PreviousDays✦THE WIKI
38 MOMENTS · ONE LIVING ARCHIVE

History.
All at once.

Every picture opens a door.
Wander through the years, then step into a story.

FOLLOW YOUR CURIOSITYSee science & discoveries in the image atlas ↗
THE IMAGE ATLAS

Oldest to newest. Follow the years; watch the world change.

A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME418 — 2023
Late Roman observers watch a darkened Sun above classical buildings, with faint stars and an amber horizon.Before 1500Before 1500The total solar eclipse of 19 July 418 and its historical recordPublished Two Song-dynasty observers watch a bright point of light above a tiled city at dawn.Before 1500The Chinese guest-star observation of 4 July 1054Published A spectacle maker examines two lenses at a workbench beside an early spyglass and plain spectacles.1500–17991500–1799Hans Lippershey applies to patent an early telescopePublished Galileo looks through a long, narrow telescope beside an open window above Padua's rooftops.1500–1799Galileo's first observations of lights beside JupiterPublished A seventeenth-century Dutch observer holds a small brass microscope close to his eye beside a vial of pepper-infused water.1500–1799Leeuwenhoek’s 1676 letter on microscopic life in waterPublished An eighteenth-century observer uses a wooden reflecting telescope in a lantern-lit garden in Bath.1500–1799William Herschel’s observation of Uranus on 13 March 1781Published Workers uncover a large circular carved basalt monument during improvements to colonial Mexico City’s main square.1500–1799Rediscovery of the Mexica Sun Stone in Mexico CityPublished A potted tropical seedling and hand tools stand before a small garden nursery and forested hills.The 19th centuryThe 19th centuryRio de Janeiro Botanical Garden's foundation and acclimatisation missionPublished An early nineteenth-century scholar presents paper copies of Egyptian inscriptions to colleagues in a Paris meeting room.The 19th centuryChampollion presents his hieroglyphic decipherment in 1822Published Maria Mitchell observes the night sky through a brass telescope above Nantucket rooftops, with a notebook nearby.The 19th centuryMaria Mitchell’s comet discovery on 1 October 1847Published King Mongkut and observers stand beside a brass telescope under a coastal pavilion during a total eclipse.The 19th centuryKing Mongkut’s Observation of the 1868 Wa Ko Solar EclipsePublished Marie Curie examines samples beside measuring apparatus while Pierre Curie and Gustave Bémont confer in a period workshop.The 19th centuryThe announcement of radium on 26 December 1898Published An Egyptian excavation worker brushes sand from a rock-cut step while an archaeologist watches from behind.1900–19451900–1945The first step to Tutankhamun’s tomb is uncoveredPublished A laboratory researcher handles a clear vial while colleagues study results beside midcentury laboratory equipment.1946–19991946–1999Salk polio vaccine field-trial results announced in 1955Published A scientist studies a small ruby rod and coiled flashlamp on a laboratory bench.1946–1999The first working ruby laser at Hughes Research LaboratoriesPublished Illustration of Rachel Carson at a desk with research papers, looking toward a songbird outside her window.1946–1999Publication of Rachel Carson's Silent SpringPublished Valentina Tereshkova sits in an orange pressure suit inside a compact spacecraft cabin, with Earth visible through a porthole.1946–1999Valentina Tereshkova launches aboard Vostok 6Published A surgical team works around a draped patient beside period circulation equipment.1946–1999The first human-to-human heart transplant in Cape TownPublished An imagined view of Apollo 11’s lunar module and an astronaut on the Moon’s dusty surface.1946–1999Apollo 11 lands on the Moon: July 20, 1969Published Two farmers examine an ancient clay head beside a newly dug rural well.1946–1999Farmers uncover the Terracotta Army near Xi’an in 1974Published Dusty hands examine a small fossil fragment above an eroded Ethiopian gully.1946–1999Discovery of Lucy at Hadar in EthiopiaPublished A metallic lander footpad rests on granular, rock-strewn Martian ground beneath a dusty sky.1946–1999Viking 1’s first photograph from the surface of MarsPublished A Titan rocket rises beside its launch gantry above smoke, with water and marsh grass in the foreground.1946–1999Voyager 1 launches toward Jupiter and SaturnPublished Two Somali health workers study a contact diagram beside a vaccine carrier in a modest coastal clinic.1946–1999Somalia’s Last Natural Smallpox Case and the Verification of EradicationPublished A laboratory technician works beside a shallow glass culture dish, a glass incubator and a period microscope.1946–1999Louise Brown’s birth and the first successful IVF treatmentPublished An astronaut with a manoeuvring backpack floats untethered above Earth's curved horizon beside a distant shuttle.1946–1999Bruce McCandless makes the first untethered space flight, 7 February 1984Published A cylindrical spacecraft approaches an irregular comet nucleus amid streams of illuminated gas and dust.1946–1999Giotto's closest approach to Halley's Comet, 14 March 1986Published A fossil hunter examines large vertebrae emerging from an eroded South Dakota bluff.1946–1999Sue Hendrickson discovers the T. rex SUEPublished Original reconstruction: amber light falls across a ship's wet desk, blank cargo folder and loose lashing; rough teal seas and a container appear through the window. Illustrative reconstruction: a folded North Pacific map has two brass pins joined by red thread, suggesting a journey from open ocean to southeastern Alaska. Original reconstruction: a small scuffed red plastic beaver bath toy rests among wet pebbles and driftwood on an Alaskan shore. Original reconstruction: a weathered yellow plastic duck, blue turtle and green frog sit on cream paper on an oceanographer's desk.1946–1999The Friendly Floatees spill: bath toys as ocean tracersPublished A white-faced lamb stands beside a black-faced surrogate ewe in a straw-lined research-farm pen.1946–1999Dolly the sheep is born at the Roslin InstitutePublished A cream-coloured cluster of spacecraft airbags bounces above a rocky Martian plain.1946–1999Mars Pathfinder's airbag landing on 4 July 1997Published Observers gather around a telescope that projects the Sun and the small silhouette of Venus onto a shaded card.Since 2000Since 2000The 8 June 2004 transit of Venus and the public measurement of the Sun’s distancePublished Graphite fragments, tweezers and a microscope on a warmly lit laboratory bench.Since 2000The 2010 Graphene Nobel Announcement and the Adhesive-Tape MethodPublished Juno’s three long solar-panel wings spread above the curved Earth after launch.Since 2000Launch of NASA’s Solar-Powered Juno Mission to JupiterPublished India’s gold-blanketed Mars Orbiter spacecraft above the orange curve of Mars.Since 2000India’s Mars Orbiter Mission Enters Martian OrbitPublished A Chinese researcher examines a flask beside leafy plant specimens and laboratory glassware.Since 2000Tu Youyou’s artemisinin research receives Nobel recognitionPublished An illustrated gas giant crosses a bright star, with light illuminating a thin atmospheric rim.Since 2000Webb’s WASP-96 b Atmospheric Spectrum ReleasePublished A nurse prepares vaccine vials while a mother and child wait in a modest clinic with a mosquito net nearby.Since 2000WHO Recommends the R21/Matrix-M Malaria VaccinePublished
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