Chronology of Important Scientific Developments  

The history of scientific accomplishment related to the development of electromagnetics is nicely partioned into three time periods: Pre-calculus, Post-calculus and pre-Maxwell, and finally Maxwell & Beyond. Following is a (certainly not complete) list of items relating to the development of electromagnetics. Most of these items are taken verbatim from three main sources: Fuller's appendix[1] on the Chronology of Scientific Discoveries and Artifacts, Read's[2] section on The History of Light Waves and Photons, and Jackson's[3] Introduction and Survey.

• Pre-calculus items
  • 3400 B.C.
    Mesopotanian evidence that number language preceded written language by thousands of years.
  • 2100 B.C.
    Spherical geometry in Babylon.
  • 600 B.C.
    Laws of right-angle triangle - Pythagoras.
  • 300 B.C.
    Euclid's geometry.
  • 1260 A.D.
    Pivoted magnetic compass.
  • 1270-1280
    Lenses and spectacles.
  • 1300
    Ships compass.
  • 1450
    Printing established a universal symbolism for algebraic numerals.
  • 1460
    Trigonometry - Regiomontanus.
  • 1522
    First arithmetic book is published in England.
  • 1540
    Invention of mathematical symbols - Vieta.
  • 1600
    Treatise on terrestrial magnetism and electricity - Gilbert. Slide rule - Oughtred.
  • 1639
    Invention of coordinate geometry - Descartes.
  • 1657
    Fermat's principle of least time.
• Post-calculus and pre-Maxwell
  • 1677
    Calculus - Newton and Leibnitz.
  • 1678
    Huygen's develops a wave theory in which each point of a wave-front is regarded as a source of secondary wavelets.
  • 1687
    Newton's Principia, laws of gravitation and motion.
  • 1767
    History of Electricity - Priestly.
  • 1771-1773
    Cavendish's experiments in electrostatics.
  • 1785
    Coulomb's law.
  • 1788
    Galvanic electricity.
  • 1797
    Geometric interpretation of complex numbers.
  • 1800
    Herschel discovers infra-red radiation, and infers that radiant heat has essentially the same nature as visible light.
  • 1808
    Discovery of polarization of light - Malus.
  • 1816
    Fresnel uses the wave theory to calculate diffraction patterns.
  • 1819
    Oersted observes that wires carrying electric currents produced deflections of permanent magnetic dipoles placed in their neighborhood.
  • 1820
    Biot-Savart law.
  • 1820-1825
    Ampère's experiments with magnetism and currents.
  • 1827
    Ohm's law.
  • 1832
    Principles of induction - Faraday.
  • 1854
    Riemann's geometry.
• Maxwell & Beyond
  • 1864
    Maxwell reads a paper to the Royal Society, entitled `A dynamical theory of the electromagnetic field'.
  • 1887
    Hertz's experiments and conclusions on electromagnetic waves.
  • 1892
    A.C. motor - Tesla.
  • 1895
    X-ray - Roentgen.
  • 1897
    Electron discovered.
  • 1901
    Transatlantic radio.
  • 1905
    Photoelectric effect and the quantization of the radiation field.
    Special theory of relativity - Einstein.
  • 1922
    Radar.
  • 1924
    de Broglie argues that particles of matter have a wavelength, $\lambda=h/p$, where h is Planck's constant.
  • 1926
    Schrödinger applies de Broglie's ideas and develops wave mechanics.
  • 1929
    Heisenberg and Pauli develop the general theory of quantum electrodynamics.
  • 1960
    The first laser is operated.