50 Greatest Breakthroughs Since the Wheel

According to The Atlantic, November 2013[see http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/innovations-list/309536/ ]

The printing press, 1430s
Electricity, late 19^th century
Penicillin, 1928
Semiconductor electronics, mid-20^th century
Optical lenses, 13^th century
Paper, second century
The internal combustion engine, late 19^th century
Vaccination, 1796
The internet, 1960s
The steam engine, 1712
Nitrogen fixation, 1918
Sanitation systems, mid-19^th century
Refrigeration, 1850s
Gunpowder, tenth century
The airplane, 1903
The personal computer, 1970s
The compass, 12^th century
The automobile, late 19^th century
Industrial steelmaking, 1850s
The pill, 1960
Nuclear fission, 1939
The green revolution, mid-20^th century
The sextant, 1757
The telephone, 1876
Alphabetization, 1^st milleneum BC
The telegraph, 1837
The mechanized clock, 15^th century
Radio, 1906
Photography, early 19^th century
The moldboard plow, 18^th century
Archimedes screw, 3^rd century BC
The cotton gin, 1793
Pasteurization, 1863
The Gregorian calendar, 1582
Oil refining, mid-19^th century
The steam turbine, 1884
Cement, 1^st milleneum, BC
Scientific plant breeding, 1920s
Oil drilling, 1859
The sailboat, 4^th milleneum BC
Rocketry, 1926
Paper money, 11^th century
The abacus, 3^rd milleneum, BC
Air conditioning, 1902
Television, early 20^th century
Anesthesia, 1846
The nail, second millennium BC
The lever, third millennium BC
The assembly line, 1913
The combine harvester, 1930s

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Notes by the blog author
What this list missed
Due process, 13^th century
Common law and precedent, 12^th through 13^th centuries
Double-entry bookkeeping, 15^th century
Nuclear fusion,early 1950s
The laser, 1961
The scientific method, 18^th century
The double-blind test for efficacy of pharmaceuticals, 20^th century
Theoretical existence of antimatter, 1932 (proven to exist in 1933)
The self-replicating DNA double-helix, 1952
Game theory, early- to mid-twentieth century
Non-Euclidean geometry, 19^th century
The changeable, altering protagonist, 16^th century
The talking motion picture, 1920s
Synthetic purification of sugar, 3^rd century BC
Mirrors, medieval times
Copernican astronomy, 16^th century

Ancient inventions as important as the wheel
The control of fire
The domestication of the dog
Fabricating tools by napping
Knot theory
Association of astronomy with the seasons
Music
Spoken languages
Storytelling
Brickmaking
Farming (planting crops with seeds)
Coinage
Refining ores into metal
Combining metals into alloys
Monotheism
Written law