Science and Technology
It was not merely the field of human experimentation in which America drew inspiration from Nazi scientists. America's earliest efforts to explore space utilized a modified German V-2 rocket, and the entire NASA program was developed with the aid of German rocket scientists like Werner von Braun. Other major technological breakthroughs also came from sources which the Establishment would rather not advertise, from rocket scientist and occultist Jack Parsons to the acidheads who created early mass market personal computers. Then there are the technologies which are frustratingly just out of reach for most of us, developed in secret for likely dark purposes. Ben Rich, former director of Lockheed Martin's top secret Skunkworks facility, once made some interesting remarks on this topic. “We already have the means to travel among the stars, but these technologies are locked up in black projects and it would take an act of God to ever get them out to benefit humanity," he noted shortly before his death. If this technology is responsible for some UFO sightings, one can only imagine the benefits to civil society which might be derived from such propulsion systems and energy sources.
1940 - Plutonium is synthesized for the first time at the University of California, Berkeley.
1942 - A German V-2 rocket becomes the first man-made object to enter space.
1942 - Despite the concerns of many scientists, the chemical DDT goes into widespread use as a pesticide. It will prove to have disastrous consequences for human health and the environment.
1943 - Albert Hofmann discovers the psychedelic properties of LSD.
1945 - Despite the fears of some scientists that a nuclear explosion had the potential to ignite the atmosphere, the United States detonates the first atomic bomb, code-named Trinity, in New Mexico. The bomb was developed by The Manhattan Project, headed by J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Although the project employed over 100,000 people, only a few dozen people knew its true purpose. Soviet spies eventually learned what was going on, but the truth was hidden from both the American people and the Axis powers, demonstrating the extent of the government's ability to keep secrets through the compartmentalization of knowledge.
1946 - In Project Diana, the U.S. Army Signals Corps bounces a radio signal off of the moon for the first time.
1947 - The U.S. uses a V-2 rocket to launch the first animals (fruit flies) into space.
1951 - Experimental Breeder Reactor-I becomes the first nuclear power plant to produce electricity.
1952 - The first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DMS-I) is published. Its creation is largely thanks to the army's systematic efforts to deal with traumatized World War II veterans. The manual is published by the American Psychiatric Association at a time when it is headed by MKULTRA doctor Donald Ewen Cameron. The various editions of the manual have been subject to numerous criticisms over the years, particularly the financial relationships between many of its authors and manufacturers of psychiatric medications.
1955 - The potent psychedelic Dimethyltryptamine is isolated and formally identified by western scientists.
1957 - Russia launches Sputnik, the first satellite, initiating the Space Race between Russia and the United States.
1957 - The failure of a cooling unit at a plutonium production facility near Kyshtym in Russia leads to an explosion. Large amounts of radioactive material are released into the surrounding area. At the time, it is the worst nuclear disaster in history, to be surpassed only by Chernobyl and Fukushima. Despite the scale of the incident, it is covered up by the Russian government for decades.
1958 - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is created.
1958 - The U.S. launches its first satellite, Explorer 1.
1959 - Russian satellite Luna 3 takes the first-ever photographs of the far side of the Moon.
1960 - At the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Frank Drake begins Project Ozma, which will develop into the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Program.
1961 - Russian Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to enter space.
1961 - In Operation Plowshare, the U.S. begins a series of experiments in using nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes including large-scale construction. The tests will continue until 1977 when they are halted amidst widespread public outcry over the radioactive fallout and water contamination they are producing.
1965 - The Atomic Energy Commission launches an experimental nuclear reactor known as SNAP-10A into space. Components malfunction and it later begins shedding parts and possibly radioactive materials.
1966 - The unmanned Russian probe Luna 9 makes the first ever soft landing on the moon. The American Surveyor 1 lands four months later.
1969 - Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin [33] become the first men to walk on the moon.
1969 - ARPANET, the military forerunner to the Internet, is established.
1970 - Crude oil production in the U.S. peaks. From this point forward the country is increasingly dependent on foreign sources of oil.
1970 - The unmanned Russian spacecraft Venera 7 becomes the first human vehicle to make a soft landing on another planet, Venus.
1971 - Soviet Probe Mars 3 becomes the first vehicle to make a soft landing on Mars.
1973 - The first genetically modified organism is created.
1973 - The United States launches its first space station, Skylab.
1974 - At the government's behest, researchers at the Medical College of Virginia perform a study on the medical benefits of marijuana. The study, along with scores which will follow, show that components of marijuana drastically shrink cancer tumors. The results of these studies will be suppressed for decades.
1975 - Microsoft Corporation is founded.
1976 - A previously unknown disease with a 90% mortality rate breaks out in Zaire. It is soon labeled as the Ebola virus.
1976 - Another previously unknown disease strikes an American Legion convention at a hotel in Pennsylvania. 221 are sickened and 34 die of what is later named Legionnaires Disease.
1976 - The Viking Lander probes touch down on Mars.
1976 - The Apple Computer company is founded.
1977 - A strong narrowband radio signal of seemingly artificial origin is detected by a SETI observatory in Ohio. What will become known as the Wow! signal is believed to have originated in the vicinity of a star group called Chi Sagittarii.
1977 - The Commodore PET becomes the first personal computer successfully released on the mass market.
1979 - The Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Pennsylvania suffers a partial nuclear meltdown.
1981 - AIDS is first recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
1981 - NASA launches the first space shuttle.
1985 - Microsoft launches Windows 1.0.
1986 - The Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine suffers a catastrophic accident, releasing a massive cloud of radioactive particles over the western USSR and Europe.
1986 - The space shuttle Challenger breaks apart shortly after launch, killing the seven crew members aboard.
1993 - The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) begins in Alaska. Purportedly a project to study the ionosphere, its high-powered radio array has long been the suspected to also function as an exotic weapon platform, although hard evidence for such claims is limited.
1996 - Dolly the Sheep becomes the first cloned mammal.
1998 - Google is founded.
1998 - The International Space Station is launched.
1999 - In-Q-Tel is launched as a venture capital firm to invest in high-tech companies to keep the CIA and other intelligence agencies equipped with the most cutting-edge technology available.
1999 - Exxon and Mobil merge to form ExxonMobil, the third largest corporation in the world.
2002 - A new disease known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) appears in China. It kills 775 people and generates considerable alarm worldwide.
2003 - The space shuttle Columbia disintegrates upon re-entry, killing the seven astronauts on board.
2003 - The Human Genome Project finishes mapping the human genome.
2003 - H5N1 "Bird Flu" appears and begins to spread through Asia. A number of outbreaks over the next several years will raise concerns over the possibility of a global pandemic.
2004 - The free open-source operating system Ubuntu is released.
2004 - The Spirit and Opportunity rovers land on Mars.
2007 - Scientists in Chile discover Gliese 581 c, the first potentially habitable exoplanet.
2008 - The Large Hadron Collider is completed. It is one of the most complex engineering feats in human history.
2009 - A new virus popularly known as swine flu appears leading to a global pandemic which kills upwards of 18,000 people.
2009 - NASA launches the Kepler space observatory to search for Earth-like planets orbiting other stars.
