Timeline of transportation technology

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Before 1700

3500 BC - Wheeled carts are invented
3500 BC - River boats are invented
2000 BC - Horses are tamed and used for transport
770 - Iron horseshoes come into common use
1492 - Leonardo da Vinci describes a flying machine
1662 - Blaise Pascal invents a horse-drawn public bus which has a regular route, schedule, and fare system

1740 - Jacques de Vaucanson demonstrates his clockwork powered carriage
1769 Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot's demonstrates his "steam wagon", arguably the first functional automobile
1783 - Joseph Montgolfier and Étienne Montgolfier launch the first hot air balloons

1804 - Richard Trevithick builds a prototype steam powered railroad locomotive. Oliver Evans demonstrates a steam powered amphibious vehicle.
1807 - Isaac de Rivas makes a hydrogen gas powered vehicle
1814 - George Stephenson builds the first practical steam powered railroad locomotive
1816 - The most likely originator of the bicycle is German Baron Karl von Drais, who rode his 1816 machine while collecting taxes from his tenants.
1853 - Sir George Cayley builds and demonstrates the first heavier-than-air aircraft (a glider)
1862 - Jean Lenoir makes a gasoline-engine automobile
1868 - George Westinghouse invents the compressed Air brake (rail) for railway trains.

1900 - Ferdinand von Zeppelin builds the first successful airship
1903 - Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright fly the first motor-driven airplane
1903 - small Diesel engine tested in a canal Boat by Rudolph Diesel, Adrian Bochet and Frederic Dyckhoff
1908 - Henry Ford develops the assembly line method of automobile manufacturing
1911 - Selandia launched, the first oceangoing, diesel engine driven ship
1926 - Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket
1942 - V2 rocket covers a distance of 200 km
1947 - First supersonic flight
1957 - Sputnik 1, the first man-made satellite to be launched into orbit
1961 - Vostok 1, the first manned space mission, made 2 orbits around the earth.
1969 - First manned mission to the Moon
1981 - First flight of the space shuttle