When does the engineering started? It is a very complex question. Because, people started to construct simple machines before engineering profession is defined. According to that concept we may say ancient times. Because people started to produce simple machines like pulleys, lever and wheels at that time. Some people also started to build tools very long long time ago. These are all before 5000 BC. Except those we may check the written sources to track.
BC 6000; first boats
BC 4000; first wheeled vehicle
BC 3300; first sailing ship
BC 4; Rome started constructing aqueduct system.
644; Wind power
650; Windmill
1010; Flight
1440; Printing press
1589; Knitting machine
1620; Submarine
1629; Branca steam turbine
1673; Huygens motor
1690; Piston
1755; Sewing machine
1799; Volta’s electrical battery invention
1804; Gas lighting
1810; Steam powered printing press
1825; First passanger locomotive
1827; Water turbine
1837; First patent for mechanical refrigeration
1839; First fuel cell
1841; Stapler patented
1843; First fax machine
1847; Instute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) founded
1850; First dishwasher
1850; Underwater telegraph cable
1851; Isaac Singer patented sewing machine. One of the biggest development in history of mechanical engineering is the sewing machine. Sewing machine is not just an ordinary tool. It is shown as example for complicated machine at the mechanical engineering universities.
1851; First patent for mechanical washing machine
1852; Electric fire alarm system
1852; Burglar alarm
1854; Bunsen burner
1855; Rayon invented
1857; First mechanical elevator
1860-1871; Maxwell’s equations
1861; Running a motor by solar power
1861; Transcontinental telegraph
1862; First man made plastic
1863; First underground railway
1865; MIT, Massachusetts institute of technology is opened with 15 students. This is the number one in engineering and technology according to QS World University Rankings 2021. You may reach their courses online through their open course website OCW; https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm. So you have no excuse, you have the best university courses online available.
1865; First pipeline, made of wood, carrying crude oil
1868; First traffic signals invented
1868; First commercial typewriter
1868; Compressed air locomotive brake
1876; Alexander Graham Bell, patented telephone. A new era started at the communications. A milestone for electronics and communication engineering.
1878; Solar powered steam engine
1878; First two stroke petrol engine
1882; First trolley bus
1885; Automobile by Karl Benz
1885; Motorbike by Gottlieb Daimler
1886; Commercial dishwasher
1887; Radar
1888; Electricity generation
1888; Ballpoint pen is invented
1891; Electric toaster
1895; First petrol driven bus
1895; X-rays
1900; Zeppelin
1900; Escalator
1901; transatlantic radio signals
1901; First hybrid car
1904; Geothermal electricity
1907; Helicopter flight
1908; Electric vacuum cleaner
1908; Electric washing machine
1911; First home market refrigerator by General electric
1914; First bomber aircraft
1914; Tank
1919; Pop-up toaster
1924; First Wankel (Rotary) engine
1924; Television is introduced, it was using mechanical rotating discs
1926; Rocket propellant
1927; Transatlantic non-stop flight
1935; Ballpoint pen was invented, in 1935 commercially produced.
1937; Jet engine is invented
1937; Photocopier is invented. In 1942 patented and in 1959 first commercial machine produced by Xerox
1938; Tumble dryer
1942; Photocopier was invented in 1937, in 1942 patented and in 1959 first commercial machine is produced
1943; Artificial kidney (dialysis machine) is tested
1944; Calculator
1947; invention of the first transistor
1948; barcode is used in an attempt to automate local grocery product reading
1948; first atomic clock
1950; first external cardiac pacemaker
1950; First microwave oven is patented
1951; First usable electricity from nuclear fission
1953; First patent for airbag
1954; First nuclear power station
1954; First photovoltaic cell is demonstrated
1956; Artificial heart is patented, 1982 first artificial heart is designed
1957; first wearable cardiac pacemaker
1957; The first satellite, Sputnik 1
1957; thrystor
1958; first integrated circuit
1958; First photovoltaic satellite
1961; object oriented programming
1961; First man in space
1962; apollo guidance computer
1964; BASIC computer language
1964; Computer mouse is invented
1965; Moore’s law
1967; ATM/ Cash point
1968; Liquid crystal display
1968; Jet Ski is patented
1969; internet, first message sent via ARPANET
1969; First man on the moon
1970; SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) was created at UC Berkeley as a class project.
1971; First space station
1972; HP-35. The world’s first handheld scientific calculator
1972; Raychem introduced first self regulating heat tracing cable
1973; first 2d MRI (magnetic resonance image )
1973; Mobile phone is invented
1974; Catalytic converter
1976; VHS (video home system)
1979; compact disc audio player by Phillips
1980; inverter driven air conditioner by Toshiba
1980; Rubik cube
1981; 3D printing
1981; Navigation system, ‘Honda Electro Gyrocator’, was released
1983; First maglev train starts operating
1984; Macintosh
1989; Word wide web www.
1990; Hubble space telescope
1995; Fermat’s last theorem is proved
1997; IBM’s Deep Blue beats chess grandmaster Kasparov
1997; Kyoto’s protocol
1997; First probe on Mars
1998; Robot assisted heart bypass
2006; Extracting water from atmosphere is developed
2007; First solar powered crossing of the Atlantic Ocean taking 29 days
2012; Synthetic meat