Ammonia

The invention:

The first successful method for converting nitrogen
from the atmosphere and combining it with hydrogen to synthesize
ammonia, a valuable compound used as a fertilizer.

The person behind the invention:

Fritz Haber (1868-1934), a German chemist who won the 1918
Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Alkaline storage battery

The invention:

The nickel-iron alkaline battery was a lightweight,
inexpensive portable power source for vehicles with electric motors.

The people behind the invention:

Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931), American chemist, inventor,
and industrialist
Henry Ford (1863-1947), American inventor and industrialist
Charles F. Kettering (1876-1958), American engineer and
inventor

Airplane

 The invention:

The first heavier-than-air craft to fly, the airplane
revolutionized transportation and symbolized the technological
advances of the twentieth century.

The people behind the invention:

Wilbur Wright (1867-1912), an American inventor
Orville Wright (1871-1948), an American inventor
Octave Chanute (1832-1910), a French-born American civil
engineer

Abortion pill

The invention:
RU-486 was the first commercially available drug that prevented fertilized eggs from implanting themselves in the walls of women’s uteruses.
The people behind the invention:
Étienne-Émile Baulieu (1926- ), a French biochemist and endocrinologist Georges Teutsch, a French chemist
Alain Bélanger a French chemist
Daniel Philibert, a French physicist and pharmacologist