Science and technology. The United States has been a leader in scientific research and technological innovation since the late 19th century

The United States has been a leader in scientific research and technological innovation since the late 19th century. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first US patent for the telephone. Thomas Edison's laboratory developed the phonograph, the first long-lasting light bulb, and the first viable movie camera. In the early 20th century, the automobile companies of Ransom E. Olds and Henry Ford pioneered the assembly line. The Wright brothers, in 1903, made the first controlled heavier-than-air powered flight. The rise of Nazism in the 1930s led many European scientists, including Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi, to immigrate to the US. The Space Race produced rapid advances in rocketry, materials science, and computers. The US largely developed the ARPANET and its successor, the Internet.

Orville and Wilbur Wright. The Wright brothers invented, built, and flew the first airplane on December 7, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. They reported their flight in a letter to government officials in Washington, D.C., but such an achievement was considered impossible. Therefore their letter was ignored. It was not until 1908 that the Wright brothers gained world-wide fame.

Henry Ford (1863-1947) was a man who transformed the world. The car he built changed the lives of people everywhere. In 1903, Henry Ford established the Ford Motor Company. Henry Ford wanted to make a car that everyone would be able to afford. He was able to lower the price of a car by introducing mass production assembly line techniques.

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He invented the first telephone in 1876 and became a citizen of the United States in 1882.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was born in a middle-class Jewish family in Germany. In 1933, as a sign of protest against fascism, Einstein left Germany and moved to the United States where he found his new motherland United States of America. Albert Einstein was a rare scientist who became a hero of science during his life-time. Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1922. Einstein's contributions to science have been innumerable. But primarily, his fame rests upon the Theory of Relativity.

Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was an American hero in his own time. His inventions made life easier for people everywhere. Tomas Edison may have been the world's greatest inventor. He was granted more than one thousand patents. Edison improved early models of the telegraph, telephone and film camera and projector.

Michael Collins (b. 1930) was a pilot for Apollo 11. That was the first mission to land people on the moon. Apollo 11 took off on July 16, 1969. Four days later, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first men to land on the moon.