3000 BCE - Babylonian astrologer-astronomers begin making methodical observations of the skies
2000 BCE - Babylonians develop a zodiac
1300 BCE - Chinese use of firework-rockets becomes widespread
1000 BCE - Babylonians record sun/moon/planetary movements
                    Egyptians use sun-clock
600-400 BCE - Pythagoras of Samos sets up a school which rivals the Ionians. Parmenides of Elea, a student, proposes a spherical Earth
                         made from condensed air and divided into five zones.  He also sets forth ideas for stars being made of compressed fire and a
                         finite, motionless, and spherical universe with illusory motion
585  BC - Thales of Miletus, a Greek astronomer of the Ionian school, predicts the angular diameter of the sun. He also effectively predicts a
                 solar eclipse, frightening Media and Lydia into negotiating for peace with the Greeks
388-315 BC - Heraclides of Pontus explains the daily rotation of the stars by assuming that the   Earth spins on its axis. He also discovers that
                       Mercury and Venus revolve around   the Sun instead of the Earth
360  BC - Flying Pigeon of Archytas made
310-230 BC - Aristarchus of Samos proposes that the Earth revolves around the Sun
276-196 BC - Eratosthenes, a Greek astronomer, measures the circumference of the Earth.  He also finds the differences between planets and
                       stars and prepares a star catalog
250  BC - Heron's aeolipile, which used steam power, was made
150  BC - Hipparchus of Nicaea tries to measure the size of the sun and the moon. He also   works on a theory to explain planetary motion and
                 composes a star catalog with 850 entries
46-120 AD - Plutarch sets forth in his De facie in orbe lunae (On the Face of the Moon's Disk) 70 AD, that the moon is a small Earth inhabited
                    by intelligent beings. He also puts forth theories that lunar markings are due to defects in our eyes, reflections from the Earth, or
                    deep ravines filled with water or dark air
127-141 AD - Ptolomy publishes Almagest (aka Megiste Syntaxis-Great Collection), which states that the Earth is a central globe, with the
                       universe revolving around it
150 AD - Lucian of Samosata's True History is published, the first science fiction story about Moon voyages.  He also later does Icaromenippus,
                another moon-voyage story
800 AD - Baghdad becomes the astronomical study center of the world
1010 AD - The Persian poet Firdaus publishes a 60,000-verse epic poem, Sh_h-N_ma, about cosmic travel
1232 AD - Rockets ("arrows of flying fire") used at the siege of Kai-fung-fu
1271 AD - Robert Anglicus attempts to document surface and weather conditions on planets
1380 AD - T. Przypkowski studies rocketry
1395-1405 AD - Konrad Kyeser von Eichstädt produces Bellifortis, describing many military rockets
1405 AD - Von Eichstädt writes about sky-rockets
1420 AD - Fontana designs various rockets
1543 AD - Nicolaus Copernicus publishes De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Orbs), reviving Aristarchus'
                 heliocentric theory
1546-1601 AD - Tycho Brahe measures positions of stars and planets. Supports heliocentric theory
1564-1642 AD - Galileo Galilei first uses the telescope to observe the skies. Discovers sunspots,   four major satellites on Jupiter (1610), and
                           Venus' phases. Defends Copernican   theory in Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo (Dialogue of the Two   Chief
                           Systems of the World), 1632
1571-1630 AD  - Johannes Kepler derives the three great laws of planetary motion: planetary orbits are ellipses with the sun as one focus of the
                            ellipse; lines drawn from the Sun to a planet will sweep over equal areas in equal periods of time; and a planet's orbit is
                            directly related to its distance from the Sun. Findings were published in Astronomia nova (New Astronomy), 1609,  and De
                            harmonice mundi (On the   Harmony of the World), 1619
1591 AD - Von Schmidlap writes a book about non-military rockets. Proposes rockets   stabilized by sticks and rockets mounted on rockets for
                 extra power
1608 AD - Telescopes invented
1628 AD - Mao Yuan-I makes the Wu Pei Chih, describing gunpowder and rocket   manufacture and use
1634 AD - Posthumous publication of Kepler's Somnium (Dream), a science fiction entry   defending heliocentrism
1638 AD - Posthumous publication of Francis Goodwin's The Man in the Moon: or a   Discourse of Voyage Thither, under the pseudonym
                 Domingo Gonsales. It puts   forth, after much fiction, the theory that the attraction from the Earth is greater   than that from the moon
                 Publication of John Wilkins' Discovery of a New World; or, a Discourse tending   to prove, that 'tis probable there may be another
                 Habitable World in that planet   Was, unlike Goodwin's story, based in fact.
                 Sir Thomas Caresme develops an allegorical fireworks display
1642-1727 AD  - Isaac Newton synthesizes recent astronomical discoveries through universal   gravitation in his famed, Philosophiae naturalis
                           principia mathematica   (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), 1687
1649, 1652 AD - Cyrano's reference to "fire-crackers" in his novels, Voyage dans la Lune (Voyage to the Moon) and Histoire des États etc
                           Empires du Soleil (History of the States and   Empires of the Sun). Both contained the newest scientific theories, though fanciful
1668 AD - Rocket experiments near Berlin by the German colonel, Christoph von Geissler
1672 AD - Cassini, an Italian astronomer, predicts the distance between Earth and Sun to be   86,000,000 miles
1686 AD - Bernard de Fontenelle's popular astronomy book, Entretiens sur la Pluralité des   Mondes (Discourses on the Plurality of Worlds)
                 published. Contained speculations   about the habitability of the planets
1690 AD - Gabriel Daniel's Voiage du Monde de Descartes (Voyage to the World of   Descartes) discusses the soul's separation from the body
                  in order to go to the   "Globe of the Moon"
1698 AD - Christian Huygens, renowned scientist, writes Cosmotheoros, or Conjectures   Concerning the Planetary Worlds, a non-fictional
                  premise on life on other planets
1703 AD - David Russen's Iter Lunare: or Voyage to the Moon uses the idea of catapulting   to the moon
1705 AD - Daniel Defoe's The Consolidator tells of an ancient race's mastery of Lunar flight   and describes various spaceships and legends of
                 lunar flights
1752 AD - Voltaire's Micromégas uses a race of people on the star Sirius to comment on   man's pretensions to greatness
1758 AD - Emanuel Swedenborg writes Earths in our Solar System, which are called Planets, and Earths in the Starry Heavens, which takes
                 Christian Huygens' non-fictional approach to discussing life on other planets
1775 AD - Louis Folie writes Le Philosophe Sans Prétention, about a Mercurian who observes Earthlings
1781 AD - March 13: William Herschel makes his own telescope and discovers Uranus. He   also puts forth theories of a habitable sun and life on
                 other planetary bodies
                 Hyder Ali of India uses rockets against the British (were composed of heavy metal   tubes guided by bamboo and had a range of a
                 mile)
1783 AD - First manned balloons made
1792-1799 AD  - Further use of military rockets against the British in India
1799-1825 AD - Pierre Simon, Marquis de Laplace, produces a five-volume work to describe the   Newtonian "system of the world," entitled
                           Mécanique céleste (Celestial Mechanics)
1801 AD - Rocket experiments carried out by the scientist, Congreve Astronomers discover that the large gap between Mars and Jupiter
                  contains a large asteroid belt. The largest, Ceres, was found to have a diameter of 480 miles
1806 AD - First major rocket bombardment done (on Boulogne, using Congreve rockets)
1807 AD - Heavy rocket attack by the British on Copenhagen
1812 AD - British rocket fire on Blasdenburg. Results in the taking of Washington D.C. and   the White House
1813 AD - British Rocket Corps formed. Begin by taking action in Leipzig
1814 AD - August 9: British rocket fire on Fort McHenry prompts Francis Scott Key to write   the "rockets' red glare" line in his famous poem
1825 AD - Dutch forces bomb the Celebes tribe in the East Indies
                 William Hale develops the stickless rocket
1826 AD - Congreve performs further rocket experiments using stage rockets (rockets mounted   on rockets) as set out by Von Schmidlap
1827 AD - George Tucker, under the pseudonym Joseph Atterlay, represents a "new wave in   science fiction," through describing a spaceship in
                 A Voyage to the Moon with some Account of the Manners and Customs, Science and Philosophy of the People of Morosofia and other
                 Lunarians
1835 AD - Edgar Allen Poe describes a lunar voyage in a homemade balloon in Hans Pfaall-A   Tale (republished as Lunar Discoveries,
                 Extraordinary Aerial Voyage by Baron   Hans Pfaall)
                 August 25: Richard Adams Locke demonstrates the people's susceptibility through   his "Moon Hoax." He publishes a week-long
                 serial in the New York Sun, as if   written by Sir John Herschel, discoverer of Uranus, about moon creatures. This   was under the title,
                 Great Astronomical Discoveries Lately Made By Sir John  Herschel, LL.D., F.R.S., etc, At the Cape of Good Hope
1837 AD - Wilhelm Beer and Johann von Mädler publish a map of the moon using the   telescope at Beer's observatory.
1846 AD - Urbain Leverrier discovers Neptune
1800 - Admiral Sir William Congreve began working with rockets for military purposes in  England.  He had originally adapted the idea from
           Indian rockets.
1806 - Claude Ruggiere launched small animals in rockets equipped with parachutes, in France.
1807 - William Congreve used his rockets in the Napoleonic Wars, as the British attacked Copenhagen and Denmark.
1814 - During the War of Independence,  the British used the Congreve rockets to attack Fort McHenry in Baltimore.
1817 - In St. Petersburg, Russian Zasyadko rockets were fired.
1828 - Russian Zasyadko rockets were put to use in the Russo Turkish War.
1841 - C. Golightly was granted the first patent in England, on a rocket-airplane.