Asian Historical Timeline

Our world today is shaped by the non-stop innovations from all countries from different
continents. The competition to be the one who takes humanity to the next level is never-
ending. Many countries contributed on how the world works today, some resulted in negative
changes, some positive. Many of these contributors are from Asian countries. And to truly
appreciate the present, we must rewind and look back to the discoveries and inventions that
ultimately led to the world that we are living on right now.

Year/Country Description Illustration

9500–9000 years Kites were invented in
B.C./ Indonesia Asia, though their exact
origin can only be
speculated. The oldest
depiction of a kite is
from a Mesolithic period
cave painting in Muna
island, southeast
Sulawesi, Indonesia

7000 BC / India It was revealed by the

historians that the Indus
Valley Civilization
practiced dentistry as
far back as 7000 BC.
The evidence was found
on a dig site in
Mehergarh in which
healers cured tooth
disorders using bow
drills.
2500 BC / India In Indus Valley
Civilization, every home
in Harappa and
Mohenjo-Daro had a
flush toilet connected
to a sophisticated
sewage system.
2400 BC / India The areas in Indus
Valley Civilization have
had rulers uncovered
from ruins. According to
the measurement, it was
in the size 1/16 of an
inch. It was prominent
back then. The bricks of
every building in the
valley have the exact
measurements.

2400 – 1800 BC Between 2400 BC -

/ India 1800 BC in the Indus
Valley civilization, the
earliest existence of a
weighing scale has
been recorded. The
balances were utilized
to collate measure and
goods in trade.

2000 BC / India It was believed by the

historians that plastic
surgery was practiced
during 2000 BC. The
plastic in the phrase
means the art of
modelling malleable
flesh. Sushruta, an
Indian physician was
named father of plastic
surgery in 600B. He
wrote books and
teachings about plastic
surgery which
eventually became
known across Europe.
105 AD/ China Historical sources credit the
invention of paper to Cai
Lun, a dignitary serving the
imperial Chinese court who,
in AD 105, began producing
sheets of paper from scraps
of old rags, tree bark and
fishing nets.

600 AD / India The earliest form of the

game that’s now called
chess can be dated
back to India

900 AD / China Chinese monks

discovered the gunpowder
in the 9th century CE,
during their quest for a life-
extending elixir.

1040 AD / China Bi Sheng (毕昇) (990–

1051) developed the first
known movable-type
system for printing in
China around 1040 AD
during the Northern Song
dynasty, using ceramic
materials.

1200 AD/ China The abacus, called Suan-

Pan in Chinese, as it
appears today, was first
chronicled circa 1200 C.E.
in China. The device was
made of wood with metal
re-inforcements.
1869 / Russia In 1869, Russian chemist
Dmitri Mendeleev created
the framework that
became the modern
periodic table, leaving
gaps for elements that
were yet to be discovered.
While arranging the
elements according to
their atomic weight
1941 / Fe del Mundo invented the
Philippines bamboo incubator

Was credited for her

studies that eventually led
to the creation of the
incubator and jaundice
relieving devices

1949 / While testing samples of

Philippines soil from his own
backyard, Dr. Abelardo
Aguilar isolated a strain of
bacteria which lead to the
development of
Erythromycin, a broad-
spectrum antibiotic used
universally today
1956/ Japan Modern anime began
in 1956 and found lasting
success in 1961 with the
establishment of Mushi
Productions by Osamu
Tezuka.

Astro Boy, created by

Osamu Tezuka, premiered
on Fuji TV on January 1,
1963. It became the first
anime shown widely to
Western audiences
1982 / Japan Sony released the world’s
first CD player, the CDP-
101
1994/ Japan The first Sony “original”
PlayStation was released by
Ken Kutaragi.
.

1994/ Japan The QR code, a type of

matrix barcode, was
invented by Denso Wave
originally used to track
vehicles and parts

2019 / China The discovery of a

coronavirus in Wuhan, China
that would later be identified
as the Covid-19
REFERENCES
Kite - "Kaghati, World's First Kite". Go Celebes!.
THE HISTORY OF PAPER: FROM ITS ORIGINS TO THE PRESENT DAY (pixartprinting.co.uk)
Gunpowder: Origins in the east(brown.edu)
Tsien, Tsuen-Hsuin (1985). Paper and Printing. Needham, Joseph Science and Civilization in
China. vol. 5 part 1. Cambridge University Press
Dr. Aguilar’s antibiotic discovery in the Philippines (multiculturalmuseums.org)
Inventions you never guessed were from Russia(Kaspersky.com)
11 Ancient Inventions & Discoveries Of Science That India Gifted To The Rest Of The World
(indiatimes.com)
Who invented chess? (livescience.com)
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic (world health organization)
Bond, Jean-Michael (April 6, 2018). "Why anime is more popular now than ever". The Daily Dot.
Archived from the original on March 27, 2020.
The abacus: a brief history(www.ee.ryerson.ca)
"QR Code features". Denso-Wave. Archived from the original on 2013-01-29.
History of Sony PlayStation – Who Made the First PlayStation. Inventors.about.com (2014-03-
05).
"CDP-101 The first Compact Disc Audio CD Player from 1982".