Happy 100th birthday to former two-time Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Muhammad. The Father of Modernization, Automotive, and Information Technology of Malaysia is well-known for his success in developing the country since he first became Prime Minister in 1981 to 2003 and then from 2018 to 2020. In conjunction with Tun Dr Mahathir's 100th birthday, here is a list of 100 technological and scientific discoveries that have occurred since he was born
1920s
1925: Leica I camera launched as the first 35mm camera.
1926: The first television was shown by John Logie Baird.
1927: Iron lungs were invented by Philip Drinker and Louis Agassiz Shaw to help polio patients.
1928: Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming. The first antibiotic.
1929: First television programme broadcast by BBC
1930s
1930: Patent for jet engine filed by Frank Whittle.
1931: Electron microscope invented by Ernst Ruska and Max Knoll.
1932: Neutron discovered by James Chadwick.
1933: FM radio invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong.
1934: Frédéric and Irène Joliot-Curie produce artificial radioactivity.
1935: Schrödinger's Cat concept introduced.
1936: Tasmanian tiger goes extinct – now being tried to be brought back safely through cloning
1937: Walkie Talkie invented by Donald Hings allowing long distance wireless communication.
1938: Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann perform nuclear fission.
1939: Igor Sikorsky develops VS-300 – first practical helicopter. First jet aircraft Heinkel He 178 flies for the first time.
1940s
1940: Plutonium is first synthesized. Leads to the creation of the atomic bomb.
1941: Zuse Z3 becomes the first programmable computer.
1942: The first nuclear fission reactor is created by Enrico Fermi in Chicago.
1943: The Aqua-Lung is invented by Jacques Cousteau and Émile Gagnan, enabling SCUBA diving.
1944: The V-1 (first missile) and V-2 (ballistic missile) are used by Germany to attack London.
1945: The first atomic bomb is detonated in the Trinity test before being dropped on Hiroshima.
1946: The microwave oven is invented by Percy Spencer while testing radar technology at Raytheon.
1947: Chuck Yeager becomes the first human to fly faster than sound.
1948: The first Polaroid camera is launched.
1949: Carbon-14 dating technique is invented by Willard Libby.
1950s
1950: The first credit card is produced by Diners Club.
1951: EBR-I (Experimental Breeder Reactor I) - The first nuclear reactor to produce electricity.
1952: The first effective polio vaccine is developed by Jonas Salk and later given away for free.
1953: Buloh Perindu - the first Malayan colour film.
1954: The first human-to-human kidney transplant is performed
1955: The hovercraft design is patented by Christopher Cockerell.
1956: Fortran is created - the first widely used high-level programming language.
1957: Sputnik 1 is launched - the first man-made satellite.
1958: The first microchip is created by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments.
1959: The programming language COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) is created.
1960s
1960: The world's first laser is created by Theodore Maiman.
1961: Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space.
1962: Telstar 1 is launched – the first communications satellite
1963: Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.
1964: Tōkaidō Shinkansen goes into operation – the world's first high-speed train.
1965: Moore's Law is coined by Gordon Moore, founder of Intel.
1966: The idea of a home video game console is conceived by Ralph H. Baer.
1967: The first ATM is installed at Barclays Bank, London.
1968: Douglas Engelbart demonstrates the computer mouse.
1969: Humans land on the moon with the Apollo 11 mission.
1970s
Sony Walkman
1970: Xerox Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) is established.
1971: Salyut 1 is the world's first space station.
1972: The first video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, is launched.
1973: The first public call using a mobile phone was made by Martin Cooper.
1974: Nehemiah Wall was invented by Nehemiah Lee and Eugene Oh who were Malaysians.
1975: The first digital camera was invented by Steven Sasson at Kodak.
1976: Apple Computer was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne.
1977: Voyager 1 and 2 were launched. The farthest man-made objects from Earth.
1978: Louise Joy Brown was the first test-tube baby born in the world.
1979: Sony introduced the Walkman.
1980s
1980: The first cellular telephone communication network began in Japan.
1981: Gay-Related Immune Deficiency (GRID) was discovered, now better known as AIDS.
1981: Tun Mahathir became Prime Minister for the first time
1982: Tun Mahathir established Proton to launch Malaysia's first car.
1983: The first cellular network (1G) is launched in Japan by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT).
1984: Apple Macintosh launched. First personal computer with GUI and mouse.
1985: Proton Saga launched as the first local car.
1986: Challenger space shuttle exploded during launch.
1987: Malaysia Computer Network (RangKoM) – Malaysia's first internet network launched connecting several local universities.
1988: Morris Worm – first malware spread using the internet.
1989: Tim Berners-Lee published a proposal paper for the formation of the World Wide Web.
1990s
Photo – (JIMIN LAI / AFP)
1990: Adobe Photoshop 1.0 launched.
1991: World Wide Web made publicly available.
1992: JARING (Joint Advanced Research Integrated Networking) launched – Malaysia's first ISP.
1993: World Wide Web launched.
1994: Sony Playstation launched.
1995: Windows 95 launched. The OS that drives global internet usage.
1996: Multimedia Corridor (MSC) launched by Tun M.
1997: IBM Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov.
1998: Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
1999: Sepang International Circuit opens and becomes an F1 circuit until 2017.
2000s
2000: Y2K bug outbreak is successfully averted.
2001: Apple introduces iPod which changes the fortunes of the company and the music world.
2002: Mozilla Phoenix is launched which later became Firefox.
2003: Android operating system is created by Andy Rubin.
2003: Tun Mahathir resigns as Prime Minister
2004: Facebook is launched.
2005: YouTube is launched.
2006: Twitter is launched.
2007: Apple introduces iPhone
2008: Bitcoin is created by Satoshi Nakamoto as the world's first cryptocurrency.
2009: WHO declares H1N1 swine flu a pandemic.
2010s
2010: Apple launches iPad, ushering in the era of tablet computers.
2011: Steve Jobs dies of cancer.
2012: The “God particle” Higgs Boson detected using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.
2013: Nokia acquired by Microsoft.
2014: Facebook acquires Oculus VR. Sows the first seeds of the company that later became Meta.
2015: Apple Watch launched. First new product category launched after Steve Jobs’ death.
2016: Google’s DeepMind AI AlphaGo beats human champion. Early sign of DeepMind’s potential before AI became a household name.
2017: Greenland shark is the world’s oldest vertebrate – 512 years old
2018 – Tun Mahathir becomes Prime Minister for the second time
2018: New Language Discovered in Kelantan – Jedek Language.
2019: South Korea becomes the first country to launch a commercial 5G network.
2020s
2020: The Covid-19 pandemic changes the world and drives mRNA technology.
2020: Tun Dr Mahathir resigns as Prime Minister for the second time.
2021: James Webb Space Telescope launched
2022: Nuclear fusion in a laboratory is successfully carried out for the first time.
2023: Tesla officially enters the Malaysian market.
2024: DeepMind's AlphaFold 3 AI predicts the structure and interactions of all life molecules in existence.
2025: Tun Dr Mahathir becomes the oldest former Prime Minister in Malaysian history and sees his decades-long efforts having an impact that continues to this day.