4000 BC |
Gold is first known to be used in parts
of Central and Eastern Europe. |
3000 BC |
The Egyptians master the arts of beating gold into
leaf and alloying gold with other metals to achieve
variations in hardness and color. They also develop
the ability to cast gold, using the lost-wax technique
still used in today's jewelry industry.
The Sumer civilization of southern Iraq uses gold to
create a wide range of jewelry, often using sophisticated
and varied styles still worn today. |
2500 BC |
Gold jewelry is buried in the Tomb of Djer, the
king of the first Egyptian dynasty, at Abydos, Egypt. |
1500 BC |
The immense, gold-bearing regions of Nubia make
Egypt a wealthy nation, as gold becomes the recognized
standard medium of exchange for international trade.
The Shekel, a coin originally weighing 11.3 grams of
gold, is used as a standard unit of measure throughout
the Middle East. The coin contained a naturally occurring
alloy called electrum, which was approximately two-thirds
gold and one-third silver. |
1352 BC |
The young Egyptian King Tutankhamen is interred
in a pyramid tomb laden with gold, his remains laid
in an extravagant gold anthropoid sarcophagus. |
1350 BC |
The Babylonians begin to use fire assay to test
the purity of gold.
|
1091 BC |
Squares of gold are legalized in China as a form
of money. |
560 BC |
The first coins made purely from gold are minted
in Lydia, a kingdom of Asia Minor. |
58 BC |
Julius Caesar seizes enough gold in Gaul (France)
to repay Rome's debts. |
50 BC |
The Romans issue a gold coin called the Aureus. |
600-699 AD |
The Byzantine Empire resumes gold mining in central
Europe and France, an area undeveloped since the fall
of the Roman Empire. Artisans of the period produce
intricate gold artifacts and icons. |
1100 |
1100 Venice secures its position as the world's
leading gold bullion market due to its location astride
the trade routes to the east. |
1284 |
Venice introduces the gold Ducat, which soon becomes
the most popular coin in the world, and remains so for
more than five centuries.
Great Britain issues its first major gold coin, the
Florin, which is followed by the Noble, the Angel, the
Crown, and the Guinea. |
1511 |
King Ferdinand of Spain sends explorers to the Western
Hemisphere with the command to "get gold." |
1717 |
Isaac Newton, Master of the London Mint, sets price
of gold that lasts for 200 years. |
1787 |
First US gold coin is struck by Ephraim Brasher,
a goldsmith. |
1792 |
The Coinage Act places the young United Sates on
a bimetallic silver/gold standard, defining the U.S.
Dollar as equivalent to 24.75 grains of fine gold, and
371.25 grains of fine silver. |
1803 |
North Carolina site of first US gold rush. The state
supplies all the domestic gold coined for currency by
the US Mint in Philadelphia until 1828.
|
1848 |
The California gold rush begins when James Marshall
finds specks of gold in the water at John Sutter's sawmill
near the junction of the American and Sacramento Rivers. |
1850 |
Edward Hammond Hargraves, returning from California,
predicts he will find gold in Australia within one week.
He discovers gold in New South Wales within one week
of landing. |
1859 |
The Comstock Lode of gold and silver is discovered
in Nevada. As a result, Nevada is made a state five
years later. |
1886 |
George Harrison, while digging stones to build a
house, discovers gold in South Africa. |
1887 |
Glasgow doctors, Robert and William Forrest, and
chemist John S. MacArthur patent the process for extracting
gold from ore using cyanide. |
1896 |
Two prospectors discover gold while fishing in the
Klondike River in northern Canada, richer finds were
rumored farther south in Alaska's Yukon, spawning the
Alaska Gold Rush in 1898 - the last gold rush of the
century. |
1900 |
US adopts the gold standard for its
currency. |
1903 |
The Engelhard Corporation introduces an organic
medium to print gold on surfaces. First used for decoration,
the medium becomes the foundation for microcircuit printing
technology. |
1922 |
King Tutankhamen's tomb (1352 BC) opened to reveal
a 2,448 lb. gold coffin and hundreds of gold and gold-leafed
objects. |
1927 |
A Medical study in France proves gold to be valuable
in treatment of Rheumatoid arthritis. |
1933 |
President Franklin D. Roosevelt bans the export
of gold, halts the convertibility of dollar bills into
gold, orders US citizens to hand in all the gold they
possess and establishes a daily price for gold. |
1934 |
Roosevelt fixes price of gold at $35 per ounce. |
1935 |
Western Electric Alloy #1 (69% gold, 25% silver
and 6% platinum) finds universal use in all switching
contacts for AT&T telecommunications equipment. |
1944 |
The Bretton Woods agreement sets an international
gold exchange standard and creates two new international
organizations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
and the World Band. The new standard sets par values
for currencies in terms of gold and obligates member
countries to convert foreign official holdings of their
currencies into gold at these par values. |
1947 |
The first transistor, the building block for electronics,
is assembled at AT&T Bell Laboratories. The device
uses gold contacts pressed into a germanium surface. |
1960 |
The laser is invented using gold-coated mirrors
to maximize infrared reflection. |
1961 |
Modern-day mining begins in Nevada's Carlin Trend,
ultimately making Nevada the nation's largest gold-mining
state. |
1968 |
Intel introduces a microchip with 1,024 transistors
connected by gold circuits.
On March 15, central banks give up fixed price of gold
at $35 per troy ounce and let it free float. |
1969 |
Gold coated visors protect the astronauts' eyes
from searing sunlight on the moon (Apollo 11 moon landing). |
1970 |
The charged coupled device is invented, using gold
to collect electrons generated by light, eventually
used in hundreds of military and civilian devices, including
video cameras. |
1971 |
The colloidal gold marker system is introduced by
Amersham Corporation of Illinois. Tiny spheres of gold
are used in health research laboratories worldwide to
mark or tag specific proteins to reveal their function
in the human body for the treatment of disease. |
1973 |
The U.S. Dollar is removed from gold standard, and
gold prices are allowed to float free. By June, the
market for gold in London reaches more than $120 per
ounce. |
1974 |
On December 31, US government ends its ban on individual
ownership of gold. |
1976 |
The Gold Institute is established in Washington,
D.C., to promote the common interests of the gold industry
by providing statistical data and other relevant information
to its members, the media, government, and the public. |
1980 |
Gold reaches intra-day historic high price of $870
on January 21 in New York. |
1986 |
Gold-coated compact discs are introduced. |
1987 |
Airbags are introduced for cars, using gold contacts
for reliability. |
1996 |
The Mars Global Surveyor is launched with an on-board
gold-coated parabolic telescope-mirror that will generate
a detailed map of the entire Martian surface over a
two-year period. |
1997 |
Congress passes Taxpayers Relief Act, allowing US
Individual Retirement Account holders to buy gold bullion
coins and bars for their accounts as long as they are
of a fineness equal to, or exceeding, 99.5 percent gold. |
1999 |
The Euro, a pan-European currency, is introduced,
backed by a new European Central Bank holding 15 percent
of its reserves in gold. |
2000 |
Astronomers at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii use
the giant gold-coated mirrors of the observatory's twin
telescopes to produce the most detailed images of Neptune
and Uranus ever captured. |
