DISCOVERIES, INVENTIONS AND LAUNCHES

Development of the iPhone started in 2005 and was launched by Apple Inc as its first smartphone in 2007. The iPhone became the most popular Apple product ever.

Louise Joy Brown was the first human born after conception by in vitro fertilisation experiment (IVF). She was born 25 July 1978 following a procedure pioneered in Britain, which has been claimed as one of "the most remarkable medical breakthroughs of the 20th Century".

Raymond Damadian, inventor of the first magnetic resonance scanning machine, performed the first full-body scan of a human being in 1977.

The first successful human heart transplant took place in 1967, in Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. The patient, Louis Washkansky, was terminally ill with heart failure. His surgeon was Christiaan Barnard.

Physicist William Higinbotham created what is claimed to be the first video game in October 1958. The game, Tennis for Two, went on to inspire the successful 1970s video game Pong.

Wilson Greatbatch, an American electrical engineer, invented the first implantable cardiac pacemaker in 1958. He also invented pacemaker batteries.

The kidney was the first full human organ to be transplanted successfully. The procedure was completed at the Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, USA. The surgery was performed by Dr. Joseph Murray, who received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work.

In 1837, Charles Babbage invented the first general mechanical computer, the Analytical Engine. Alan Turing then invented the first machine which started to resemble computers as we know them today. The Colossus was the first electric programmable computer, developed by Tommy Flowers, and was first demonstrated in December 1943.

Alexander Fleming was a Scottish biologist, physician, bacteriologist, and pharmacologist. He is best known for discovering penicillin in 1928; a breakthrough in the treatment of bacterial infections.

Colour television was first demonstrated publicly by John Logie Baird on 3 July 1928 in his laboratory in London. The technology used was electro-mechanical, using a spinning mirror-drum and revolving disc that alternated blue, green and red filters. It wasn't until 1944 that the first practical, fully electronic colour display was launched.

American brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright were the pioneers of aviation. In 1903, the Wright brothers completed one of the first flights with a powered, sustained and controlled airplane. They went on to build the first fully practical airplane two years later.

The inventor of the first car is attributed to Kal Benz who patented his "vehicle powered by a gas engine" in 1886 and launched the "motorwagon". But there were many other inventors who contirbuted to the development of cars.

Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first patent for the telephone in 1876. Three days later, Bell made his famous call to his assistant, saying: “Mr Watson, come here. I want to see you.” This confirmed the invention worked.

The first contraceptive pill was invented by Mexican chemist Dr Carl Djerassi in the 1940s. Using wild yam roots, he was able to synthesise progestogen. The pill was introduced in the UK in the 1960s after clinical trials in London, Birmingham and Slough. Married women who wished to use oral contraceptives were able to access it through the NHS.

J. Robert Oppenheimer, former professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and later, Head of Los Alamos Laboratory, is credited with the research and design of an atomic bomb while working on The Manhattan Project. He is often referred to as the “father of the atomic bomb."

DNA was discovered in 1869 by Swiss researcher Friedrich Miescher. He isolated a new molecule he called nuclein from a cell nucleus. While Miescher was the first to define DNA as a distinct molecule, many scientists built further knowledge of DNA. It wasn’t until the early 1940s that DNA’s role in genetic inheritance was understood.

The first electric motor is believed to have been invented by Hungarian engineer Anyos Jedlik before French physicist Gaston Plane invented commercial, rechargeable lead-acid batteries in 1859. Thomas Parker combined the two technologies and produced an electric carriage in London in 1884.

The social network TheFacebook.com was launched in February 2004 by Harvard student, Mark Zuckerburg, Nick Clegg, Sheryl Sandberg and Sean Parjer. It was designed for students to share their photographs and personal information.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist, invented the World Wide Web (WWW) in 1989 while working at CERN. The Web was originally developed to support automated information-sharing between scientists in institutes around the world.

The first ever expedition to reach the South Pole was led by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. His team reached the pole on 14 December 1911, five weeks ahead of a British party led by Robert Falcon Scott. While Amundsen's team returned safely, Scott and his four companions died on their return journey.

The Tomb of Tutankhamun is the final resting place of the 18th-century BC Egyptian Pharaoh, Tutankhamun. It's located in the Valley of the Kings in the Theban Necropolis in Upper Egypt. The tomb was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter and his team.

The Ottoman Empire was one of the largest empires in world history. It was founded in 1299 by Osman I. At its height, it included most of Southeast Europe, parts of Central Europe, Western Asia, the Caucasus, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa. The empire began to decline in the 19th century, and it was dissolved in 1922.

The Concorde was a supersonic jetliner, operated by British Airways and Air France. It was the world's first supersonic passenger jetliner, and could fly at speeds of up to 1,350 mph (2,170 km/h). The Concorde was retired from service in 2003.

The Tour de France is an annual men's multiple stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Like other races of its size, the Tour is a stage race. That means racers compete against each other in individual stages with the overall winner being the racer with most points from all stages.

The British Broadcasting Company was launched 18 October 1922 by a group of leading wireless manufacturers including Guglielmo Marconi. Daily broadcasting by the BBC began in Marconi's London studio on November 14, 1922. John Reith, a Scottish engineer, was appointed General Manager of the BBC at the end of 1922.