1600: Gilbert's De Magnete laid the foundation for magnetism and electricity
1675: Newton built a more efficient electrostatic generator
1729: Gray distinguished conductors of electricity from nonconductors
1750: Franklin defined positive and negative electricity
1785: Morgan possibly produced x-rays in vacuum experiments
1800: Volta constructed the first electrical battery, the Voltaic pile
1820: Oersted discovered the link between electricity and magnetism
1827: Ohm formulated Ohm's law
1821: Faraday and Henry discovered electromagnetic induction
1850: Plucker observed green-glass fluorescence in a vacuum tube
1860: Toepler, Holtz, and Wimshurst improved electrostatic machines
1873: Maxwell published his famous equations in "Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism"
1879: Crookes found that cathode rays can be deflected by a magnet