Jonas Salk invented the world’s first polio vaccine in 1953. Prior to the invention of this vaccine polio had crippled and killed millions of people throughout human history.

The Industrial Revolution is generally considered to have begun in England and shortly thereafter in Northern and Western Europe towards the end of the eighteenth century. The pace of change dramatically accelerated in the nineteenth century. The Industrial Revolution was a period of massive economic and social upheaval in Europe and the United States. On the back of new technologies, in particular the creation of the factory system, a whole new labor system arose, and both the working and middle classes grew in number.

The Industrial Revolution began in England towards the end of the eighteenth century and eventually spread to Europe and the United States. It was the primary reason why England was able to dominate so effectively the economic stage during the nineteenth century.