Brown demonstrates asymmetric capacitor effects
Thomas Townsend Brown observes that charged capacitors produce a net force. The beginning of electrogravitics research.
Babson founds Gravity Research Foundation
Businessman Roger Babson establishes a foundation to catalyze gravity research. Its essay prize will later be won by Hawking, Penrose, and Smoot.
Invention Secrecy Act signed into law
Authorizes the U.S. government to suppress any patent application that could threaten national security. Propulsion systems are an explicit screening category.
Louis Witten receives PhD from Johns Hopkins
Dissertation on statistical mechanics. He will go on to postdoctoral work at Princeton, Maryland, and MIT Lincoln Laboratory.
Brown submits Project Winterhaven to ONR
A proposal for electrogravitic propulsion including Mach 3 interceptor aircraft designs. Names Glenn L. Martin as a potential collaborator.
Trimble creates RIAS at Glenn Martin
George S. Trimble founds the Research Institute for Advanced Studies. Stated goals: "space flight and the control of the force of gravity itself for propulsion."
Bahnson founds Institute of Field Physics
Industrialist Agnew Bahnson establishes a gravity research center at UNC Chapel Hill and recruits Bryce and Cecile DeWitt to lead it.
RIAS hires Louis Witten
Hired, in Kaiser's words, "to spearhead its efforts in the study of gravitation" at Martin's research laboratory.
RIAS contracts Burkhard Heim
The German physicist is contracted for gravity propulsion research. Heim's unified field theory attempts to link gravity to electromagnetism.
"The Gravitics Situation" report
Classified report by Gravity Rand Ltd. documents gravity research at Douglas, Glenn Martin, GE, Bell, Convair, Lear, and Sperry-Rand. Later declassified.
Goldberg joins Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Joshua Goldberg, Peter Bergmann's PhD student, takes a position coordinating the Air Force's gravity research program.
Chapel Hill Conference on Gravitation
The landmark conference that revived general relativity. Funded by the Air Force (WADC Technical Report 57-216). Feynman, Wheeler, and DeWitt participate.
Brown experiments at Bahnson's laboratory
T. Townsend Brown conducts electrogravitic experiments at Bahnson's North Carolina labs. Film footage shot by Bahnson's daughter.
Louis Witten: "Geometry of Gravitation and Electromagnetism"
Published while at RIAS. Theoretical work on the connection between gravitational and electromagnetic fields — the link electrogravitics was trying to exploit.
Glenn Martin → Martin Marietta
The Glenn L. Martin Company merges with American-Marietta Corporation.
Louis Witten edits "Gravitation"
"Gravitation: An Introduction to Current Research" becomes a foundational text. 1,770 citations in OpenAlex.
Bahnson dies in plane crash
Funding for the Institute of Field Physics collapses. His widow redirects funds to the university rather than the institute.
Louis Witten becomes VP of Gravity Research Foundation
Takes the position of Vice President and Director of Science Affairs at Babson's foundation. He will hold it for decades.
DeWitts leave Chapel Hill
Bryce and Cecile DeWitt move to UT Austin. Chapel Hill's prominence in gravity research declines.
RIAS absorbed into Martin Marietta
The research institute is renamed Martin Marietta Laboratories and shifts away from basic research.
Edward Witten proves positive energy theorem
Louis's son. His first major result is in general relativity — his father's field. This work will win him the Fields Medal.
First superstring revolution
Green-Schwarz anomaly cancellation. Edward Witten receives the paper September 10, publishes his first string theory paper September 28.
Fleischmann-Pons cold fusion announcement
Excess heat from palladium-deuterium electrolysis. 162 papers in 1989 alone. Then rapid collapse after the ERAB panel rejects the claims.
Edward Witten wins Fields Medal
The only physicist ever to receive mathematics' highest prize. Awarded for work in general relativity and topology.
Edward Witten proposes M-theory
Unifies the five versions of string theory into one framework. String theory's dominance in theoretical physics is cemented.
Martin Marietta → Lockheed Martin
Martin Marietta merges with Lockheed Corporation to form the world's largest defense contractor.
NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics begins
The only public government exotic propulsion program. $1.2 million total budget over six years.
BAE Systems Project Greenglow
UK gravity modification research program. Later documented in a BBC Horizon film.
Boeing GRASP project
Boeing's Phantom Works division pursues anti-gravity research. Internal briefing: "classified activities in gravity modification may exist."
NASA BPP cancelled
All speculative research below Technology Readiness Level 3 is eliminated.
Smolin: "The Trouble with Physics"
Argues string theory has achieved an "unhealthy near-monopoly" on fundamental physics with no experimental confirmation.
AAWSAP established
$22 million DIA program. 38 reports on antigravity, warp drive, vacuum energy. Authors include Hal Puthoff (former CIA) and Eric Davis.
Texas Symposium roundtable
Louis Witten, Joshua Goldberg, Cecile DeWitt, Roy Kerr, and Roger Penrose appear together — the surviving 1950s gravity research network.
Pais files Navy patent
"Craft using an inertial mass reduction device" (US10144532B2). Assigned to Department of the Navy. $500K in testing.
AATIP revealed by New York Times
The Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program is made public. Hal Puthoff and Luis Elizondo join To The Stars Academy.
Edward Witten concedes the landscape
States "we have to take seriously the anthropic alternative" — an acknowledgment that string theory may never make unique predictions.
Grusch testifies to Congress
Former intelligence official claims under oath that the U.S. operates a "multi-decade crash retrieval and reverse engineering program."
6,543 active patent secrecy orders
USPTO data. Navy is the largest sponsor. Propulsion systems are an explicit screening category.