Timeline: Our place in history
1903 - Richard Pearse is said to have completed
first solo flight of about 140 metres nine months before the Wright
brothers, an ongoing debate to this day.
1917 -
Ernest Rutherford splits the atom.
1920 - Pioneering NZ surgeon Harold Delf Gillies
publishes his text book "Plastic Surgery of the Face" setting down
the principles of modern plastic surgery
1926 - One of the world's first forensic experts
Sir Sydney Alfred Smith publishes his article on scientific
examination of firearms and projectiles in the British Medical
Journal, revolutionising forensic science and the examination
bullets in crime investigations.
1936 - Frustrated farmer turned inventor, Bill
Gallagher invents the first electric fence.
1939 - 1945 - Archibald Hector McIndoe
develops his pioneering surgical and treatment techniques on
severely burned servicemen.
1950 - Maurice Wilkins and Raymond Gosling
take the first x-ray images of DNA, leading to the discovery of the
DNA molecular structure by American James Watson.
1953 - Athol Rafter improves newly discovered
radio carbon dating making it far more accurate.
1954 - Bill Hamilton develops the modern jet boat
to navigate the shallow waters of South Island rivers.
1956 - New Zealand pharmacist Colin Murdoch
designs and invents the disposable plastic syringe.
1958 - William Pickering and the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory launches the first successful American satellite
Explorer 1 into space.
1958 - Sir Brian Barratt-Boyes performs the first
open heart surgery in New Zealand, later pioneering new surgical
techniques involving the replacement of defective heart
valves
1980 - Beatrice Tinsley releases paper "The
Evolution of the stars and gas in galaxies" which made significant
contributions to understanding of how galaxies evolve over
time.
1991 - John Britten develops the revolutionary and
record breaking Britten V1000 motorcycle.
2000 - Alan MacDiarmid and his colleagues win the
Nobel Prize for their discovery and development of conductive
polymers, plastic materials that conduct electricity.
