Business & Industry

Industrialists, entrepreneurs, and moguls who built empires and transformed economies.

Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie

1835–1919 · Steel magnate, philanthropist

John D. Rockefeller

John D. Rockefeller

1839–1937 · Standard Oil tycoon, among the richest Americans in history

Henry Ford

1863–1947 · Assembly line, Model T automobile

Coco Chanel

1883–1971 · Fashion icon, Chanel No. 5

Steve Jobs

1955–2011 · Co-founded Apple, changed technology

Bill Gates

1955–present · Co-founder of Microsoft and philanthropist

Jeff Bezos

1964–present · Founded Amazon, space entrepreneur

Jimmy Wales

1966–present · Co-founder of Wikipedia

Elon Musk

1971–present · Tesla, SpaceX, tech entrepreneur

Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg

1984–present · Co-founder of Facebook

Key Events in Business & Industry

1602 Dutch East India Company founded; first public stock

1694 Bank of England established

1760 Industrial Revolution begins in Britain

1776 Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations

1825 First passenger railway opens (Stockton-Darlington)

1837 Panic of 1837; first major US financial crisis

1870 Standard Oil founded by John D. Rockefeller

1876 Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone

1886 Karl Benz patents the automobile

1903 Ford Motor Company founded

1913 Ford introduces the moving assembly line

1929 Wall Street Crash triggers the Great Depression

1936 Keynes publishes The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money

1944 Bretton Woods Conference establishes IMF and World Bank

1971 Nixon ends gold convertibility; Bretton Woods system collapses

1975 Microsoft founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen

1976 Apple Computer founded

1994 Amazon founded by Jeff Bezos

1998 Google founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin

2008 Global financial crisis; Lehman Brothers collapses

Sources

Andrew Carnegie — Wikipedia
John D. Rockefeller — Wikipedia
Henry Ford — Wikipedia
Coco Chanel — Wikipedia
Steve Jobs — Wikipedia
Bill Gates — Wikipedia
Jeff Bezos — Wikipedia
Jimmy Wales — Wikipedia
Elon Musk — Wikipedia
Mark Zuckerberg — Wikipedia