Contents Introduction c. 500,000 BCE Crystals c. 3300 BCE Bronze c. 2800 BCE Soap c. 1300 BCE Iron Smelting c. 1200 BCE Purification c. 550 BCE Gold Refining c. 450 BCE The Four Elements c. 400 BCE Atomism 210 BCE Mercury c. 60 CE Natural Products c. 126 Roman Concrete c. 200 Porcelain c. 672 Greek Fire c. 800 The Philosopher’s Stone c. 800 Viking Steel c. 850 Gunpowder c. 900 Alchemy c. 1280 Aqua Regia c. 1280 Fractional Distillation 1538 Toxicology 1540 Diethyl Ether 1556 De Re Metallica 1605 The Advancement of Learning 1607 Yorkshire Alum 1631 Quinine 1661 The Sceptical Chymist 1667 Phlogiston 1669 Phosphorus 1700 Hydrogen Sulfide c. 1706 Prussian Blue 1746 Sulfuric Acid 1752 Hydrogen Cyanide 1754 Carbon Dioxide 1758 Cadet’s Fuming Liquid 1766 Hydrogen 1774 Oxygen 1789 Conservation of Mass 1791 Titanium 1792 Ytterby 1804 Morphine 1805 Electroplating 1806 Amino Acids 1807 Electrochemical Reduction 1808 Dalton’s Atomic Theory 1811 Avogadro’s Hypothesis 1813 Chemical Notation 1814 Paris Green 1815 Cholesterol 1819 Caffeine 1822 Supercritical Fluids 1828 Beryllium 1828 Wöhler’s Urea Synthesis 1832 Functional Groups 1834 Ideal Gas Law 1834 Photochemistry 1839 Polymers and Polymerization 1839 Daguerreotype 1839 Rubber 1840 Ozone 1842 Phosphate Fertilizer 1847 Nitroglycerine 1848 Chirality 1852 Fluorescence 1854 Separatory Funnel 1856 Perkin’s Mauve 1856 Mirror Silvering 1859 Flame Spectroscopy 1860 Cannizzaro at Karlsruhe 1860 Oxidation States 1861 Erlenmeyer Flask 1861 Structural Formula 1864 Solvay Process 1865 Benzene and Aromaticity 1868 Helium 1869 The Periodic Table 1874 Tetrahedral Carbon Atoms 1876 Gibbs Free Energy 1877 Maxwell-Boltzmann Distribution 1877 Friedel-Crafts Reaction 1878 Indigo Synthesis 1879 Soxhlet Extractor 1881 Fougère Royale 1883 Claus Process 1883 Liquid Nitrogen 1884 Fischer and Sugars 1885 Le Châtelier’s Principle 1886 Isolation of Fluorine 1886 Aluminum 1887 Cyanide Gold Extraction 1888 Liquid Crystals 1891 Thermal Cracking 1892 Chlor-Alkali Process 1892 Acetylene 1893 Thermite 1893 Borosilicate Glass 1893 Coordination Compounds 1894 The Mole 1894 Asymmetric Induction 1894 Diazomethane 1895 Liquid Air 1896 Greenhouse Effect 1897 Aspirin 1897 Zymase Fermentation 1897 Hydrogenation 1898 Neon 1900 Grignard Reaction 1900 Free Radicals 1900 Silicones 1901 Chromatography 1902 Polonium and Radium 1905 Infrared Spectroscopy 1907 Bakelite® 1907 Spider Silk 1909 pH and Indicators 1909 Haber-Bosch Process 1909 Salvarsan 1912 X-Ray Crystallography 1912 Maillard Reaction 1912 Stainless Steel 1912 Boranes and the Vacuum-Line Technique 1912 Dipole Moments 1913 Mass Spectrometry 1913 Isotopes 1915 Chemical Warfare 1917 Surface Chemistry 1918 Radithor 1920 Dean-Stark Trap 1920 Hydrogen Bonding 1921 Tetraethyl Lead 1923 Acids and Bases 1923 Radioactive Tracers 1925 Fischer-Tropsch Process 1928 Diels-Alder Reaction 1928 Reppe Chemistry 1930 Chlorofluorocarbons 1931 Sigma and Pi Bonding 1931 Deuterium 1932 Carbonic Anhydrase 1932 Vitamin C 1932 Sulfanilamide 1933 Polyethylene 1934 Superoxide 1934 The Fume Hood 1935 Transition State Theory 1935 Nylon 1936 Nerve Gas 1936 Technetium 1937 Cellular Respiration 1937 Elixir Sulfanilamide 1937 Reaction Mechanisms 1938 Catalytic Cracking 1938 Teflon® 1939 The Last Element in Nature 1939 The Nature of the Chemical Bond 1939 DDT 1940 Gaseous Diffusion 1942 Steroid Chemistry 1942 Cyanoacrylates 1943 LSD 1943 Streptomycin 1943 Bari Raid 1944 Birch Reduction 1944 Magnetic Stirring 1945 Penicillin 1945 Glove Boxes 1947 Antifolates 1947 Kinetic Isotope Effects 1947 Photosynthesis 1948 Donora Death Fog 1949 Catalytic Reforming 1949 Molecular Disease 1949 Nonclassical Ion Controversy 1950 Conformational Analysis 1950 Cortisone 1950 Rotary Evaporator 1951 Sanger Sequencing 1951 The Pill 1951 Alpha-Helix and Beta-Sheet 1951 Ferrocene 1951 Transuranic Elements 1952 Gas Chromatography 1952 Miller-Urey Experiment 1952 Zone Refining 1952 Thallium Poisoning 1953 DNA’s Structure 1953 Synthetic Diamond 1955 Electrophoresis 1956 The Hottest Flame 1957 Luciferin 1958 DNA Replication 1960 Thalidomide 1960 Resolution and Chiral Chromatography 1961 NMR 1962 Green Fluorescent Protein 1962 Noble Gas Compounds 1962 Isoamyl Acetate and Esters 1963 Ziegler-Natta Catalysis 1963 Merrifield Synthesis 1963 Dipolar Cycloadditions 1964 Kevlar® 1965 Protein Crystallography 1965 Cisplatin 1965 Lead Contamination 1965 Methane Hydrate 1965 Woodward-Hoffman Rules 1966 Polywater 1967 HPLC 1968 BZ Reaction 1969 Murchison Meteorite 1969 Gore-Tex® 1970 Carbon Dioxide Scrubbing 1970 Computational Chemistry 1970 Glyphosate 1971 Reverse-Phase Chromatography 1972 Rapamycin 1973 B12 Synthesis 1974 CFCs and the Ozone Layer 1975 Enzyme Stereochemistry 1976 PET Imaging 1977 Nozaki Coupling 1979 Tholin 1980 Iridium Impact Hypothesis 1982 Unnatural Products 1982 MPTP 1983 Polymerase Chain Reaction 1984 Electrospray LC/MS 1984 AZT and Antiretrovirals 1984 Quasicrystals 1984 Bhopal Disaster 1985 Fullerenes 1985 MALDI 1988 Modern Drug Discovery 1988 PEPCON® Explosion 1989 Taxol® 1991 Carbon Nanotubes 1994 Palytoxin 1997 Coordination Frameworks 1998 Recrystallization and Polymorphs 2001 Click Triazoles 2004 Graphene 2005 Shikimic Acid Shortage 2005 Olefin Metathesis 2006 Flow Chemistry 2006 Isotopic Distribution 2009 Acetonitrile 2010 Engineered Enzymes 2010 Metal-Catalyzed Couplings 2013 Single-Molecule Images 2025 Hydrogen Storage 2030 Artificial Photosynthesis Notes and Further Reading Image Credits