The building of Jodrell Bank radiotelescope in the UK begins.

The first embryo transplants for cattle are performed.

UNIVAC 1 is the first computer to store information on magnetic tape.

James Bonner shows that mitochondria are involved in the reactions of cellular respiration.

A calf is produced using semen that had been frozen before it was used.

The first accident at a nuclear reactor occurs - a technician makes an error at the Chalk River reactor in Canada and the nuclear core explodes.

The American doctor and epidemiologist Jonas Salk develops a polio vaccine which is used in a mass inoculation programme which will start in 1954.

The CBS television network in America uses a UNIVAC computer to predict the results of the US presidential election. The computer predicts a landslide victory for Dwight D Eisenhower, the Republican candidate. The computer operators do not believe this, so they quickly reprogram the computer to predict a close contest. The eventual result of the election is - a landslide victory for Eisenhower.

Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reach the summit of Everest, the world's highest mountain.

In London Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins carry out X-ray crystallography studies of DNA.

In England Frederick Sanger determines the structure of a protein for the first time - the hormone insulin.

James Watson from America and Francis Crick of England develop the double helix model of DNA which explains the way in which this massive molecule can carry and transmit the hereditary information in living organisms.

The Centre Européen de Recherche Nucléaire (CERN) is founded on September 29.

The American chemist Vincent Du Vigneaud wins the Nobel Prize for synthesising polypeptide hormones.

In America Clyde Cowan and Frederick Reines detect neutrinos for the first time - they had been first predicted in 1930 by Wolfgang Pauli as an explanation for the behaviour of nuclei undergoing beta decay. Rather than believe for the last 45 years that the law of conservation of energy is not obeyed in this decay, physicists have chosen to believe in a theory that involves an unknown particle. The work of Cowan and Reines justifies this faith.

In England Christopher Cockerell develops the first practical hovercraft.

The first optical fibres are produced.

Albert Einstein dies on April 18 aged 76.

In England, Dorothy Hodgkin uses an electronic computer to work out the structure of vitamin B12.

Irene Juliet-Curie, daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie, dies of leukaemia - probably from her work on radioactivity.

Willem Keeson, a Dutch physicist, explores the properties of liquid helium and produces solid helium.

Leo Esaki of Japan discovers that electrons can "tunnel" from one region of a semiconductor to another, causing resistance to decrease with increased current rather than increasing as would be expected.

Sputnik 1 is launched by the USSR on October 4. It is the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.

The USSR launch Sputnik 2 on November 3. It carries the dog Laika into orbit.

The first experimental nuclear reactor for generating electric begins operation in America.

A chess program that runs on an IBM computer is developed. It plays about as well as a fair amateur.

The Antarctic treaty is signed, promising to keep the continent free from military use and to use it for scientific research.

Japanese scientists make a discovery which will be vital in the development of genetic engineering. They find resistance to antibodies in Shigella dysenteriae is passed from one bacterium to another by small circles of DNA known as "plasmids", separate from the normal DNA.

Echo, the first passive communications satellite is launched.

English scientist Jane Goodall sets up her work observing the behaviour of chimpanzees, our nearest biological relatives, at Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve on Lake Tanganyika. For the next ten years she will study the lives of chimpanzees and will discover many fascinating facts about their behaviour - for example, their ability to use straws for extracting termites from nests. Some scientists will disapprove of her work, in which she gives each chimpanzee a name and attempts to understand the reasons for their behaviour - they see this approach as "unscientific".

Element 103, an artificially created element called "lawrencium", is produced by a team led by American chemist Albert Ghiorso.

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin of the USSR is the first human being to orbit the Earth, for 1.8 hours on 12 April in the spacecraft Vostok 1.

On May 5, Alan B Shepard Jnr is the first US astronaut into space in Freedom 7. He makes a 15 minute flight in which he does not orbit the Earth, travelling to a maximum height of 185 km.

In America, Rachel Carson writes her book 'Silent Spring', which makes people aware for the first time of the way chemicals are being introduced into the environment.

John Glenn is the first American to orbit the Earth, in the spacecraft Friendship 7 on February 20.

Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley of England and John Eccles of Australia win the Nobel prize for their work on the transmission of nerve impulses.

Guilio Natta of Italy and Karl Zeigler of Germany win the Nobel prize for chemistry for their synthesis of polymers and plastics.

Valentina Tereskov-Nikolayeva of the Soviet Union becomes the first woman in space on June 16, making 48 orbits of the Earth. Soviet president Nikita Kruschev remarks "It is our girl, a girl from the land of the Soviet Union, that is first in space. It…is a triumph of Leninist ideas."

The Aswan Dam on the Nile is completed. This will have an enormous effect on the ecology of the area.

New strains of rice are introduced which will give double the yield of original strains if they are supplied with plenty of fertiliser.

Home kidney dialysis machines for people with failed kidneys are used for the first time in the UK and the USA.

Charles Yanofsky and Sydney Brenner prove that the order of bases in DNA coincides with the order of amino acids in proteins. This is a very important step in understanding how proteins are made in the body.

It is discovered that injections of synthetic female hormones can prevent women ovulating for a whole month.

A vaccine against measles becomes available.

The computer language BASIC - Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code - is developed. This will become the most common computer language learned and used by owners of personal computers.

The Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov carries out the first ever space walk, staying outside his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 20 minutes on March 18.

The American space probe Mariner 4, launched on November 28 1964, reaches Mars. It flies past the planet, sending pictures of its surface back to Earth.

American chemist Robert Mulliken wins a Nobel prize for his work on atomic bonds in molecules.

A vaccine for rubella (German measles) is developed.

The Atomic Energy Commission in America announces that a 200 billion electron volt particle accelerator is to be built.

Fuel injected engines for cars are developed in the UK.

Three American astronauts - Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee - die in a fire on the ground while testing an Apollo spacecraft.

A Soviet cosmonaut, Vladimir Komarov, dies as his Soyez spacecraft returns to Earth - the parachute gets tangled and fails to function.

Americans Charles Caskey, Richard Marshall and Marshall Nirenberg show that identical messenger RNA is used to form identical amino acids in bacteria, toads and guinea pigs, leading to the suggestion that the genetic code is a universal information system for all life forms.

The fertility drug Clomiphene is introduced to help infertile couples have children - there is an immediate increase in multiple births.

Keyboards are used to input data into computers, replacing punch cards.

The first warning that an increase in the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could be causing a greenhouse effect and raising global temperatures is given by S Manabe and R T Wetherald.

Dr Christian Barnard of South Africa performs the first human heart transplant operation. The patient, Louis Washkansky, lives for 18 days with his new heart.

Dentists show that tooth decay is caused by bacteria living in the mouth and feeding on sugar.

Andrei Sakharov, a Soviet scientist involved in the development of the Soviet Union's hydrogen bomb, speaks out in favour of a reduction in nuclear weapons.

Werner Arber, a Swiss biologist, makes a discovery which will have far reaching implications for genetic engineering. He finds that bacteria defend themselves against viruses by cutting the virus DNA using special "restriction enzymes". These enzymes will later be widely used in developing DNA technologies.

The scanning electron microscope comes into practical use in laboratories, allowing three dimensional pictures of cells to be produced.

The Americans Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins become the first human beings to visit the Moon. Armstrong steps onto the Moon's surface on July 20, followed by Aldrin, while Collins stays in Apollo 11 ready to collect them.

The Apollo 13 mission goes wrong - the equipment fails and the crew have to nurse the stricken spacecraft behind the moon and home again.

Floppy disks are used for storing computer data for the first time.

"Jumbo jets" - the Boeing 747 - go into service across the Atlantic.

The Americans Daniel Nathans and Hamilton Smith develop enzymes which break DNA at specific sites - making another step towards genetic engineering. They will share the 1978 Nobel Prize for this work with Werner Arber.

The first water-cooled nuclear reactor for the generation of electricity goes into operation in Canada.

Three Soviet cosmonauts dock with Salyut 1, the first space station.

Vitamin B12 is synthesised by American chemist Robert Woodward.

The computer language Pascal is invented. It is named for Blaise Pascal, inventor of the first mechanical adding machine in the 17th century.

In Californian schools it becomes law that biblical accounts of the creation by God are given equal footing with Darwinian theory of evolution.

The use of DDT is restricted in America in a move to protect the environment after it is discovered that DDT accumulates in the food chain.

CAT scanners (Computerised Axial Tomography) are introduced to help with medical diagnoses.

A calf is produced from a frozen embryo for the first time.

Americans Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer show that DNA molecules can be cut with one type of enzyme, joined together again with another type and reproduced by inserting them into the bacteria E. coli. This is the beginning of the science of genetic engineering.

British scientists develop the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR or MRI) scanner for medical diagnosis.

40% of the skeleton of 'Lucy' is found - an early human ancestor more than three million years old - by a team led by Don Johanson and Maurice Taieb.

Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina warn that CFCs used in fridges and as aerosol spray propellants might be damaging the ozone layer in the atmosphere. This protects the Earth against excessive ultraviolet radiation from the Sun.

Some scientists call for a halt in the development of genetic engineering until the implications of what it might lead to are better understood.

The first co-operative space venture by the US and USSR takes place when a three man Apollo space craft docks with a two-man Soyez space craft.

The first personal computer, the Altair 8800, is produced in the USA. It has a memory of 256 bytes.