1903 - Harold Eugene Edgerton is born on April 6th in Fremont, Nebraska. He is the first of three children born to Mary Nettie and Frank Eugene Edgerton.

1915-1921 - During this time Edgerton attends junior and senior high school in Auora and begins to learn about photography from his uncle. He also sets up a dark room in his house.

1920-1925 - Edgerton works summers in the Nebraska Power and Light Company and becomes interested in electrical generation. He decides to enroll in the University of Nebraska in Lincoln in 1921. In 1925 he earns his B.S. in electrical engineering.

1926 - During this time Edgerton enrolls at MIT and begins using the strobe light to study whirling rotor engines. He discovers that by synchronizing the strobe and rotors it allows him to see the rotors more clearly.

1927 - He earns his M.S. in electrical engineering from MIT and joins the faculty.

1928 - Marries Esther May Garrett.

1931 - Edgerton develops and perfects the stroboscope for use in photography and forms a partnership with Kenneth J. Germeshausen (a former student) to develop the stroboscope for other various applications. He also recieves his D. Sc. in electrical engineering from MIT.

1932 - He begins photographing things that are to fast for the human eye to see using the stroboscope and is published in popular and technical publications.

1933 - He applies for a U.S. patent for his stroboscope and has three of his photographs exhibited for the first time at the Royal Photographic Society's annual exhibition in London. In the next thirty-five years he applies for 45 more patents.

1934 - Another former student, Herbert E. Grier, joins Edgerton and Germeshausen. Ten more of his pictures are exhibited at the Royal Photographic Society's annual exhibition and they are awarded the societ's bronze medal for their work.

1937 - Edgerton's picture, Coronet, is chosen by Beaumont Newhall to be shown at the first photographic exhibition at the Musem of Modern Art in New York City.

1938 - Edgerton perfects multiflash photography for use in photographing sports. He tries to sell the electronic flash idea to major camera companies but is unsuccesful. Instead he decides to offer his equipment and services to sports photographers and revolutionizes sports photography by 1940.

1939 - He is asked to design a strobe powerful enough for aerial photography at night by the U.S. Army Air Force and has his first book, Flash! Seeing the Unseen by Ultra High Speed Photography, published

1940 - He shows MGM Studios how to use high speed photgraphy in making movies.

1944 - Edgerton works as a technical representative for the U.S. Army Air Force and helps to provide important intelligence information about troop movement using aerial photography.

1946 - He recieves the medal of Freedom from the War Department for the role he played in WWII.

1947 - Edgerton and his partners form Edgerton, Germeshausen, and Grier Inc. (now EG&G, Inc.) and become the primary contractors for the Atomic Energy Commission. They create devices that can time and fire US nuclear bombs for testing. They also design a camera, the Rapatronic, that can photograph nuclear explosions from seven miles away. Also at this time, Edgerton has his photographs published for the first time in National Geographic.

1953 - He begins working with Jacques Cousteau and goes on many expeditons, abord the research vessel Calypso, during which they photograph sea floors all over the world. During this time he develops a device that lets them know how far the camera is off the ocean floor and he also works with side-scan sonar which is used to locate objects on the floor of the ocean.

1960 - Edgerton works on the research vessle Chain, in conjunction with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, on which he uses his new sonar device, thumper. Thumper was capable of subbottom penetration of the ocean floor. Using this device Edgerton and his associates obtained the first ever samples collected from the deepest layer of the Earth's crust.

1961 - He develops another sonar device, boomer, which allowed continuous seismic profiling of the ocean floor.

1964 - Edgerton and colleagues at MIT develop a technique using strobes and special cameras which allow them to take pictures of the blood flow in human capillaries.

1966 - He receives an appointment as Institute Professor at MIT which is awarded to distinguished faculty members.

1968 - Edgerton, with colleagues, develops an elapsed-time photography system that can be used to photograph slow underwater events such as the movement of sea urchins.

1973 - Edgerton and eighty other scientists travel to Akjoujt to record changes in light and color during one of the longest solar eclipses of this century. He also receives the U.S. National Medal of Science which was presented to him by President M. Nixon at the White House.

1976 - His camera strobe equimpent and photographs are put on permanent display at the Plainsman Museum in Aurora, Nebraska.

1982 - Edgerton is named the New England Inventor of the Year.

1983 - MIT dedicates Strobe Alley to Edgerton. Strobe Alley is an eighty-foor corridor that contains his photographs and equipment.

1986 - For his invention of the stroboscope Edgerton is inducted into the National Inventers Hall of Fame by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

1990 - On January 4th Edgerton dies of a heart attack at the age of 86.