The origins of the Internet date back to research commissioned by the United States federal government in the 1960 s to build robust , faulttolerant communication via computer networks Now granted , this is from wikipedia , but a quick google seems to confirm this . Feel free to correct me if you have better evidence . Running water is quite ambiguous , but I believe that more so refers to indoor plumbing , aka taps , toilets , etc . I had a hard time pinning down who ' invented ' indoor plumbing . Fertilizer , you ' re right . With cars , the U . S . definitely didn ' t invent them , but you could argue they were vastly improved as the U . S . made it possible to to mass produce them , but that would have happened eventually anyways . All things considered , I do think there is definitely something to be said about America ' s technological contributions to the world , but ureddspartan may have been exaggerating a bit . Not to mention many other countries have made significant contributions too .