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Historical timeline

Historical Timeline

  • 2005
    • The National Building Code of Canada (NBCC) became objective-based, in which each technical requirement was linked with at least one objective and functional statement
  • 1994
    • The BOCA, ICBO, and SBCCI formed the International Code Council (ICC) and developed the International Building Code (IBC) for application across the US; it was first published in 1997
  • 1989
    • Responsibility for writing the Eurocodes was given to the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the conversion from European pre-standards (ENVs) to European standards (EN) started; by 2010 all national rules were replaced by the the EN Eurocodes, which for structural engineering include Eurocode 0: Basis of structural design, Eurocode 1: Actions on structures, Eurocode 2: Design of concrete structures, Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures, Eurocode 4: Design of composite steel and concrete structures, Eurocode 5: Design of timber structures, Eurocode 6: Design of masonry structures, Eurocode 7: Geotechnical design, Eurocode 8: Design of structures for earthquake resistance, and Eurocode 9: Design of aluminium structures
  • 1975
    • The Commission of the European Community took the initiative to harmonize national building codes and standards, which ultimately lead to the Eurocodes
  • 1971
    • The Intel 4004 was the first microchip to put all functions of a computer on one chip, thus starting a revolution in computer design
  • 1970
    • The first handheld calculator became available
    • Seismic provisions in the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC) were strengthened and the intensity was based on exceedance probabilities
  • 1968
    • Alin C. Cornell published the first formulation of the reliability index
  • 1963
    • Studies concluded that the sea floors and continents are drifting horizontally, which explains strong earthquakes, leading to a paradigm shift in geology and a 1968 paper that coined the phrase plate tectonics
  • 1961
    • Yuri Gagarin was the first human to travel in outer space when he was carried by a spacecraft that orbited the earth on April 12, 1961
    • Ernst Basler published on structural safety
  • 1959
    • J. Brinch Hansen published on structural safety
  • 1958
    • Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments developed the microchip, which is a key ingredient in modern calculators and computers
  • 1953
    • Seismic provisions became part of the main body of the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC)
    • A. I. Johnson published on structural safety
  • 1948
    • R. Lévi published on structural safety
  • 1947
    • S. Luthander published on structural safety
  • 1945
    • A. M. Freudenthal published "The safety of structures"
  • 1941
    • The first edition of the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC) was published
  • 1940
    • W. Kjellman published early work on structural safety
    • G. Wästlund published early work on structural safety
    • The Southern Building Code Congress International (SBCCI) was established and developed the Standard Building Code (SBC), which was primarily applied in the Southern US
  • 1936
    • M. Prot published early work on structural safety
  • 1933
    • Kolmogorov established the axioms of probability theory
  • 1930
    • Hardy Cross published the moment distribution method
  • 1927
    • The International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO) was established and developed the Uniform Building Code (UBC), which was primarily applied in the Midwest and Western US
    • Werner Heisenberg published his uncertainty principle, or principle of indeterminacy, which states that the location and velocity of an electron cannot both be determined, not because of limitations in measuring devices but as a physical property
  • 1926
    • Max Mayer published early work on structural safety
  • 1920
    • C. Forsell published early work on structural safety
  • 1915
    • The Building Officials and Code Administration (BOCA) in the US was established and developed the National Building Code (NBC), which was primarily applied in the Northeastern US
  • 1913
    • Richard Edler von Mises published a paper with the famous yield criterion; Maxwell is also said to have contributed to this criterion as early as 1865
  • 1905
    • Albert Einstein published four groundbreaking papers at age 26, including one on special relativity
  • 1903
    • Ludwig Prandtl published the membrane analogy for torsion, known as Prandtl's stress function
  • 1889
    • The Eiffel Tower was completed after two years of construction
  • 1886
    • Bauschinger published the lowered yield strength of steel in compression after it has been subject to yielding in tension
  • 1882
    • Otto Mohr presents his graphical representation of the stress at a point
  • 1884
    • Lord Kelvin (William Thomson) gave his Baltimore lectures on the theory of elasticity
  • 1879
    • J. V. Boussinesq published new derivations of for thin bars and plates
  • 1877
    • Lord Rayleigh (John William Strutt) published, within two years, two volumes on The Theory of Sound, with use of generalized coordinates to solve vibration of strings and membranes
    • Lévy published his work on plates
  • 1876
    • G. R. Kirchhoff published his book on mechanics, including the theory of plates
  • 1875
    • Building regulations were put in place in Chicago after the 1871 city fire
  • 1873
    • Alberto Castigliano published his engineering degree thesis with the theorem that states that forces are obtained by partial differentiation of the strain energy with respect to displacements, and vice versa
  • 1866
    • Culmann showed that the stress in a two-dimensional system can be represented by a circle
  • 1864
    • Saint-Venant published his notes on strength of materials in the third edition of Navier's book, adding to the theory of beam bending
    • Henri Édouard Tresca carried out a variety of tests that explored the validity of his shear-stress-based material failure criterion
    • The Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol was completed, five years after the death of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a famous and innovative British civil engineer
  • 1853
    • Saint-Venant presented his memoirs on torsion to a committee at the French Academiy consisting of Cauchy, Poncelet, Piobert, and Lamé
  • 1852
    • Gabriel Lamé published a book on the theory of elasticity, following in 1859 by a book on mechanics in curvilinear coordinates
  • 1850
    • J. C. Maxwell published a paper "On the Equilibrium of Elastic Solids" with use of the photoelastic method to verify results
  • 1847
    • J. M. C. Duhamel published his textbook on calculus, followed in 1853 by a textbook on mechanics
  • 1833
    • S. D. Poisson published his Treatise on Mechanics, adding to his 1829 and 1831 memoirs, establishing the differential equation for plates and solving a variety of practical problems
  • 1826
    • Navier published the first edition of his book on strength of materials, in which he applied the hypothesis that plane sections remain plane and perpendicular to the neutral axis to a variety of beam bending problems; Navier was also the first to address statically indeterminate beams
  • 1822
    • Augustin Cauchy published his work on solid mechanics, including equilibrium considerations for a tetrahedron, essentially introducing the concept of stress on rigid infinitesimally small bodies rather than Navier's consideration of molecular forces
  • 1820
    • Navier published his memoir on plate bending
  • 1814
    • Laplace published the idea that if we knew the precise initial condition of every particle in the universe at one time, as laborious as that might be, then we could deterministically predict everything in the future
  • 1812
    • Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace published Theorie analytique des probabilities
  • 1807
    • Thomas Young published the "Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy" that he taught around 1802, in which he defines cross-sectional moduli, like the "weight of the modulus," EA, that later gave name to what is currently known as Young's modulus, E, often called the modulus of elasticity
  • 1798
    • Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss completed Disquisitiones Arithmeticae at age 21, which was published in 1801 and is one among numerous pioneering contributions by "The Prince of Mathematicians"
  • 1789
    • The French revolution started and lasted until the year after
  • 1787
    • The United States Constitution was adopted
  • 1784
    • C. A. Coulomb published his memoir on torsion
  • 1773
    • C. A. Coulomb published a famous paper on the mechanics of elastic bodies
  • 1766
    • J. L. Lagrange prepared Mecanique Analytique, published in 1788, in which no figures appear, exposing the use of d'Alembert's principle, the principle of virtual work, and the concept of generalized coordinates
  • 1763
    • Two years after the death of Thomas Bayes an essay with his theorem was presented to the Royal Society; it was published in a paper the following year
  • 1750
    • Leonhard Euler and Daniel Bernoulli established the theory of beam bending, based on developments by Jacob Bernoulli, that correctly identified the neutral axis and assumes that plane sections remain plane and perpendicular to that axis during deformation
  • 1744
    • Leonard Euler published "Methodus inveniendi lineas curves" with pioneering application of calculus to strength of materials, including buckling loads and a differential equation for beam bending from an expression of potential energy provided to him by Daniel Bernoulli
  • 1713
    • Parent published two memoirs that remedied several inaccuracies in earlier beam theories; however, typos, publication outside the Academy, and an unclear presentation style caused continuous use of Mariotte's theory
    • Eight years after Jacob Bernoulli's death, his work Ars conjectandi (the art of guessing) was published by his nephew Nicholas Bernoulli
  • 1705
    • Jacob Bernoulli published his collected works, including the deflection of beams, which had elements of the final beam theory, except the same inaccurate location of the neutral axis assumed by Marionette, who studied strength rather than deflection
  • 1700
    • Magnitude 9 megathrust subduction earthquake hit the Pacific Northwest in North-America on January 26 at 9pm; within the previous 6,000 years they occurred in this region with intervals ranging from 250 to 850 years
  • 1696
    • Guillaume de l'Hôpital published the first book on calculus
  • 1695
    • Leibniz published Specimen Dynamicum; he is famous for formulating the conservation of "vis viva" (living force), i.e., twice today's expression for kinetic energy, instead of conservation of momentum advocated by Newton in England and Descartes in France
  • 1687
    • Isaac Newton published "Philosophie Naturalis Principia Mathematica" (Principia) that founded classical mechanics
  • 1686
    • Mariotte's pioneering work on strength of materials, albeit not with a fully accurate beam theory, is published in a paper on motion of fluids two years after his death
  • 1678
    • Robert Hooke published on the elastic properties of springs, giving name to Hooke's Law
  • 1675
    • G. W. Leibniz, who invented infinitesimal calculus concurrently with Newton, used integral calculus to compute the area underneath a function
  • 1666
    • The French Academy of Sciences was founded
    • A fire in London destroyed two-thirds of the city and prompted Parliament to write the "London Building Act" over the next couple of years, which is one of the earliest building codes
  • 1657
    • Christiaan Huygens published the first textbook on probability theory, encouraged by Blaise Pascal
  • 1654
    • Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat exchanged letters that solved two problems posed by the gambler Chevalier de Mere and thus established the first theory of probability
  • 1644
    • René Descartes published "Principles of Philosophy," stating three laws of nature, one being later named Newton's first law
  • 1638
    • Galileo Galilei published "Two New Sciences" with an impressive treatment of strength of materials, albeit with an inaccurate assumption about the location of the neutral axis in beams
  • 1610
    • Galileo Galilei published "Sidereus Nuncius" that supported Copernicus's hypothesis of our solar system
  • 1590
    • Galileo Galilei published on the topic of falling bodies in Pisa, which originates the study of dynamics
  • 1582
    • The Gregorian calendar was introduced on February 24, dropping 10 days and replacing the Julian calendar; however, due to the Protestant Reformation many countries did not initially adopt it
  • 1578
    • The first stone was laid in the construction of the Pont Neuf bridge over the river Seine in Paris, France; it was complete in 1607
  • 1560
    • The Accademia Secretorum Naturae was founded in Napoli, the first of many National Academies of Science worldwide
  • 1545
    • Girolamo Cardano published Ars Magna (The Great Art), which is one of his many works in mathematics; he also wrote a book on probability called Liber de Ludo Aleae (The Book on Games of Chance) a hundred years before the work of Pascal and Fermat, which was published posthumously in 1663 and included a section on how to cheat effectively (he was a compulsive gambler with a colourful and often arduous life)
  • 1543
    • Nicolaus Copernicus published "On the Revolutions of Celestial Orbs" with the theory that the Earth circles the Sun
  • 1517
    • Martin Luther published "The Ninety-Five Theses"
  • 1492
    • Christopher Columbus (Cristóbal Cólon) landed in the Americas
  • 1452
    • Leonardo da Vinci was born; he created a large body of famous paintings and engineering inventions until he died in 1519
  • 1436
    • The structure of the Duomo cathedral in Florence was completed; construction of some parts started in 1296
  • 1070
    • Omar Khayyam published his Treatise on Demonstration of Problems in Algebra that sets forth the principles of algebra, which fostered the use of Arab work on algebra in Europe
  • 1003
    • The Norse explorer Leif Ericson (Leifr Eiriksson) travels from Iceland to Vinland (North America); he is the son of Erik the Red from Western Norway and is regarded as the first European to arrive in North America
  • 820
    • Persian mathematician and member of Baghdad's House of Wisdom, Muhammad bin Musa al-Khwarizmi, published the Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing (Al-Ktab al-Jabr wa'l-Muqabala); the title of this book gave rise to the word algebra
  • 780
    • The Persian mathematician and astronomer Muhammad Ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi was born; he translated many Hindu texts into Arabic at the House of Wisdom in Baghdad and his name is the basis for the word "algorithm;" those who used the Hindu-Arabic number system were called "algorists," while those using the Roman numerals were called abacists because they calculated with the abacus
  • 766
    • The Brahmasphutasiddhanta was brought to the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, where it was translated into Arabic, thus bolstering the Hindu-Arabic number system that is currently in use
  • 628
    • The Indian mathematician Brahmagupta wrote the book called The Opening of the Universe (Brahmasphutasiddhanta), with the Hindu positional number system, which is the root of our current Hindu-Arabic number system
  • 476
    • The Western Roman Empire collapsed but the Roman number system remained in use in Europe for over 500 years
  • 458
    • The Indian text Jain Lokavihaaga is written; it is the oldest known text to use the number zero
  • 0
    • Historians habitually omit "year zero" between 1 BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini) 1, while astronomers count it as one year
  • 27 BC
    • Augustus becomes emperor of the Roman Empire
  • 44 BC
    • Gaius Julius Caesar died on March 15, assassinated by Junius Brutus
  • 287 BC
    • Archimedes was born; he published on equilibrium of levers, forces of buoyancy, and other topics until he died in 212 BC
  • 325 BC
    • Aristotle, a student of Plato, published many of his pioneering works in the period until about 323BC, albeit with some inaccurate hypotheses, such as heavier objects falling faster than lighter ones and neglecting inertia forces
  • 335 BC
    • Euclid was born; he was a Greek mathematician who lived for about 40 years in Alexandria, where he authored "Elements" and thus established the field of geometry
  • 380 BC
    • Plato published The Republic
  • 570 BC
    • Pythagoras was born; he lived for about 75 years and established the Pythagorean Brotherhood, whose students, among other achievements in mathematics, proved the Pythagoras' right triangle rule
  • 1200 BC
    • The end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age, which lasted until about AD 400 in Europe
  • 1792 BC
    • Hammurabi became the sixth king of Babylon (until 1750 BC) and erected a stone monument with the Code of Laws that included punishment for poor construction
  • 3000 BC
    • The end of the Stone Age and the beginning of the Bronze Age
  • 2,500,000 BC
    • The beginning of the Stone Age
  • 65,500,000 years ago
    • The Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event, during which a large number of animal and plant species became extinct, including the dinosaurs
  • 160,000,000 years ago
    • The dinosaurs started to roam the Earth
  • 3,850,000,000 years ago
    • Life appeared on Earth
  • 3,900,000,000 years ago
    • Earth's surface became solid
  • 4,540,000,000 years ago
    • Planet Earth appeared
  • 13,700,000,000 years ago
    • Beginning of time, according to the Big Bang theory