernican theoryIsaac Newton
- 1665: Isaac Newton, studies the principles of mechanics and gravity, mass and force
- 1665: Giovanni Cassini, rotation periods of Jupiter, Mars and Venus
- 1665: Francesco Grimaldi, his wave theory of light is published
- 1665: Hooke, Huygens, colours of oil film explained by wave theory of light and interference
- 1665: Robert Hooke, studies with a microscope
- 1665: Robert Boyle, air is necessary for candles to burn
- 1666: Robert Boyle, fluid experiments
- 1666: Isaac Newton, studies spectrum of light
- 1666: Isaac Newton, begins work on laws of mechanics and gravitation
- 1667: Jean Picard, observes anomalies in star positions which are later explained as aberration
- 1668: John Wallis, conservation of momentum
- 1668: Isaac Newton, reflecting telescope
- 1669: Erasmus Bartholin, describes double refraction caused by polarisation effects of Iceland feldspar
- 1669: Hennig Brand, element phosphorus
- 1669: Gottfreid Leibniz, first concepts of action
- 1670: Robert Boyle, produces hydrogen by reacting metals with acid
- 1671: Giovanni Cassini, accurate measurement of distance to Mars and scale of solar system
- 1672: Jean Richer, the period of a pendulum varies with latitude
- 1672: Isaac Newton, variation of pendulum is due to equatorial bulge
- 1673: Ignace Pardies, wave explanation for refraction of light
- 1673: Christiaan Huygens, laws of centripetal force
- 1674: Robert Hooke, attempt to explain planetary motion as a balance of centfifugal force and gravitational attraction
- 1675: Giovanni Cassini, Saturns has separated rings which must be composed of small objects
- 1675: Isaac Newton, delivers his theory of light
- 1676: Olaus Roemer, measured the speed of light by observing Jupiter's moons
- 1676: Robert Hooke, law of elasticity and springs
- 1676: Edme Mariotte, pressure is inversely proportional to volume (Boyle's law) and height of atmosphere
- 1678: Robert Hooke, inverse square law of gravity
- 1678: Christiaan Huygens, writes about wave theory of light
- 1679: Christiaan Huygens, polarisation of light
- 1680: Isaac Newton, demonstrates that inverse square law implies elliptical orbits
- 1684: Isaac Newton, inverse square law and mass dependence of gravity
- 1684: Gottfreid Leibniz, differential calculus
- 1687: Isaac Newton, publishes laws of motion and gravitation
- 1687: Isaac Newton, publishes analysis of sound propagation
- 1688: P. Varignon, addition of forces
- 1690: Christiaan Huygens, principle of Huygens, secondary waves
- 1690: John Locke, knowledge comes only from experience and sensations
- 1692: Richard Bentley, why do stars not fall together under gravitation?
- 1702: Francis Hauksbee, rarified air glows during electrical discharge
- 1704: Isaac Newton, publishes corpuscular theory of light and colour
- 1705: Edmund Halley, noticed that three previous comets are the same and predicts its return in 1758
- 1709: Gabriel Fahrenheit, alcohol thermometer
- 1710: George Berkeley, idealist philosophy against materialist
- 1714: Gottfreid Leibniz, energy conservation
- 1714: Gottfreid Leibniz, rejection of absolute space and time
- 1714: Gabriel Fahrenheit, mercury thermometer
- 1718: Edmund Halley, measures proper motion of stars
- 1720: Edmund Halley, early form of Olbers' paradox
- 1721: George Berkeley, space exists because of matter in it
- 1724: Gabriel Fahrenheit, supercooling of water
- 1727: Stephen Hales, makes oxygen
- 1728: James Bradley, speed of light and stellar aberration
- 1729: Stephen Gray, conduction of electricity
- 1731: Rene Reaumur, alcohol/water thermometer
- 1733: Charles Du Fay, recognises distinction between positive and negative electric charge
- 1735: Antonio de Ulloa, element platinum
- 1736: Leonhard Euler, differential equations in mechanics
- 1738: Daniel Bernoulli, kinetic theory of gas
- 1738: Daniel Bernoulli, hydrodynamics
- 1739: Georg Brandt, element cobalt
- 1740: Pierre Bouguer, gravitational anomalies
- 1742: Anders Celsius, reverse centigrade temperature scale
- 1743: Jean Christin, Celsius temperature scale
- 1743: Jean d'Alembert, energy in Newtonian mechanics
- 1744: Pierre de Maupertuis, principle of least action
- 1744: Jean d'Alembert, theory of fluid dynamics
- 1744: Leonhard Euler, Euler-Lagrange equations
- 1744: Mikhail Lomonosov, heat is a form of motion
- 1745: von Kleist, van Musschenbroek, Leyden jar for electric charge storage
- 1746: Andreas Marggraf, rediscovery of element zinc
- 1746: Leonhard Euler, wave theory of light refraction and dispersion
- 1747: d'Alembert, Euler, solution of equations for vibrating string
- 1748: Mikhail Lomonosov, conservation of mass and energy
- 1749: Thomas Melvill, early spectrscopy and yellow line of sodium in salt
- 1750: Benjamin Franklin, theory of electricity and lightning
- 1750: John Michell, magnetic induction
- 1750: John Michell, inverse square law for magnetic fields
- 1750: Thomas Wright, Milky Way could be due to slab like distribution of stars
- 1751: Benjamin Franklin, electricity can magnetise needles
- 1751: Frederik Cronstedt, element nickel
- 1752: Jean d'Alembert, viscosity
- 1754: Joseph Black, discovery of carbon dioxide showing that there are gases other than air
- 1755: Immanuel Kant, theory that the universe formed from a spinning nebula in an infinite hierarchy
- 1756: William Cullen, evaporation causes cooling
- 1756: Mikhail Lomonosov, supports wave theory of light
- 1761: Joseph Black, discovery and measurements of latent and specific heats
- 1761: John Harrison, portable chronometer
- 1765: Leonhard Euler, rigid body motions
- 1766: Joseph Priestley, inverse square law for electric charge
- 1766: Henry Cavendish, hydrogen is an element
- 1771: Luigi Galvani, electricity in animals
- 1772: Carl Scheele, saw air as two gases one of which encouraged combustion
- 1772: Daniel Rutherford, nitrogen
- 1772: Antoine Lavoisier, conservation of mass in chemical reactions
- 1772: Joseph Lagrange, theory of Lagrange points
- 1774: Priestley, Scheele, element oxygen
- 1774: Nevil Maskelyne, gravitational deflection of plumb line by a mountain
- 1774: Carl Scheele, element chlorine
- 1774: Johann Gahn, element manganese
- 1775: Alessandro Volta, electrical condenser
- 1776: Pierre-Simon Laplace, deterministic causality
- 1777: Antoine Lavoisier, composition of air and burning as a chemical reaction
- 1779: Charles Augustin de Coulomb, Coulomb's law of friction
- 1781: Immanuel Kant, Critique of pure reason
- 1781: William Herschel, discovery of Uranus
- 1781: Carl Scheele, element molybdenum in ore
- 1781: Charles Messier, catalogue of nebulae
- 1781: Heinrich Olbers, Uranus is a planet, not a comet
- 1782: Jacob Hjelm, isolation of element molybdenum
- 1782: Franz von Reichstein, element tellurium in ores
- 1782: William Herschel, catalog of double stars
- 1782: William Herschel, sun's motion through space
- 1783: John Michell, Newtonian black hole
- 1783: Fausto and Juan José de Elhuyar, element tungsten
- 1783: Rene Hauy, nature of crystals
- 1784: Henry Cavendish, water is a compound of oxygen and hydrogen
- 1784: Pierre Laplace, electrostatic potential
- 1785: Charles Augustin de Coulomb, electric force proportional to product of charges and inverse square of distance
- 1786: Antoine Lavoisier, distinction between elements and compounds
- 1787: Antoine Lavoisier, system for naming chemicals
- 1787: Jacques-Alexander Charles, law of gas expansion with temperature
- 1788: Joseph Lagrange, Lagrangian mechanics
- 1788: John Hunter, Diffusion of heat
- 1789: Antoine Lavoisier, Conservation of mass in chemical reactions
- 1789: Martin Klaproth, elements zirconium and uranium in compounds
- 1790: Definition of metric system in France
- 1790: Adair Crawford, element strontium in compounds
- 1791: William Gregor, element titanium in compounds
- 1794: Johann Gadolin, element yttrium in compounds
- 1794: Pierre Laplace, analysis of Newtonian black hole
- 1796: Alessandro Volta, chemical batteries and voltage
- 1797: Henry Cavendish, measured the gravitational constant with a torsion balance
- 1797: Nicholas Vauquelin, element berylium idnetified in gem stones
- 1797: Nicholas Vauquelin, element chromium
- 1798: Benjamin Thompson, heat generated equals work done
- 1798: M. Klaproth, isolation of element tellurium
- 1798: Humphry Davy, Transmission of heat through vacuum
- 1798: Benjamin Rumford, experimental relation between work done and heat generated
- 1800: William Herschel, infrared rays from the Sun
- 1801: Johann Ritter, Ultraviolet rays
- 1801: Johann von Soldner, predicted Newtonian bending of light by sun
- 1801: Giuseppe Piazzi, first asteroid Ceres
- 1801: Humphry Davy, Electric arc
- 1801: Andres Manuel del Rio, compounds of element vanadium
- 1801: Charles Hatchett, element niobium in ores
- 1802: Heinrich Olbers, second asteroid Pallas
- 1802: Anders Ekeberg, element tantalum
- 1802: William Wollaston, dark lines in solar spectrum
- 1802: William Herschel, double stars are bodies in mutual orbit
- 1802: Thomas Young, interference and wave description of light
- 1802: Humphry Davy, Electrochemistry
- 1802: Joseph Gay-Lussac, Relation of Volume to Temperature of gases at fixed pressure
- 1803: William Wollaston, elements rhodium and palladium
- 1803: Smithson Tennant, elements osmium and iridium
- 1804: John Dalton, Law of partial pressures, Dalton's law
- 1807: Humphry Davy, isolation of elements sodium and potasium
- 1808: Humphry Davy, isolation of elements magnesium, strontium, barium and calcium
- 1808: Davy, Gay-Lussac and Thenard, isloation of element boron
- 1808: Joseph Gay-Lussac, Law of gas volumes in chemical reactions
- 1808: John Dalton, atomic theory of chemical reactions
- 1808: Etienne Malus, polarisation of reflected light
- 1809: Simeon-Denis Poisson, Poisson brackets in mechanics
- 1811: Amedeo Avogadro, molecular theory of gases and Avogadro's law
- 1811: Jean-Baptiste Fourier, harmonic analysis
- 1811: Bernard Courtois, element iodine
- 1812: David Brewster, behaviour of polarised light
- 1814: Joseph von Fraunhofer, spectroscope
- 1815: William Prout, atomic weights of elements are multiples of that for hydrogen
- 1815: Augustin Fresnel, theory of light diffraction
- 1816: Joseph von Fraunhofer, absorption lines in sun's spectrum
- 1817: Young and Fresnel, transverse nature of light
- 1817: Johan Arfvedson, element lithium
- 1817: Friedrich Strohmeyer, element cadmium
- 1817: Jöautns Berzelius, element selenium
- 1818: Augustin Fresnel, ether as absolute rest frame
- 1819: Dulong and Petit, relation of specific heats to atomic weight in 12 solid elements
- 1820: Andre Ampere, force on an electric current in a magnetic field
- 1820: Hans Christian Oersted, an electric current deflects a magnetised needle
- 1820: Biot and Savart, force law between an electric current and a magnetic field
- 1821: Thomas Seebeck, thermocouple and thermoelectricity
- 1821: Joseph von Fraunhofer, diffraction grating
- 1821: Michael Faraday, plotted the magnetic field around a conductor
- 1821: Michael Faraday, first electric motor
- 1822: Andre Ampere, two wires with electric currents attract
- 1822: Charles Babbage, a prototype calculating machine
- 1822: Mary Mantell, first dinosaur fossil
- 1823: Michael Faraday, liquifies chlorine
- 1823: John William Herschel, suggests identification of chemical composition from spectrum
- 1823: William Sturgeon, electromagnets
- 1823: Heinrich Olbers, why is the sky dark?
- 1823: Johann Schweigger, galvanometer
- 1824: Sadi Carnot, Heat transfer goes from hot body to cold body
- 1824: Jöautns Berzelius , element silicon
- 1824: Jöautns Berzelius , isolation of element zirconium
- 1825: Hans Christian Oersted, isolation of element aluminium
- 1826: Antoine-J. Balard, element bromine
- 1827: Georg Ohm, electrical resistance and Ohm's law
- 1827: Robert Brown, Brownian motion
- 1828: Friedrich Wohler, isolation of element yttrium
- 1829: Johann Wolfgang, triads of chemical elements
- 1829: Thomas Graham, gas diffusion law
- 1829: Jons Berzelius, element thorium
- 1830: Charles Lyell, proposition that Earth is several million years old
- 1830: Nils Sefstrom, rediscovery and naming of vanadium
- 1831: Michael Faraday, a moving magnet induces an electric current
- 1831: Michael Faraday, magnetic lines of force
- 1831: Michael Faraday, the electric dynamo
- 1831: Michael Faraday, the electric transformer
- 1833: Michael Faraday, laws of electrolysis
- 1833: Joseph Henry, self inductance
- 1834: Emile Clapeyron, entropy
- 1834: John Scott Russell, observed solitary waves in a canal
- 1834: William Hamilton, Principle of least action and Hamiltonian mechanics
- 1834: Heinrich Lenz, Law of electromagnetic forces
- 1835: Gustav-Gaspard Coriolis, Coriolis force
- 1838: Bessel, Henderson, Struve, first measurements of distance to a star by parallax
- 1839: Karl Mosander, Lanthanum
- 1840: Rive Marcet anomalous specific heat of diamond
- 1840: Joule and Helmholtz electricity is a form of energy
- 1840: Auguste Comte suggests that nature and composition of stars will never be known
- 1841: Eugene-Melchoir Peligot isolation of element uranium
- 1842: Christian Doppler theory of Doppler Effect for sound and light
- 1842: Justin von Mayer Conservation of heat and mechanical energy
- 1843: James Joule mechanical and electrical equivalent of heat
- 1843: Howard Aiken first mechanical programmable calculator
- 1844: Kark Klaus element 44, ruthenium
- 1845: Michael Faraday, rotation of polarised light by magnetism
- 1845: Christopher Buys-Ballet, confirmation of Doppler effect for sound using trumpeters on a train
- 1846: Adams, Le Verrier, predicted position of Neptune
- 1846: Gustav Kirchhoff, Kirchoff's laws of electrical networks
- 1846: William Thomson (Kelvin), Incorrectly estimates Earth to be 100 million years old by heat
- 1846: Jahanne Galle, Neptune
- 1847: Hermann von Helmholtz, conservation of energy in Newtionian mechanics and gravity
- 1848: William Thomson (Kelvin), absolute temperature scale
- 1848: James Joule average velocity of gas molecules from kinetic theory
- 1849: Armand Fizeau first accurate measurement of the velocity of light in the laboratory using a toothed wheel
- 1850: Rudolf Clausius, generalised second law of thermodynamics
- 1850: Jean Foucault, light travels slower in water than in air
- 1850: Michael Faraday, experiments to find link between gravity and electromagnetism fail
- 1851: William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), dynamical theory of heat
- 1851: William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), absolute zero temperature
- 1851: Armand Fizeau, velocity of light in moving medium
- 1851: Franz Neumann, laws of electric-magnetic induction
- 1851: Jean Foucault, demonstrates rotation of Earth with a pendulum
- 1852: Jean Foucault, first gyroscope
- 1852: Joule, Thomson, an expanding gas cools
- 1853: Anders Angstrom, measured hydrogen spectral lines
- 1854: Hermann von Helmholtz, Heat death of the universe
- 1854: Bernhard Riemann, possibility of space curvature on small or large scales
- 1854: George Airy, Estimate of Earth mass from underground gravity
- 1855: William Parsons, spiral galaxies
- 1855: James Clerk Maxwell, mathematics of Faraday's lines of force
- 1857: James Clerk Maxwell, nature of Saturn's rings
- 1858: Wallace and Darwin, natural selection of species
- 1858: Balfour Stewart, conjecture equivalent to Kirchoff's law
- 1859: Hittorf and Plucker, cathode rays
- 1859: Bunsen and Kirchhoff, measurement of spectral line frequencies
- 1859: Urbain Le Verrier, anomalous perihelion shift of Mercury
- 1860: Gustav Kirchhoff, Kirchoff's Law and black body problem
- 1860: Maxwell and Waterston, equipartition theorem of statistical mechanics
- 1861: von Bunsen, Kirchhoff, elements caesium and rubidium found in spectra
- 1861: William Crookes, element thallium found by its spectra
- 1861: Johann Madler, Olbers's paradox would be resolved if the universe had a finite age
- 1862: Anders Angstrom, observed hydrogen in the sun
- 1863: William Huggins, stellar spectra indicate that stars are made of same elements as found on Earth
- 1863: Reich, Richter, element indium from its spectra
- 1864: John Newlands, chemical law of octaves
- 1864: James Clerk Maxwell, equations of electromagnetic wave propagation in the ether
- 1865: Rudolf Clausius, introduction of the term entropy
- 1867: James Clerk Maxwell, statistical physics and thermal equilibrium
- 1867: Henry Roscoe, isolation of element vanadium
- 1868: Pierre-Jules Janssen, lines of helium observed in the sun's spectrum
- 1868: Lockyer, Crookes, element helium recognised and named
- 1868: William Huggins, Doppler shifts of stellar spectra
- 1869: Dmitri Mendeleyev, periodic table of elements
- 1871: Dmitri Mendeleyev, prediction of new elements such as scandium, germanium, technetium, francium and gallium
- 1871: Ludwig Boltzmann, classical explanation of Dulong-Petit specific heats
- 1871: Tyndall and Rayleigh, light scattering and why the sky is blue.
- 1872: Ludwig Boltzmann, H-theorem
- 1873: James Clerk Maxwell, electromagnetic nature of light and prediction of radio waves
- 1873: Johannes van der Waals, intermolecular forces in fluids
- 1874: George Stoney, estimated the unit of charge and named it the electron
- 1875: Heinrich Weber, specific heat curves of solids
- 1875: James Clerk Maxwell, atoms must have a structure
- 1875: Paul-Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, element gallium
- 1877: Johann Loschmidt, questions validity of second law for time symmetric dynamics
- 1877: Ludwig Boltzmann, Boltzmann's probability equation for entropy
- 1877: Asaph Hall, two moons of Mars
- 1877: Cailletet and Pictet, liquid oxygen and nitrogen
- 1878: Josiah Willard Gibbs, thermodynamics of chemistry and phase changes
- 1879: Josef Stefan, empirical discovery of total radiation law, (Stefan's law)
- 1879: Lars Fredrik Nilson, element scandium
- 1879: Willaim Crookes, cathode rays may be negatively charged particles
- 1879: Albert Michelson, improved measurements of the speed of light
- 1880: Pierre and Jacques Curie, piezoelectricity
- 1881: Albert Michelson, light interferometer and absence of ether drift
- 1881: Josiah Willard Gibbs, vector algebra
- 1883: Ivan Puluy, prior discovery of X-rays
- 1883: Thomas Edison, thermionic emission
- 1883: George Fitzgerald, theory of radio transmission
- 1884: Ludwig Boltzmann, Derivation of Stefan's law for black bodies
- 1885: Johann Balmer, empirical formula for hydrogen spectral lines
- 1885: James Dewar, vacuum flask
- 1886: Henri Moissan, fluorine
- 1886: Clemens Winkler, element germanium
- 1887: Heinrich Hertz, transmission, reception and reflection of radio waves
- 1887: Michelson and Morley, absence of ether drift
- 1887: Michelson and Morley, fine structure of hydrogen spectrum
- 1887: Hertz, Hallwachs, photoelectric effect
- 1887: Woldemar Voigt, anticipated Lorentz transform to derive Doppler shift
- 1889: George Fitzgerald, length contraction
- 1889: Rolond von Eotvos, torsion balance to test equivalence of inertial and gravitational mass
- 1890: Johannes Rydberg, empirical formulae for spectral lines and Rydberg constant
- 1892: Hendrick Lorentz, theory that electricity is due to charged particles
- 1893: Ernst Mach, influence of all the mass in the universe determines what is natural motion
- 1893: Wilhelm Wien, derivation of black body displacement law
- 1893: Oliver Lodge, ether could not be carried along by matter
- 1894: Rayleigh and Ramsey, element argon
- 1894: Heinrich Hertz, radio waves travel at speed of light and can be refracted and polarised
- 1894: James Dewar, liquid oxygen
- 1894: Pierre Curie, why are there no magnetic monopoles?
- 1895: , isolation of helium from uranium ore
- 1895: Wilhelm Roentgen, X-rays
- 1895: Korteweg and de Vries, Explanation of solitary waves
- 1895: Jean-Baptiste Perrin, Cathode rays are negative particles
- 1895: Pierre Curie, loss of magnetism at high temperature, (Curie point)
- 1895: Hendrick Lorentz, first form of Lorentz transformation
- 1895: Hendrick Lorentz, Electromagnetic force on a charged particle
- 1896: Wilhelm Wien, conjectured exponential black body law
- 1896: Pieter Zeeman, spectral line splitting by magnetic field
- 1896: Antoine Henri Becquerel, natural radioactivity in uranium ore
- 1897: Ludwig Boltzmann, time reversal symmetry of electromagnetism
- 1897: Friedrich Paschen, verification of Wien's black body law at long wavelengths
- 1897: Kaufmann, J.J. Thomson, measurement of electron charge to mass ratio by deflection of cathode rays
- 1897: Weichert, J.J. Thomson, conjectured existence of light electron
- 1898: James Dewar, liquid hydrogen
- 1898: Guglielmo Marconi, Transmission of signals across the English channel
- 1898: Pierre and Marie Curie, separation of radioactive elements, radium and polonium
- 1898: Ramsey and Travers, neon, krypton, xenon
- 1898: Joseph Larmor, complete form of Lorentz transformation
- 1898: Henri Poincaré, questions absolute time and simultaniety
- 1898: Ernest Rutherford, alpha and beta radiation
- 1899: Joseph John Thomson, measurement of the charge and mass of the electron
- 1899: Andre Debierne, element actinium
- 1899: Max Planck, universal scale of measurment from fundamental constants
- 1900: Lord Rayleigh, statistical derivation of short wavelength black body law
- 1900: Ernest Rutherford, first determination of a radioactive half-life
- 1900: Antoine Henri Becquerel, suggests that beta rays are electrons
- 1900: Lummer, Pringsheim, Rubens, Kurlbaum, failure of Wien's black body law at short wavelengths
- 1900: Max Planck, light quanta in black body radiation, Planck's black body law and Planck's constant
- 1900: Paul Villard, gamma rays
- 1900: Friedrich Dorn, element 86, radon
- 1900: Pyotr Lebedev, radiation pressure measured
- 1901: Max Planck, determination of Planck's constant, Boltzmann's constant, Avogadro's number and the charge on electron
- 1901: Guglielmo Marconi, Transmission of Morse signals across the Atlantic
- 1902: Philipp Lenard, intensity law in photoelectric effect
- 1902: Rutherford and Soddy, theory of transmutation by radiation and first use of the term "atomic energy"
- 1902: Kelvin, Thomson, plum pudding model of the atom
- 1902: Heaviside and Kennelly, Ionised layer capable of reflecting radio waves
- 1903: Ernest Rutherford, alpha particles have a positive charge
- 1903: Curie and Laborde, radioactive energy released by radium is large
- 1903: Johannes Stark, the power of the sun may be due to genesis of chemical elements
- 1903: Philipp Lenard, model of atom as two separated opposite charges
- 1904: Albert Einstein, energy-frequency relation of light quanta
- 1904: Hendrik Lorentz, the completed Lorentz transformations
- 1904: Hantaro Nagaoka, planetary model of the atom
- 1904: Ambrose Flemming, diode valve and rectifier
- 1904: Henri Poincaré, conjectured light speed as physical limit
- 1904: Ernest Rutherford, age of Earth by radioactvity dating
- 1905: Albert Einstein, explains Brownian motion by kinetic theory
- 1905: Albert Einstein, light-quantum theory for photoelectric law
- 1905: Albert Einstein, special relativity
- 1905: Paul Langevin, atomic theory of paramagnetism
- 1905: Percival Lowell, postulates a ninth planet beyond Neptune
- 1905: Bragg and Kleeman, alpha-particles have discrete energies
- 1905: Hermann Nernst, third law of thermodynamics
- 1905: Albert Einstein, equivalence of mass and energy
- 1906: Albert Einstein, quantum explanation of specific heat laws for solids
- 1906: Joseph Thomson, Thomson scattering of X-ray photons and number of electrons in an atom
- 1906: Ernest Rutherford, alpha particles scatter in air
- 1906: Lee de Forest, triode valve
- 1907: Albert Einstein, equivalence principle and gravitational redshift
- 1907: Urbain and von Welsbach, element 71, lutetium
- 1908: Hermann Minkowski, geometric unification of space and time
- 1908: Hans Geiger, Geiger counter for detecting radioactivity
- 1908: Heike Kammerlingh-Onnes, liquid helium
- 1908: Geiger, Royds, Rutherford, identify alpha particles as helium nuclei
- 1909: Albert Einstein, particle-wave duality of photons
- 1909: Johannes Stark, momentum of photons
- 1909: Geiger and Marsden, anomalous scattering of alpha particles on gold foil
- 1909: Robert Millikan, measured the charge on the electron
- 1910: Albert Einstein, why the sky is blue
- 1910: Matthew Hunter, isolation of element titanium
- 1910: Theodor Wulf, excess atmospheric radiation
- 1911: Victor Hess, high altitude radiation from space
- 1911: Heike Kammerlingh-Onnes, superconductivity
- 1911: Ernest Rutherford, Infers the nucleus from the alpha scattering result
- 1912: Joseph Thomson, mass spectrometry and separation of isotopes
- 1912: Henrietta Leavitt, period to luminosity relationship for Cepheid variable stars
- 1912: Robert Millikan, measurement of Planck's constant
- 1912: Peter Debye, derivation of specific heat laws to low temperatures
- 1912: Charles Wilson, cloud chamber
- 1912: Max Von Laue, X-rays are explained as electromagnetic radiation by diffraction
- 1912: Albert Einstein, curvature of space-time
- 1912: Vesto Melvin Slipher, observes blue-shift of andromeda galaxy
- 1912: Gustav Mie, non-linear field theories
- 1913: Niels Bohr, quantum theory of atomic orbits
- 1913: Niels Bohr, radioactivity as nuclear property
- 1913: Jean-Baptiste Perrin, theory of size of atoms and molecules
- 1913: Fajans and Gohring, element 91, protactinium
- 1913: Bragg and Bragg, X-ray diffraction and crystal structure
- 1913: Hans Geiger, relation of atomic number to nuclear charge
- 1913: Johannes Stark, splitting of hydrogen spectral lines in electric field
- 1913: Frederick Soddy, the term "isotope"
- 1914: James Chadwick, primary beta spectrum is continuous and shows an energy anomaly
- 1914: Harry Moseley, used X-rays to confirm the correspondence between electric charge of nucleus and atomic number
- 1914: Ejnar Hertzsprung, measured distance to Large Magellanic Cloud using Cepheid variable stars
- 1914: Rutherford, da Costa Andrade, gamma rays identified as hard photons
- 1915: Albert Einstein, general relativity
- 1915: David Hilbert, action principle for gravitational field equations
- 1915: Albert Einstein, prediction of light bending and explanation for perihelion shift of mercury
- 1916: Robert Millikan, verification of energy law in photoelectric effect
- 1916: Albert Einstein, prediction of gravitational waves
- 1916: Albert Einstein, conservation of energy-momentum in general relativity
- 1916: Karl Schwarzschild, singular static solution of gravitational field equations which describes a minimal black hole
- 1916: Arnold Sommerfeld, Further atomic quantum numbers and fine structure of spectra, fine structure constant
- 1917: Harlow Shapley, estimates the diameter of the galaxy as 100000 parsecs
- 1917: Albert Einstein, introduction of the cosmological constant and a steady state model of the universe
- 1917: Vesto Melvin Slipher, observes that most galaxies have red-shifts
- 1917: Albert Einstein, theory of stimulated emission and loss of determinism
- 1917: Willem de Sitter, describes a model of a static universe with no matter
- 1917: Arthur Eddington, gravitational energy is insufficient to account for the energy output of stars
- 1917: Rutherford, Marsden, artificial transmutation, hydrogen and oxygen from nitrogen
- 1918: Harlow Shapley, measured distance to globular clusters using Cepheid variable stars
- 1918: Harlow Shapley, determined the size and shape of our galaxy
- 1918: Reissner and Nordstrom, solution of Einstein's equations which describe a charged black hole
- 1918: Emmy Noether, The mathematical relationships between symmetry and conservation laws in classical physics
- 1918: Francis Aston, mass spectrometer
- 1918: Herman Weyl, gauge theory
- 1919: Ernest Rutherford, existence of the proton in nucleus
- 1919: Oliver Lodge, prediction of gravitational lensing
- 1919: Francis Aston, hydrogen fusion to helium will release a lot of energy
- 1919: Crommelin, Eddington, verification of Einstein's prediction of starlight deflection during an eclipse
- 1919: Arthur Eddington, predicts the size of red gaints using stellar models
- 1920: Ernest Rutherford, prediction of neutron
- 1920: Anderson, Michelson, Pease, size of star Betelgeuse using stellar interferometry
- 1920: Harkins, Eddington, Fusion of hydrogen could be the energy source of stars
- 1920: Shapley and Curtis, The Great Debate over the scale and structure of the universe
- 1921: Theodor Kaluza, unification of electromagnetics and gravity by introducing an extra dimension
- 1921: Bieler and Chadwick, evidence for a strong nuclear interaction
- 1921: Stern and Gerlach, measurement of atomic magnetic moments
- 1921: Charles Bury, electronic structure of elements from their chemistry
- 1922: Cornelius Lanczos, transformation of De Sitter universe to an expanding form
- 1922: Alexsandr Friedmann, a model of an expanding/oscillating universe with matter included
- 1923: Compton and Debye, theory of Compton effect
- 1923: Arthur Compton, verification of Compton effect confirms photon as particle
- 1923: Louis de Broglie, predicts wave nature of particles
- 1923: Davisson and Kunsman, electron diffraction
- 1923: Coster and von Hevesy, element 72, hafnium
- 1923: Herman Weyl, De Sitter universe would predict a linear relation between distance and red-shift
- 1924: Edwin Hubble, measured the distance to other galaxies using Cepheid variables proving that they lie outside our own
- 1924: Edward Appleton, ionosphere
- 1924: Satyendra Bose, derivation of Planck's law
- 1924: Bose and Einstein, statistics of photons and Bose-Einstein condensate
- 1924: Albert Einstein, statistical physics of quantum boson molecular gas
- 1924: Wolfgang Pauli, explanation of Zeeman effect and two-valuedness of electron state
- 1924: Wolfgang Pauli, the exclusion principle
- 1924: Ludwik Siberstein, claims a redshift law for nebulae
- 1925: Walter Elsasser, explanation of electron diffraction as wave property of matter
- 1925: Vesto Melvin Slipher, red-shifts of galaxies suggest a distance/velocity relationship
- 1925: Robert Millikan, rediscovery of "cosmic rays" in upper atmosphere
- 1925: Noddack, Tacke, Berg, element 75, rhenium
- 1925: Werner Heisenberg, transition amplitude theory of quantum mechanics
- 1925: Born and Jordan, matrix interpretation of Heisenberg's quantum mechanics
- 1925: Paul Dirac, q-number theory of general quantum mechanics
- 1925: Pascual Jordan, second quantisation
- 1925: Goudsmit and Uhlenbeck, electron spin
- 1925: Enrico Fermi, statistics of electrons
- 1926: Gilbert Lewis, first use of the term photon
- 1926: Oskar Klein, Kaluza-Klein theory
- 1926: Wolfgang Pauli, derivation of spectrum of hydrogen atom by matrix methods
- 1926: Erwin Schrödinger, the particle wave equation
- 1926: Erwin Schrödinger, derivation of spectrum of hydrogen atom using the wave equation
- 1926: Eckart, Pauli, Schrödinger, equivalence of wave equation and matrix mechanics
- 1926: Max Born, probability interpretation of wave function
- 1926: Albert Einstein, "God does not play dice"
- 1926: Paul Dirac, distinction between bosons and fermions, symmetry and anti-symmetry of wave function
- 1926: Dirac, Jordan, canonical transformation theory for quantum mechanics
- 1926: Klein, Fock and Gordon, relativistic wave equation for scalar particles
- 1926: Ralph Fowler, suggests that white dwarf stars are explained by the exclusion principle
- 1926: Born, Heisenberg, Jordan, model of a quantised field
- 1926: Wolfgang Pauli, momentum and position cannot be known simultaneously
- 1926: Werner Heisenberg, the uncertainty principle
- 1927: Davisson, Germer, Thomson, verification of electron diffraction by a crystal
- 1927: Jan Oort, observation of galactic rotation and spiral shape of our galaxy
- 1927: Niels Bohr, principle of complementarity
- 1927: Paul Dirac, quantisation of electromagnetic field, bosonic creation and annihilation operators, virtual particles, zero point energy
- 1927: Eugene Wigner, conservation of parity
- 1927: Friedrich Hund, quantum tunneling
- 1927: Heitler and London, quantum theory can explain chemical bonding
- 1927: Fritz London, electromagnetic gauge is phase of Schrödinger equation
- 1927: Georges Lemaitre, models of an expanding universe
- 1927: Niels Bohr, Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
- 1928: Condon, Gamow, Gurney, alpha emission is due to quantum tunnelling
- 1928: Paul Dirac, relativistic equation of the spin-half electron
- 1928: Willem Keeson, phase transition in liquid Helium
- 1928: Jordan, Pauli, quantum field theory of free fields
- 1928: Rolf Wideroe, first prototype high energy accelerator
- 1928: Heisenberg, Weyl, group representation theory in quantum mechanics
- 1929: quartz crystal clock
- 1929: Ernest Lawrence, cyclotron
- 1929: Robert van de Graaff, Van de Graaff generator
- 1929: Heisenberg, Pauli, interacting quantum field theory and divergences
- 1929: J. Robert Oppenheimer, divergence of electron self-energy
- 1929: Paul Dirac, electron sea and hole theory
- 1929: Edwin Hubble, first measurement of Hubble's constant leading to the conclusion that the Universe is expanding
- 1929: Bothe, Kolhorster, cosmic rays are charged particles
- 1930: Clyde Tombaugh, Pluto
- 1930: Becker, Bothe, observed neutral rays later identified as neutrons
- 1930: Paul Dirac, systematic canonical quantisation
- 1930: Arthur Eddington, Einstein's static universe is unstable
- 1930: Hartree and Fock, multi-particle quantum mechanics
- 1931: Dirac, Oppenheimer, Weyl, prediction of anti-matter
- 1931: Albert Einstein, discard cosmological constant, oscillating cosmology
- 1931: Georges Lemaitre, the primeval atom as origin of the universe
- 1931: Isidor Rabi, principle of population inversion
- 1931: Wolfgang Pauli, neutrino as explanation for missing energy and spin in weak nuclear decay
- 1931: Eugene Wigner, symmetry in quantum mechanics
- 1931: Paul Dirac, magnetic monopoles can explain quantum of charge
- 1932: Raman and Bhagavantam, Verification that photon is spin one
- 1932: Einstein, De Sitter, Flat expanding cosmology
- 1932: James Chadwick, identified the neutron
- 1932: Knoll and Ruska, electron microscope
- 1932: Carl Anderson, positron from cosmic rays
- 1932: Cockroft and Walton, linear proton accelerators to 700 keV and verification of mass/energy equivalence
- 1932: Karl Jansky, first radio astronomy
- 1932: Dmitri Iwanenko, Neutron as a constituent of nucleus
- 1932: Richard Tolman, thermodynamics of oscillating cyclic universe
- 1932: Vladimir Fock, Fock space
- 1932: Urey, Brickwedde, Murphy, Washburn, deuterium
- 1932: Werner Heisenberg, Nucleus is composed of protons and neutrons
- 1932: Lev Davidovich Landau, proposed existence of neutron stars
- 1933: Paul Ehrenfest, theory of second order phase transitions
- 1933: Blackett and Occhialini, electron-positron creation and annihilation
- 1933: Esterman, Frisch and Stern, measurement of proton magnetic moment
- 1933: Baade and Zwicky, collapse of a white dwarf may set off a supernova and leave a neutron star
- 1933: Fritz Zwicky, dark matter in galactic clusters
- 1933: Arthur Milne, cosmological principle of large scale homogeneity
- 1933: Harlow Shapley, observation of structure in galaxy distribution
- 1934: Pavel Cherenkov, Cherenkov radiation
- 1934: Chadwick and Goldhaber, precise measurement of neutron mass
- 1934: Chadwick and Goldhaber, measurement of nuclear force
- 1934: Francis Perrin, neutrino is massless
- 1934: Grote Reber, discrete radio source in Cygnus
- 1934: Joliot and Curie-Joliot, induced radioactivity
- 1934: Enrico Fermi, Fermi theory of weak interaction and beta decay
- 1934: Esterman and Stern, magnetic moment of neutron
- 1934: Fermi and Hahn, fission observed
- 1934: Paul Dirac, polarisation of the vacuum and more divergence in QED
- 1935: Yukawa, Stueckelberg, theory of strong nuclear force and the pi-meson
- 1935: J. Robert Oppenheimer, spin statistics
- 1935: Enrico Fermi, hypothesis of transuranic elements
- 1935: Robertson, Walker, most general homogenious isotropic universe
- 1935: Einstein, Podolsky, Rosen, EPR Paradox of non-locality in quantum mechanics
- 1935: Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, calculation of mass limit for stellar collapse of a white dwarf star
- 1935: Erwin Schrödinger, quantum cat paradox
- 1935: Robert Watson-Watt, radar
- 1936: Niels Bohr, compound nucleus
- 1936: Anderson and Neddermeyer, muon in cosmic rays
- 1936: Leon Brillouin, theory of wave guides
- 1936: Breit and Coll, isotopic spin
- 1936: Alan Turing, computability
- 1937: Pyotr Kapitza, superfluidity of helium II
- 1937: Perrier and Segre, element 37, technetium, first element made artificially
- 1937: Majorana, symmetric theory of electron and positron
- 1937: Julian Schwinger, Neutron spin is half
- 1937: Blau, Wambacher, photographic emulsion as particle detector
- 1937: Bloch and Nordsieck, operator normal ordering
- 1937: John Wheeler, S-matrix theory
- 1938: Oppenheimer and Serber, there is an upper mass limit for stability of neutron stars
- 1938: Bethe, Critchfield, von Weizsacker, stars are powered by nuclear fusion CN-cycle
- 1938: Isador Rabi, Magnetic Resonance
- 1938: Hahn, Strassman, fission induced with neutrons
- 1938: Oskar Klein, new field equations from higher dimensional Kaluza-Klein theory
- 1938: Fritz Zwicky, clusters of galaxies
- 1938: Ernest Stueckelberg, suggests baryon number conservation
- 1938: Hendrick Kramers, mass renormalisation
- 1938: Frisch and Meitner, theory of uranium fission
- 1939: Joliot and Curie-Joliot, Szilard, theory of nuclear chain reaction
- 1939: Oppenheimer and Snyder, a collapsing neutron star will form a black hole.
- 1939: Bohr, Wheeler, Khariton, Zel'dovich ..., theory of U235 fission and chain reaction.
- 1939: Bloch and Alvarez, measurement of the neutron magnetic moment
- 1939: Rossi, Van Norman, Hilbery, Muon decay
- 1939: Teller, Szilard, Einstein, warning letter to Roosevelt
- 1939: Peierls and Frisch, critical mass and theory of A-Bomb
- 1939: Marguerite Perey, element 87, francium
- 1940: MacMillan, Abelson, element 93, neptunium, first transuranian elements
- 1940: Corson, MacKenzie, Segre, element 85, astatine synthesised
- 1941: MacMillan, Kennedy, Seaborg, Wahl, element 94, plutonium, second transuranian elements
- 1941: Lev Davidovich Landau, theory of superfluids
- 1941: Rossi and Hall, Muon decay used to verify relativistic time dilation
- 1941: Mckellar and Adams, Cosmic cyanogen observed to be at temperature of CBR, but significance not recognised
- 1941: "Manhattan Project" is founded to develop atomic bomb
- 1942: Enrico Fermi, the first self sustaining fission reaction
- 1942: Grote Reber, radio map of the sky
- 1943: Ernest Stueckelberg, renormalisation of QED
- 1943: Sakata, Inoue, theory of pion decay to muons
- 1944: Lars Onsager, general theory of phase transitions
- 1944: Seaborg, James, Morgan, Ghiorso, Thompson, elements 95; americium, 96; curium
- 1944: Leprince-Ringuet and Lheritier, the K+ found in cosmic rays
- 1945: Robert Oppenheimer et al, atomic bomb
- 1945: first electronic computer ENIAC
- 1946: James Hey Discovery of radio source Cygnus A
- 1946: George Gamow Cold big bang model
- 1946: Bloch and Purcell Nuclear magnetic resonance Richard Feynman
- 1947: Claude Shannon, information theory
- 1947: Conversi, Pancini, Piccioni, indication that the muon is not the mediator of the strong force
- 1947: Hartmut Kallman, scintillation counter
- 1947: Denis Gabor, theory of holograms
- 1947: Powell, Occhialini, negative pion found
- 1947: Willis Lamb, fine structure of hydrogen spectrum, the Lamb shift
- 1947: Hans Bethe, renormalisation of Lamb shift calculation
- 1947: Kusch and Folley, measurement of the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron
- 1947: Hartland Snyder, quantised space-time
- 1948: Tomonaga, Schwinger, Feynman, renormalisation of QED
- 1948: Alpher, Bethe and Gamow, explain nucleosynthesis in hot big bang
- 1948: Alpher and Herman, prediction of cosmic background radiation
- 1948: Bondi, Gold, Hoyle, steady state theory of the universe
- 1948: Goldhaber and Goldhaber, experimental proof that beta particles are electrons
- 1948: Richard Feynman, path integral approach to quantum theory
- 1948: Bardeen, Brattain, Shockley, semi-conductors and transistors
- 1948: Snell and Miller, Decay of the neutron
- 1948: Freeman Dyson, Equivalence of Feynman and Schwinger-Tomonaga QED
- 1948: Hendrik Casimir, Theory of Casimir force
- 1949: Leighton, Anderson, Seriff, Muon is spin half
- 1949: Seaborg, Ghiorso, Thompson, element 97, berkelium
- 1949: Haxel, Jensen, Mayer, Suess, nuclear shell model
- 1949: Fred Hoyle, first use of the term "big bang"
- 1950: Paul Dirac, first suggestion of string theory
- 1950: Seaborg, Ghiorso, Street, Thompson, element 98, californium
- 1950: Jan Oort, theory of comet origins
- 1950: Bjorklund, Crandall, Moyer, York, Neutral pion
- 1950: Albert Einstein, Einstein's failed unified theory
- 1951: Smith and Baade, identify a radio galaxy
- 1951: Petermann, Stueckelberg, renormalisation group
- 1952: Courant, Livingston, Snyder, Strong focusing principle for particle accelerators
- 1952: Alvarez, Glaser, bubble chamber
- 1952: Seaborg et al, elements 99; einsteinium, 100; fermium
- 1952: Walter Baade, resolves confusion over two different types of Cepheid variable stars
- 1952: Edward Teller et al, hydrogen bomb
- 1952: Joseph Weber, described the principle of the maser
- 1953: Gell-Mann and Nishijima, strangeness
- 1953: Gerard de Vaucouleurs, galaxy superclusters and large scale inhomogenieties
- 1953: Charles Townes, maser
- 1953: Alpher, Herman, Follin, first recognition of the horizon problem in cosmology
- 1954: Yang and Mills, non-abelian gauge theory
- 1954: Low and Gell-Mann, renormalisation group revisited
- 1955: caesium atomic clock
- 1955: Martin Ryle, radio telescope interferometry
- 1955: John Wheeler, describes the space-time foam at the Planck scale
- 1955: Ilya Prigogine, thermodynamics of irreversible processes
- 1955: Carl von Weizsacker, Multiple Quantisation and ur-theory
- 1955: Seaborg et al, element 101, mendelevium
- 1955: Chamberlain, Segre and Wiegand anti-proton
- 1956: Reines and Cowan, neutrino detection
- 1956: Cork, Lambertson, Piccioni, Wenzel, evidence for anti-neutron
- 1956: Block, Lee and Yang, weak interaction could violate parity
- 1956: Reines and Cowan, anti-neutrino detection
- 1956: Erwin Muller, field ion microscope and first images of individual atoms
- 1956: Cook, Lambertson, Piconi, Wentzel, anti-neutron
- 1968: Abdus Salam, 2-component neutrino
- 1957: Burbidge, Burbidge, Hoyle, Fowler Formation of light elements in stars
- 1957: Friedman, Lederman, Telegdi, Wu, parity violation in weak decays
- 1957: Bardeen, Cooper, Schrieffer, BCS theory of superconductivity
- 1957: nobelium
- 1957: Hugh Everett, Many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics
- 1957: Feynman, Gell-Mann, Marshak, Sudarshan, V-A theory of weak interactions
- 1957: John Wheeler, pregeometry and space-time foam
- 1958: Townes and Schawlow, theory of laser
- 1958: Martin Ryle, evidence for evolution of distant cosmological radio sources
- 1958: Seaborg et al, element 102, nobelium
- 1958: Gary Feinberg, predicts that muon neutrino is distinct from electron neutrino
- 1958: David Finkelstein, resolves the nature of the black hole event horizon
- 1959: MIT, radar echo from Venus
- 1959: Ramsey, Kleppner, Goldenberg, hydrogen maser atomic clock
- 1959: Tulio Regge, theory of Regge poles
- 1960: Theodore Maiman, ruby laser
- 1960: Martin Kruskal, new coordinates to study Schwarzschild black hole
- 1960: Eugene Wigner, the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in natural science
- 1960: Pound and Rebka, measurement of gravitational red-shift
- 1960: Matthews and Sandage, optical identification of a quasar
- 1961: Sheldon Glashow, introduces neutral intermediate boson of electro-weak interactions
- 1961: Jeoffrey Goldstone, Theory of massless particles in spontaneous symmetry breaking (Goldstone boson)
- 1961: Gell-Mann and Ne'eman, The eightfold way, SU(3) octet symmetry of hadrons
- 1961: Robert Dicke, Weak anthropic principle
- 1961: Robert Hofstadter, necleons have an internal structure
- 1961: Ghiorso, Sikkeland, Larsh, Latimer, element 103, lawrencium
- 1961: Edward Ohm, prior detection of CMBR, but not identified
- 1961: Edward Lorenz, chaos theory
- 1961: Yuri Gagarin, first man in space
- 1961: Geoffrey Chew, nuclear democracy and the bootstrap model
- 1961: Tulio Regge, simplicial lattice general relativity
- 1962: Gell-Mann and Ne'eman, Prediction of Omega minus particle
- 1962: Leith and Upatnieks, first hologram
- 1962: Giacconi, Gursky, Paolini, Rossi, detection of cosmic X-rays
- 1962: Brian Josephson, theory of Jesephson effect
- 1962: Lederman, Steinberger, Schwartz, evidence for more than one type of neutrino
- 1962: Hogarth, proposes relation between cosmological and thermodynamic arrows of time
- 1962: Thomas Gold, time-symmetric universe
- 1962: Benoit Mandelbrot, fractal images
- 1963: Samios et al, Baryon Omega minus found
- 1963: Philip Anderson, Gauge theories can evade Goldstone theorem
- 1963: Roy Kerr, solution for a rotating black hole
- 1963: Schmidt, Greensite, Sandage, quasars are distant
- 1963: Nicola Cabibbo, weak mixing angle
- 1964: Brout, Englert, Higgs, Higgs mechanism of symmetry breaking
- 1964: Hoyle, Taylor, Zeldovich, big bang nucleosynthesis of helium
- 1964: Steven Weinberg, baryon number is probably not conserved
- 1964: Christenson, Cronin, Fitch, Turlay, CP violation in weak interactions
- 1964: Gell-Mann, Zweig, quark theory of hadrons
- 1964: Murray Gell-Mann, current algebra
- 1964: Bjorken and Glashow, prediciton of SU(4) flavour symmetry and charm
- 1964: Roger Penrose, black holes must contain singularities
- 1964: Ginzburg, Doroshkevich, Novikov, Zel'dovich, black holes have no hair
- 1964: Salpeter and Zel'dovich, black holes power quasars and radio galaxies
- 1964: John Bell, a quantum inequality which limits the possibilities for local hidden variable theories
- 1964: John Wheeler, foundations of canonical formulism for gravity
- 1964: Soviets, element 104, rutherfordium
- 1964: Salam, Ward, SU(2)xU(1) model of electro-weak unification
- 1965: Thomas Kibble, Higgs mechanism for Yang-Mills theory
- 1965: Greenberg, Han, Nambu, SU(3) colour symmetry to explain statistics of quark model
- 1965: Zabusky and Kruskal, Numerical studies of solitons
- 1965: Penzias and Wilson, detection of the cosmic background radiation
- 1965: Dicke, Peebles, Roll, Wilkinson, indentification of cosmic background radiation
- 1965: Rees and Sciama, quasars were more numerable in the past
- 1966: X-ray source Cygnus X-1 discovered
- 1967: Steven Weinberg, electro-weak unification
- 1967: Bell and Hewish, pulsars
- 1967: Irwin Shapiro, radar measurment of relativistic time delays to Mercury
- 1967: John Wheeler, introduced the term "black hole"
- 1967: Andrei Sakharov, three criteria for cosmological abundance of matter over anti-matter
- 1967: Soviets, element 105, dubnium
- 1968: Joseph Weber, first attempt at a gravitational wave detector
- 1968: Brandon Carter, Strong anthropic principle
- 1968: Gabriele Veneziano, Dual resonance model for strong interaction, beginning of string theory
- 1968: James Bjorken, theory of scaling behavior in deep inelastic scattering
- 1968: Richard Feynman, scaling and parton model of nucleons
- 1969: Kendall, Friedman, Taylor Deep inelastic scattering experiments find structure inside protons.
- 1969: Ellis, Hawking and Penrose, singularity theorems for the big bang
- 1969: Roger Penrose, conjectures that singularities are hidden by cosmic censorship
- 1969: Donald Lynden-Bell, black hole at the centre of galactic nuclei
- 1969: Raymond Davis, solar neutrino detector
- 1969: Charles Misner, cosmological horizon problem revisited
- 1969: Robert Dicke, cosmological flatness problem
- 1969: Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon
- 1969: first attempts to verify solar deflection of radio waves from quasars
- 1969: David Finkelstein, Space-time code
- 1970: Claude Lovelace, Veneziano amplitude has special properties in 26 dimensions
- 1970: Nambu, Nielsen, Susskind, realisation that the dual resonance model is string theory
- 1970: Goto, Hara, Nambu, Action for bosonic string as area of world sheet
- 1970: Simon Van der Meer, stochastic cooling for particle beams
- 1970: Glashow, Iliopoulos, Maiani, GIM mechanism and prediction of charm quark
- 1970: Stephen Hawking, the surface area of a black holes event horizon always increases
- 1971: Kenneth Wilson, the operator product expansion and the renormalisation group for the strong force
- 1971: Dimopolous, Fayet, Gol'fand, Lichtman Supersymmetry
- 1971: Ramond, Neveu, Schwarz String theory of bosons and fermions with critical dimension 10
- 1971: 't Hooft, Veltman, Lee, renormalisation of elctro-weak model
- 1971: Roger Penrose, spin networks
- 1971: Bolton, Murdin, Webster Cygnus X-1 identified as black hole candidate
- 1972: Jacob Bekenstein, black hole entropy
- 1972: Fritsch, Gell-Mann, Bardeen , Quantum Chromodynamics
- 1972: Kirzhnits, Linde, Electro-Weak phase transition
- 1972: Roger Penrose, Twistors
- 1972: Salam, Pati, SU(4)xSU(4) unification and proton decay
- 1972: Tom Bolton Cygnus X-1 identified as black hole
- 1973: Wess and Zumino, space-time supersymmetry
- 1973: Ostriker and Peebles, dark matter in galaxies
- 1973: CERN, Evidence of weak neutral currents
- 1973: 't Hooft, Gross, Politzer, Wilczek, Coleman, theory of asymptotic freedom in non-abelian gauge theories
- 1973: Klebesadel, Strong, Olson, Gamma Ray Bursts are cosmic
- 1973: Edward Tyron, the universe as a quantum fluctuation
- 1974: Yoneya, Scherk, Schwarz interpretation of string theory as a theory of gravity
- 1974: Ting and Richter, found J/psi, charmed quark
- 1974: Kenneth Wilson, lattice gauge theory
- 1974: Taylor and Hulse, binary pulsar and relativistic effects
- 1974: Kobayashi and Maskawa, CKM mixing matrix; CP violation in weak interaction requires three generations
- 1974: Georgi and Glashow, SU(5) as Grand Unified Theory and prediction of proton decay
- 1974: Georgi, Weinberg, Quinn, Convergence of coupling constants at GUT scale
- 1974: 't Hooft, Okun, Polyakov, heavy magnetic monopoles exist in GUTs.
- 1974: Stephen Hawking, black hole radiation and thermodynamics
- 1974: Soviets and Americans, element 106, seaborgium
- 1975: Martin Perl Tau lepton
- 1975: Gail Hanson quark jets
- 1975: Chincarini and Rood lumpiness in galaxy distributions
- 1975: Unruh and Davies acceleration radiation effect
- 1975: Mitchell Feigenbaum, universality in chaotic non-linear systems
- 1975: Belavin, Polyakov, Schwartz, Tyupkin instantons in Yang-Mills theory
- 1976: Scherk, Gliozzi, Olive Supersymmetric string theory
- 1976: Deser, Freedman, Van Nieuwenhuizen, Ferrara, Zumino Supergravity
- 1976: Levine and Vessot precision test of gravitational time dilation on rocket
- 1976: Gerard 't Hooft the instantons solution of the U(1) anomaly
- 1976: Soviets element 107, bohrium
- 1977: James Elliot, rings of Uranus
- 1977: Olive and Montenen, conjecture of elecro-magnetic duality
- 1977: Fermilab, bottom quark
- 1977: Klaus von Klitzing, quantum Hall effect
- 1977: Tifft, Gregory, Joeveer, Einasto, Thompson, clusters chains and voids in galaxy dustributions
- 1977: Berkley, dipole anisotropy on cosmic background radiation
- 1977: Leon Lederman, upsilon, bottom quark
- 1977: Gunn, Schramm, Steigman, cosmological constraints imply that there are only three light neutrinos
- 1978: Charon, moon of Pluto
- 1978: Taylor and Hulse, evidence for gravitational radiation of binary pulsar
- 1978: Cremmer, Julia, Nahm, Scherk, 11-dimensional supergravity
- 1978: Prescott, Taylor, elctro-weak effect on electron polarisation
- 1979: Voyager, rings of Jupiter
- 1979: John Preskill, cosmological monopole problem
- 1979: Walsh, Carswell, Weymannquasar doubled by gravitational lensing
- 1979: DESY, evidence for gluons in hadron Jets
- 1979: Alexei Starobinsky inflationary universe
- 1980: Frederick Reines, Evidence of Neutrino oscillations
- 1980: DESY, measurement of gluon spin
- 1980: Alan Guth inflationary early universe
- 1981: Witten, Schoen, Yau positive energy theorem in general relativity
- 1981: Green and Schwarz, Type I superstring theory
- 1981: Binnig, Rohrer scanning tunneling electron microscope
- 1981: Witten and Alvarez-Gaume Difficulty of getting standard model from 11-D supergravity because of chiral modes
- 1981: Alexander Polyakov Path integral quantisation of strings, conformal symmetry and critical dimension
- 1981: Linde, Albrecht, Steinhardt new inflationary universe
- 1982: Green and Schwarz, Type II superstring theory
- 1982: Alain Aspect an experiment to confirm non-local aspects of quantum theory
- 1982: Darnstadt element 109, meitnerium
- 1982: limits on proton lifetime rule out many Grand Unified Theories
- 1983: Carlo Rubbia et al, W and Z bosons at CERN
- 1983: Andrei Linde chaotic inflationary universe
- 1984: Green and Schwarz, anomaly cancellations in superstring theory
- 1984: Darnstadt element 108, hassium
- 1985: Gross, Harvey, Martinec, Rohm, heterotic string theory
- 1985: David Deutsch, theory of quantum computing
- 1986: Bednorz and Mueller, high temperature superconductivity
- 1986: Abhay Ashtekar, new variables for canonical quantum gravity
- 1986: Geller, Huchra, Lapparent, bubble structure of galaxy distributions
- 1987: , supernova 1987a
- 1987: Masatoshi Koshibas, detection of neutrinos from a supernova
- 1988: Atiyah, Witten, topological quantum field theories
- 1988: Smolin and Rovelli, loop representation of quantum gravity
- 1989: SLAC, evidence that number of light neutrinos is 3 from Z width
- 1989: Tim Berners-Lee, The World Wide Web
- 1989: Bennett and Brassard, first quantum computer
- 1990: John Mather, black body spectrum of cosmic background radiation from COBE
- 1991: CERN, confirmation that number of light neutrinos is 3
- 1991: Connes, Lott, particle models from non-commutative geometry
- 1991: BATSE, Gamma Ray Burst distribution is isotropic
- 1992: Mather and Smoot, angular fluctuations in cosmic background radiation with COBE
- 1993: Aspinwall, Morrison, Greene, Topology change in string theory
- 1994: Philip Gibbs, event-symmetric space-time
- 1994: Fermilab, Top Quark
- 1994: 't Hooft, Susskind Holographic principle
- 1994: Seiberg and Witten, Electro-magnetic duality in supersymmetric gauge theory
- 1994: Hubble Space Telescope, Evidence for black hole at the centre of galaxy M87
- 1994: Peter Shor, factorisation algorithm for a quantum computer
- 1994: Hull, Townsend, Unity of String Dualities
- 1994: Darnstadt element 110
- 1995: Witten and Townsend, M-Theory
- 1995: Joseph Polchinski, D-Branes
- 1995: Cornell, Wieman, Anderson Bose-Einstein condensate of atomic gas
- 1995: CERN, Creation of Anti-hydrogen atoms
- 1995: Mayor and Queloz, first extra-solar planet orbiting an ordinary star
- 1995: Darnstadt element 111
- 1996: Strominger, Vafa, D-branes and black-holes
- 1996: Cumrun Vafa, F-theory
- 1996: Steven Lamoreaux, measurement of Casimir force
- 1996: Darnstadt element 112
- 1996: Banks, Fischler, Shenker, Susskind, M-theory as a matrix model
- 1997: BepoSAX, location of Gamma Ray Bursts demonstrates that they are extragalactic
- 1997: Juan Maldacena, AdS/CFT duality
- 1997: SLAC, photon-photon scattering produces electron-positron pairs
- 1998: Perlmutter, Garnavich et al, supernovae observations suggest that the expansion of the universe is accelerating
- 1998: Super-Kamiokande, neutrino oscillation demonstrated
- 1998: CERN, Fermilab, time reversal assymetry observed for K meson decay
- 2000: Fermilab, tau neutrino observed
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