Wright Timeline 1870 to 1879
 

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o invention, no scientific discovery, no work of art, no human endeavor happens in an historical vacuum. There are always other factors -- cultural, political, personal -- that influence the outcome of a single event. So it was with the invention of the airplane. When Wilbur and Orville were children, the abacus was the most advanced mathematical aid, influenza was an often-fatal disease, and the cannon was the most feared weapon of war. By the time Orville died, the first computers were just being built, antibiotics had begun to wipe out disease,  and the atomic bomb made war unthinkable. Many of these advances influenced the development of the airplane -- and the airplane, in turn, influenced further advances.

Here is chronology that shows not just the story of the Wright brothers, but also the world they lived in and the important political, cultural, and scientific events that loomed large in their lives. Click on the decade you want to see:

1860 to 1869
1870 to 1879
1880 to 1889
1890 to 1899
1900 to 1909
1910 to 1919
1920 to 1929
1930 to 1939
1940 to 1949
Note: For a detailed timeline that shows just the seven years (1899 to 1905) in which the Wright brothers invented the airplane, click HERE.
 

Time

The Wright Story

The Bigger Picture

1870     The U.S. Weather Bureau issues its first predictions. The Cardiff Giant, supposedly discovered in New York, is exposed as a fake.
 
1871 Orville Wright is born to Milton and Susan Wright in their newly-built home at 7 Hawthorn Street in Dayton, Ohio.
 
Francis Herbert Wenham and John Browning, England, invent the wind tunnel and prove that cambered wings produce more lift than other shapes.
 
1872     Susan B. Anthony is arrested for voting and Yellowstone becomes the first U.S. national park.
 
1873     Jules Verne publishes Around the World in Eighty Days, an immensely popular science fiction story which includes aerial transportation.
 
1874 Katharine Wright is born at 7 Hawthorn Street on Orville's birthday. Of the five Wright children, she is the only daughter.
 
Felix Du Temple makes the first recorded — but unsuccessful — attempt at powered flight.
 
1875     Bizet's opera Carmen premieres in Paris. The U.S. passes the first Civil Rights Act forbidding segregation, but it is struck down by the Supreme Court several years later.
1876     Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone and Lt. Colonel George Custer makes his last stand against the Sioux at Little Bighorn.
 
1877 Milton Wright is elected Bishop of the United Brethren churches west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains. He moves his family to Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
 
Nikolaus Otto invents the four-cycle internal combustion engine and Thomas Edison invents the phonograph.
 
1878 Wright brothers build their first aircraft, a rubber-band powered helicopter they call a "bat."
 
A. A. Pope manufactures the first bicycles in America. The Columbia Hi-Wheeler is his most popular model; Wilbur Wright later owns one of these.
 
1879     Thomas Edison invents the first practical incandescent light bulb and demonstrates electrical lighting at his Menlo Park laboratory in New Jersey. At Yale University, Walter Camp writes the rules for American football.

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"Aviation is proof that – given the will – we can do the impossible."
 Eddie Rickenbacker

 

 

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