Important Inventions and Discoveries List

When it comes to the Static General Knowledge section of Government exams, a wide range of topics may be included. One of the most important among them is the list of inventions and discoveries. Knowing about these inventions can be extremely helpful in competitive exams where questions on this topic are often asked. Therefore, it is necessary for candidates to have a good grasp of the different inventions and their inventors in order to excel in these exams.

Inventions have helped shape and advance our societies in countless ways. They range from the wheel to computers and beyond, slowly improving all that we can do. Every invention has its own inventor, date of creation, and the story behind it. Knowing these inventions is essential for those preparing for competitive exams.

This article contains a wide range list of important inventions and their inventors and the year it was invented, as well as some sample questions related to it.

List of Inventions and Discoveries:

Here is the following list of Inventions and Discoveries along with the name of the inventors and the year of invention:

Invention/Discovery	Name of Inventor/s	Year of Invention/Discovery
Aeroplane	Orville and Wilbur Wright	1903
Antibiotics	Alexander Fleming	1928
Archimedes’ Principle	Archimedes	3rd century BC
Atomic Bomb	J. Robert Oppenheimer	1945
Atomic theory	John Dalton	1808
Automobile	Karl Benz	1886
Ballpoint Pen	László Bíró	1938
Barometer	Evangelista Torricelli	1643
Battery	Alessandro Volta	1796
Bluetooth	Ericsson	1994
Calculator	Blaise Pascal	1642
Calculus	Isaac Newton	Late 1600s
Camera	Joseph Nicéphore Niépce	1816
Cell Phone	Dr. Martin Cooper	1973
Chat GPT	OpenAI	2019
Chess	Hán Xin	200 BC
Computer	Charles Babbage	1945
Cotton gin	Eli Whitney	1793
DNA Structure	James Watson and Francis Crick	1953
Drone	Abraham Karem	1970s
Dynamite	Alfred Nobel	1867
Electric generator	Michael Faraday	1831
Electricity	Benjamin Franklin	1752
Electromagnet	William Sturgeon	1825
Elevator	Elisha Otis	1852
Exams	Henry F. Chauncey	1926
Facebook	Mark Zuckerberg	2004
Fiber optics	Narinder Singh Kapany	1952
Flight	Orville and Wilbur Wright	1903
Free Fire	Garena company	2017
Google	Larry Page and Sergey Brin	1997
Gramophone	Emile Berliner	1887
Helicopter	Igor Sikorsky	1939
Homework	Roberto Nevilis	19th Century
Internal combustion engine	Etienne Lenoir	1859
Internet	Tim Berners-Lee	1989
Jet engine	Frank Whittle	1937
Light bulb	Thomas Edison	1879
Microscope	Antonie van Leeuwenhoek	1674
Motion pictures	Lumiere Brothers	1895
Nuclear fission	Enrico Fermi	1934
Pencil	Nicholas-Jacques Conte	1755
Penicillin	Alexander Fleming	1928
Pizza	Raffaele Esposito	1889
Printing press	Johannes Gutenberg	1440s
Radio	Guglielmo Marconi	1895
Refrigerator	William Cullen	1820
School	Horace Mann	1837
Telephone	Alexander Graham Bell	1876
Telescope	Hans Lippershey	17th Century
Television	Philo Farnsworth	1927
Thermometer	Galileo Galilei	1593
Transistor	John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley	1947
Typewriter	Christopher Latham Sholes	1867
Uranium fission	Otto Hahn	1938
Vaccine	Edward Jenner	1796
Wheel	Unknown	c. 3500 BC
Wi-Fi	Dr. John O’Sullivan	1990s
X-rays	Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen	1895
Zipper	Whitcomb Judson	1891

Sample Questions on Inventions and Discoveries

Q1. Who invented the first successful airplane and in what year?

A) The Wright Brothers, 1903 B) Samuel Morse, 1837 C) Thomas Edison, 1879 D) Alexander Graham Bell, 1885 

Answer: A) The Wright Brothers, 1903

Q2. What did Louis Pasteur discover in the field of microbiology? 

A) The structure of DNA B) The cause of tuberculosis C) The process of fermentation D) The cure for polio 

Answer: C) The process of fermentation

Q3. Who is credited with inventing the first printing press with movable type in Europe? 

A) Johannes Gutenberg B) William Caxton C) Benjamin Franklin D) Johann Fust 

Answer: A) Johannes Gutenberg

Q4. What was the first artificial satellite to be launched into space by the United States in 1958? 

A) Explorer 1 B) Vanguard 1 C) Gemini 1 D) Explorer 6 

Answer: A) Explorer 1

Q5. Who invented the first successful incandescent light bulb? 

A) Thomas Edison B) Nikola Tesla C) Benjamin Franklin D) James Watt 

Answer: A) Thomas Edison