Timeline of materials technology
Major innovations in materials technology

BC

28,000 BC – People wear beads, bracelets, and pendants
14,500 BC – First pottery, made by the Jōmon people of Japan.
3rd millennium BC – Copper metallurgy is invented and copper is used for ornamentation
2nd millennium BC – Bronze is used for weapons and armor
16th century BC – The Hittites develop crude iron metallurgy
13th century BC – Invention of steel when iron and charcoal are combined properly
10th century BC – Glass production begins in ancient Near East
1st millennium BC – Pewter beginning to be used in China and Egypt
1000 BC – The Phoenicians introduce dyes made from the purple murex.
3rd century BC – Wootz steel, the first crucible steel, is invented in ancient India
50s BC – Glassblowing techniques flourish in Phoenicia
20s BC – Roman architect Vitruvius describes low-water-content method for mixing concrete

1st millennium
3rd century – Cast iron widely used in Han Dynasty China
300 – Greek alchemist Zomius, summarizing the work of Egyptian alchemists, describes arsenic and lead acetate
4th century – Iron pillar of Delhi is the oldest surviving example of corrosion-resistant steel
720 – Abu Masa Dshaffar discovers sulfuric acid, nitric acid, aqua regia, and silver nitrate
750 – Geber, an Arabian alchemist, describes the preparation of aluminum chloride, white lead, nitric acid, and acetic acid
8th century – Porcelain is invented in Tang Dynasty China
8th century – Tin-glazing of ceramics invented by Arabic chemists and potters in Basra, Iraq
9th century – Stonepaste ceramics invented in Iraq
900 – Al-razi, known as Rhazes, a Persian physician and alchemist, describes the preparation of plaster of Paris and metallic antimony
9th century – Lustreware appears in Mesopotamia

2nd millennium
1000 – Gunpowder is developed in China
1340 – In Liège, Belgium, the first blast furnaces for the production of iron are developed
1448 – Johann Gutenberg develops type metal alloy
1450s – Cristallo, a clear soda-based glass, is invented by Angelo Barovier
1540 – Vannoccio Biringuccio publishes first systematic book on metallurgy
1556 – Georg Agricola's influential book on metallurgy
1590 – Glass lenses are developed in the Netherlands and used for the first time in microscopes and telescopes
1664 – In the pipes supplying water to the gardens at Versailles, cast iron is used

18th century
1717 – Abraham Darby makes iron with coke, a derivative of coal
1738 – Metallic zinc processed by distillation from calamine and charcoal patented by William Champion
1740  – Crucible steel technique developed by Benjamin Huntsman
1774 – 
Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen
Johann Gottlieb Gahn discovers manganese
Karl Wilhelm Scheele discovers chlorine
1779  – Hydraulic cement (stucco) patented by Bryan Higgins for use as an exterior plaster
1799  – Acid battery made from copper/zinc by Alessandro Volta

19th century
1821  – Thermocouple invented by Thomas Johann Seebeck
1824  – Portland cement patent issued to Joseph Aspdin
1825  – Metallic aluminum produced by Hans Christian Ørsted
1839  – Vulcanized rubber invented by Charles Goodyear
1839  – Silver-based photographic processes invented by Louis Daguerre and William Fox Talbot
1855  – Bessemer process for mass production of steel patented by Henry Bessemer
1861  – Color photography demonstrated by James Clerk Maxwell
1883  – First solar cells using selenium waffles made by Charles Fritts
1893  – Thermite Welding developed and soon used to weld rails

20th century
1902  – Synthetic rubies created by the Verneuil process developed by  Auguste Verneuil
1908  - Cellophane invented by Jacques E. Brandenberger
1909  – Bakelite hard thermosetting plastic presented by Leo Baekeland
1911  – Superconductivity discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
1912  –  Stainless steel invented by Harry Brearley
1916  – Method for growing single crystals of metals invented by Jan Czochralski
1919  – The merchant ship Fullagar has the first all welded hull. 
1924  –  Pyrex invented by scientists at Corning Incorporated, a glass with a very low coefficient of thermal expansion
1931  – synthetic rubber called  neoprene developed by Julius Nieuwland (see also: E.K. Bolton, Wallace Carothers)
1931  – Nylon developed by Wallace Carothers
1938  – The process for making poly-tetrafluoroethylene, better known as Teflon discovered by Roy Plunkett
1939  – Dislocations in metals confirmed by Robert W. Cahn
1947  – First germanium point-contact transistor invented
1947  – First commercial application of a piezoelectric ceramic: barium titanate used as a phonograph pickup
1951  – Individual atoms seen for the first time using the field ion microscope
1953  – Metallic catalysts which greatly improve the strength of polyethylene polymers discovered by Karl Ziegler
1954  – Silicon solar cells with 6% efficiency made at Bell Laboratories
1954  – Argon oxygen decarburization (AOD) refining invented by scientists at the Union Carbide Corporation
1959  – Float glass process patented by the Pilkington Brothers
1962  – SQUID superconducting quantum interference device invented
1968  – Liquid crystal display developed by RCA
1970  – Silica optical fibers grown by Corning Incorporated
1980  – Duplex stainless steels developed which resist oxidation in chlorides
1984  – Fold-forming system developed by Charles Lewton-Brain to produce complex three dimensional forms rapidly from sheet metal
1985  - The first fullerene molecule discovered by scientists at Rice University (see also: Timeline of carbon nanotubes)
1986  - The first high temperature superconductor is discovered by Georg Bednorz and K. Alex Müller