| Year | End | Event/Innovator | Innovation | Description and Explanation | |||
| 1 | 1776 | The Declaration of Independence | |||||
| 4 | 1776 | 1781 | The Revolutionary War | ||||
| 7 | 1787 | The Northwest Ordinance | U.S. Constitution signed. | ||||
| 12 | 1790 | John Fitch | First Steamboat | Fitch built the first steamboat, featuring a rack of canoe-like paddles. | |||
| 16 | 1793 | Eli Whitney | Industrialization | Whitney's gin and its interchangeable parts revolutionized agriculture. | |||
| 18 | 1793 | Samuel Slater | American Factory System | He built first water-powered textile mill in America and created the mill town. | |||
| 25 | 1803 | US purchased Louisiana from France. | |||||
| 28 | 1804 | Oliver Evans | A Better Steam Engine | His high-pressure device made steam engines more powerful. | |||
| 32 | 1807 | Robert Fulton | Steamboat Services | He built a reliable steamboat practical for common travel. | |||
| 36 | 1810 | Francis Cabot Lowell | Consolidated Manufacturing | His factory structure brought diverse manufacturing tasks under one roof. | |||
| 40 | 1812 | US declared war against Britain. | |||||
| 43 | 1819 | US purchased Florida from Spain. | |||||
| 46 | 1821 | Henry Miller Shreve | River Rights and Navigation | His snag boat cleared rivers of tree limbs and trunks, opening them to navigation. | |||
| 50 | 1825 | The Erie Canal was completed. | |||||
| 53 | 1831 | Cyrus McCormick | American Big Business | He invented a mechanical means of harvesting grasses and grains. | |||
| 57 | 1835 | Samuel Colt | A Mass Market | His revolver fired multiple shots without reloading. | |||
| 61 | 1837 | Samuel Morse | A Better Telegraph | He developed a practical, single-wire telegraph. | |||
| 65 | 1841 | Lewis Tappan | Credit Reporting System | He established the first credit-information service. | |||
| 69 | 1844 | Charles Goodyear | Vulcanized Rubber | He discovered how to make rubber useful for manufacturing. | |||
| 73 | 1845 | US annexed Texas. | |||||
| 76 | 1846 | 1848 | US War with Mexico | ||||
| 79 | 1850 | 1853 | Elisha Otis | Safe Elevators | His innovation prevented an elevator from falling if its cable broke. | ||
| 83 | 1857 | Isaac Merritt Singer | The American Multinational | He mass-produced the sewing machine and distributed it worldwide. | |||
| 87 | 1859 | Edwin Drake | Oil Drilling | His drill led to the discovery and extraction of large quantities of oil. | |||
| 91 | 1861 | 1865 | The Civil War | ||||
| 94 | 1863 | The Emancipation Proclamation | |||||
| 97 | 1865 | 13th amendment outlawed slavery. | |||||
| 100 | 1862 | 1869 | Theodore Dehone Judah | Transcontinental Railroad | Before untimely death in 1863, secured legislation and funding transcon rr | ||
| 104 | 1869 | George Westinghouse, Jr. | Safer Railroads | His compressed-air brake system made traveling by rail safer. | |||
| 108 | 1873 | Levi Strauss | Blue Jeans Empire | His canvas jeans with rivets became an American staple. | |||
| 112 | 1876 | Alexander Graham Bell | Telephone | He invented the telephone. | |||
| 114 | 1876 | Albert Spalding | Sporting Goods Stores | He innovated the manufacture and sale of sporting goods. | |||
| 119 | 1876 | John Wanamaker | Department Store | He turned shopping into an event for ordinary people. | |||
| 126 | 1880 | The Great Migration from Eastern and Southern Europe to the US begins. | |||||
| 129 | 1883 | Julius Schmid | Condoms | He invented the first American condom. | |||
| 133 | 1885 | Hiram Maxim | Machine Guns | His machine gun used the recoil of one bullet to pull the next through. | |||
| 137 | 1887 | George Eastman | Easy-to-Use Cameras | He coined a new word, Kodak, for his roll-holder camera. | |||
| 138 | 1887 | The Interstate Commerce Act | |||||
| 146 | 1891 | Martha Matilda Harper | Retail Franchise Network | She created an international franchise system of hair and beauty salons. | |||
| 150 | 1894 | Chicago Pullman-car workers strike. | |||||
| 153 | 1902 | Willis Carrier | Air Conditioning | He invented the first modern and efficient air conditioner. | |||
| 157 | 1903 | Wilbur and Orville Wright | Human Air Travel | The brothers successfully flew their Kitty Hawk Flyer. | |||
| 161 | 1905 | Sarah Breedlove Walker | Grassroots Saleswoman | With her hair straightening system, she pioneered door-to-door salesmanship. | |||
| 165 | 1907 | Leo Hendrik Baekeland | Plastic | He produced the first thermoset plastic that could be easily molded and manufactured. | |||
| 169 | 1908 | Henry Ford | Affordable Cars | Using assembly lines, he engineered the Model T and streamlined auto production. | |||
| 170 | 1908 | Elmer Sperry | Modern Navigation | His gyrocompass provided pilots and sailors a reliable navigation device. | |||
| 178 | 1909 | Frederick Winslow Taylor | Scientific Management | He devised revolutionary systems of workplace efficiency. | |||
| 182 | 1912 | Samuel Insull | Cheap Electricity | He developed a centralized system of public utility delivery. | |||
| 186 | 1914 | Edwin Howard Armstrong | Modern Radio | By exploiting the FM band, he made clear radio reception possible. | |||
| 188 | 1914 | Garrett Augustus Morgan | Affordable Gas Masks | He invented a safety hood to protect firefighters from smoke inhalation. | |||
| 195 | 1914 | 1919 | World War I | ||||
| 198 | 1915 | Thomas Watson | Advanced Business Machines | He guided his company and the country into the computer age. | |||
| 202 | 1917 | US entered World War I. | |||||
| 205 | 1919 | Prohibition | |||||
| 208 | 1920 | Women win the right to vote. | |||||
| 209 | 1921 | The Great Migration ends. | |||||
| 215 | 1920 | 1923 | Ida Rosenthal | Brassiere Tycoon | She designed and marketed the first modern brassiere. | ||
| 219 | 1923 | Robert Woodruff | Global Distribution Network | Through innovative marketing, he made Coca-Cola an internationally known brand. | |||
| 223 | 1924 | Clarence Birdseye | Retail Frozen Foods | His system of flash-freezing brought the food industry into the modern era. | |||
| 227 | 1927 | Juan Trippe | The Jet Age | He pioneered the commercial aviation industry. | |||
| 231 | 1929 | US stock market crash | |||||
| 234 | 1930 | A.P. Giannini | Branch Banking | He formed the first modern bank network. | |||
| 238 | 1933 | The New Deal | Prohibition repealed | ||||
| 243 | 1935 | Charles Richard Drew | Blood Banks | He devised a means of saving the blood from donors for later use. | |||
| 247 | 1936 | Raymond Ingram Smith | Gambling | He revolutionized casinos with innovative games and promotion campaigns. | |||
| 251 | 1937 | Estée Lauder | Marketing Cosmetics | She popularized her now-famous makeup by offering free samples. | |||
| 255 | 1939 | 1945 | World War II | ||||
| 258 | 1940 | Walt Disney | Entertainment Empire | His innovative characters and animation made his name synonymous with family entertainment. | |||
| 262 | 1941 | Pearl Harbor attacked | |||||
| 265 | 1945 | US dropped nuclear bombs in Japan. | |||||
| 268 | 1946 | Georges Doriot | Venture Capital | He made venture capital investing a viable business strategy. | |||
| 272 | 1952 | Virginia Apgar | Newborn Baby Evaluation | She created the measure of a newborn baby's health. | |||
| 276 | 1954 | Brown v. Board of Education | |||||
| 279 | 1955 | Ray Kroc | Restaurant Chains | He built a fast food empire focused on uniformity, simplicity, and value. | |||
| 288 | 1956 | Malcom McLean | Containerized Shipping | He lowered the cost and increased the efficiency of shipping cargo. | |||
| 292 | 1957 | The Civil Rights Act | NASA created | ||||
| 297 | 1959 | Ruth Handler | Marketing Toys | Her Mattel Company created Barbie and ran the first toy ads aimed at kids. | |||
| 301 | 1961 | Jean Nidetch | Weight Loss Therapy | She created the leading weight loss program in the US. | |||
| 303 | 1961 | Joseph Wilson | Photocopying | He saw the potential of xerography and brought copies to the masses. | |||
| 310 | 1963 | President Kennedy assassinated. | |||||
| 313 | 1968 | Joan Ganz Cooney | Children's Television | She developed the first television program to educate and entertain kids. | |||
| 317 | 1970 | Nolan Bushnell | Video Gaming | He invented the first video game, Pong, and founded Atari. | |||
| 321 | 1971 | Fred Smith | Overnight Delivery | He developed Fed Ex, express delivery for the information age. | |||
| 325 | 1972 | Herbert Boyer | Biotechnology | He established biotechnology through the cloning of DNA. | |||
| 329 | 1973 | Gary Kildall | PC Software | He wrote the first software for floppy disk reading and writing. | |||
| 333 | 1976 | Ray Kurzweil | Optical Character Recognition | He developed computer systems that recognize speech and text. | |||
| 337 | 1977 | Raymond Damadian | MRI Scanner | He developed the first body scanner using nuclear magnetic resonance. | |||
| 341 | 1980 | Ted Turner | 24-hour News | He founded CNN, televising non-stop news coverage around the globe. | |||
| 345 | 1984 | Russell Simmons | Cross-Marketing Culture | He created Def Jam, the most successful black-owned music company in the country. | |||
| 349 | 1992 | Donna Dubinsky | Personal Digital Assistants | She made information portable by bringing the PalmPilot to market. | |||
| 353 | 1995 | Pierre Omidyar | Online Auctions | He created eBay, the first online, person-to-person auction. | |||
| 358 | ca | Herbert Boyer | |||||
| 359 | ca | Walt Disney | |||||
| 360 | ca | Donna Dubinsky | |||||
| 361 | ca | A. P. Giannini | |||||
| 362 | ca | Ruth Handler | |||||
| 363 | ca | Theodore Dehone Judah | |||||
| 364 | ca | Gary Kildall | |||||
| 365 | ca | Ray Kroc | |||||
| 366 | ca | Pierre Omidyar | |||||
| 367 | ca | Levi Strauss | |||||
| 370 | co | Sarah Breedlove Walker | |||||
| 373 | cn | Samuel Colt | |||||
| 374 | cn | Charles Goodyear | |||||
| 377 | de | Oliver Evans | |||||
| 380 | ga | Ted Turner | |||||
| 381 | cn | Eli Whitney | |||||
| 382 | ga | Robert Woodruff | |||||
| 384 | il | Samuel Insull | |||||
| 385 | il | Albert Spalding | |||||
| 388 | mn | Hiram Maxim | |||||
| 393 | ms | Alexander Graham Bell | |||||
| 394 | ms | Georges Doriot | |||||
| 395 | ms | Ray Kurzweil | |||||
| 396 | ms | Francis Cabot Lowell | |||||
| 397 | ms | Isaac Merritt Singer | |||||
| 400 | mi | Henry Ford | |||||
| 403 | ms | Henry Miller Shreve | |||||
| 406 | nv | Raymond Ingram Smith | |||||
| 409 | nj | Thomas Edison | |||||
| 411 | ny | Virginia Apgar | |||||
| 412 | ny | Edwin Howard Armstrong | |||||
| 413 | ny | Leo Hendrik Baekeland | |||||
| 414 | ny | Clarence Birdseye | |||||
| 415 | ny | Willis Carrier | |||||
| 416 | ny | Joan Ganz Cooney | |||||
| 417 | ny | Raymond Damadian | |||||
| 418 | ny | Charles Richard Drew | |||||
| 419 | ny | George Eastman | |||||
| 420 | ny | Robert Fulton | |||||
| 421 | ny | Martha Matilda Harper | |||||
| 422 | ny | Estée Lauder | |||||
| 423 | ny | Samuel Morse | |||||
| 424 | ny | Jean Nidetch | |||||
| 425 | ny | Elisha Otis | |||||
| 426 | ny | Ida Rosenthal | |||||
| 427 | ny | Julius Schmid | |||||
| 428 | ny | Russell Simmons | |||||
| 429 | ny | Elmer Sperry | |||||
| 430 | ny | Lewis Tappan | |||||
| 431 | ny | Juan Trippe | |||||
| 432 | ny | Thomas Watson, Sr. | |||||
| 433 | ny | George Westinghouse, Jr. | |||||
| 434 | ny | Joseph Wilson | |||||
| 436 | nc | Malcom McLean | |||||
| 437 | oh | Wilbur and Orville Wright | |||||
| 440 | oh | Garrett Augustus Morgan | |||||
| 443 | pa | Edwin Drake | |||||
| 444 | pa | John Fitch | |||||
| 445 | pa | Frederick Winslow Taylor | |||||
| 446 | pa | John Wanamaker | |||||
| 449 | ri | Samuel Slater | |||||
| 452 | tn | Fred Smith | |||||
| 455 | ca | Nolan Bushnell | |||||
| 458 | va | Cyrus McCormick | |||||
| 460 | Nolan Bushnell | ||||||
| 462 | Video Gaming | ||||||
| 464 | Samuel Colt | ||||||
| 466 | A Mass Market | ||||||
| 468 | Joan Ganz Cooney | ||||||
| 470 | Children's Television | ||||||
| 472 | Georges Doriot | ||||||
| 474 | Venture Capital | ||||||
| 476 | Charles Richard Drew | ||||||
| 478 | Blood Banks | ||||||
| 480 | George Eastman | ||||||
| 482 | Easy-to-Use Cameras | ||||||
| 484 | Henry Ford | ||||||
| 486 | Affordable Cars | ||||||
| 488 | A. P. Giannini | ||||||
| 490 | Branch Banking | ||||||
| 492 | Samuel Insull | ||||||
| 494 | Cheap Electricity | ||||||
| 496 | Pierre Omidyar | ||||||
| 498 | Online Auctions | ||||||
| 500 | Julius Schmid | ||||||
| 502 | Condoms | ||||||
| 504 | Raymond Ingram Smith | ||||||
| 506 | Gambling | ||||||
| 508 | Lewis Tappan | ||||||
| 510 | Credit Reporting System | ||||||
| 512 | Frederick Winslow Taylor | ||||||
| 514 | Scientific Management | ||||||
| 516 | Juan Trippe | ||||||
| 518 | The Jet Age | ||||||
| 520 | Sarah Breedlove Walker | ||||||
| 522 | Grassroots Saleswoman | ||||||
| 523 | Clarence Birdseye | ||||||
| 525 | Retail Frozen Foods | ||||||
| 527 | Walt Disney | ||||||
| 529 | Entertainment Empire | ||||||
| 531 | Ruth Handler | ||||||
| 533 | Marketing Toys | ||||||
| 535 | Martha Matilda Harper | ||||||
| 537 | Retail Franchise Network | ||||||
| 539 | Ray Kroc | ||||||
| 541 | Restaurant Chains | ||||||
| 543 | Estée Lauder | ||||||
| 545 | Marketing Cosmetics | ||||||
| 547 | Cyrus McCormick | ||||||
| 549 | American Big Business | ||||||
| 551 | Malcom McLean | ||||||
| 553 | Containerized Shipping | ||||||
| 555 | Samuel Morse | ||||||
| 557 | A Better Telegraph | ||||||
| 559 | Jean Nidetch | ||||||
| 561 | Weight Loss Therapy | ||||||
| 563 | Ida Rosenthal | ||||||
| 565 | Brassiere Tycoon | ||||||
| 567 | Isaac Merritt Singer | ||||||
| 569 | The American Multinational | ||||||
| 571 | Albert Spalding | ||||||
| 573 | Sporting Goods Stores | ||||||
| 575 | Levi Strauss | ||||||
| 577 | Blue Jeans Empire | ||||||
| 579 | John Wanamaker | ||||||
| 581 | Department Store | ||||||
| 583 | Thomas Watson | ||||||
| 585 | Advanced Business Machines | ||||||
| 586 | Virginia Apgar | ||||||
| 588 | Newborn Baby Evaluation | ||||||
| 590 | Edwin Howard Armstrong | ||||||
| 592 | Modern Radio | ||||||
| 594 | Leo Hendrik Baekeland | ||||||
| 596 | Plastic | ||||||
| 598 | Alexander Graham Bell | ||||||
| 600 | Telephone | ||||||
| 602 | Herbert Boyer | ||||||
| 604 | Biotechnology | ||||||
| 606 | Willis Carrier | ||||||
| 608 | Air Conditioning | ||||||
| 610 | Raymond Damadian | ||||||
| 612 | MRI Scanner | ||||||
| 614 | Donna Dubinsky | ||||||
| 616 | Personal Digital Assistants | ||||||
| 618 | Thomas Edison | ||||||
| 620 | The Science of Innovation | ||||||
| 622 | Ray Kurzweil | ||||||
| 624 | Pattern Recognition | ||||||
| 626 | Russell Simmons | ||||||
| 628 | Cross-Marketing Culture | ||||||
| 630 | Samuel Slater | ||||||
| 632 | American Factory System | ||||||
| 634 | Fred Smith | ||||||
| 636 | Overnight Delivery | ||||||
| 638 | Elmer Sperry | ||||||
| 640 | Modern Navigation | ||||||
| 642 | Joseph Wilson | ||||||
| 644 | Photocopying | ||||||
| 646 | Wilbur and Orville Wright | ||||||
| 648 | Human Air Travel | ||||||
| 649 | Edwin Drake | ||||||
| 651 | Oil Drilling | ||||||
| 653 | Oliver Evans | ||||||
| 655 | A Better Steam Engine | ||||||
| 657 | John Fitch | ||||||
| 659 | First Steamboat | ||||||
| 661 | Robert Fulton | ||||||
| 663 | Steamboat Services | ||||||
| 665 | Charles Goodyear | ||||||
| 667 | Vulcanized Rubber | ||||||
| 669 | Theodore Dehone Judah | ||||||
| 671 | Transcontinental Railroad | ||||||
| 673 | Gary Kildall | ||||||
| 675 | PC Software | ||||||
| 677 | Francis Cabot Lowell | ||||||
| 679 | Consolidated Manufacturing | ||||||
| 681 | Hiram Maxim | ||||||
| 683 | Machine Guns | ||||||
| 685 | Garrett Augustus Morgan | ||||||
| 687 | Affordable Gas Masks | ||||||
| 689 | Elisha Otis | ||||||
| 691 | Safe Elevators | ||||||
| 693 | Henry Miller Shreve | ||||||
| 695 | River Rights and Navigation | ||||||
| 697 | Ted Turner | ||||||
| 699 | 24-hour News | ||||||
| 701 | George Westinghouse, Jr. | ||||||
| 703 | Safer Railroads | ||||||
| 705 | Eli Whitney | ||||||
| 707 | Industrialization | ||||||
| 709 | Robert Woodruff | ||||||
| 711 | Global Distribution Network | ||||||
| 1915 | 2001 | Mary Kay | Ash | Door to door cosmetics | |||
| 1857 | 1943 | John | Ball | Canning with John Mason patents | |||
| 1913 | 1967 | Burton | Baskin | Ice Cream flavors with Irvine Robbins | |||
| 1900 | Arnold | Beckman | ph meter, Beckman Instruments, Shockley investment | ||||
| 1891 | 1995 | Edward | Bernays | PR father, Freud nephew | |||
| 1911 | 1982 | William | Bernbach | Advertiser , exploited consumer mistrust of consumerism | |||
| 1886 | 1956 | Clarence | Birdseye | Flash freeze for food preservation, company | |||
| 1922 | Henry Wollman | Boch | H&R Block founder, electronic filing, owns Compuserve | ||||
| 1942 | Michael | Bloomberg | Electronic financial business in 1981 after Salomon firing | ||||
| 1903 | 2003 | Marvin | Bower | 1950-67 McKinsey Managing Director | |||
| 1938 | Phil | Knight | Nike running shoes with Bill Bowerman 1909-1999 | ||||
| 1930 | Warren | Buffett | Basics, not fad following make him most successful investor | ||||
| 1964 | Jeff | Bezos | Amazon books and other product e-tailing | ||||
| 1943 | Nolan | Bushnell | Pong to Atari computer games | ||||
| 1851 | 1929 | Asa | Chandler | Innovating marketing and ads for John Pemberton Coca Cola pharmacist recipe | |||
| 1876 | 1950 | Willis | Carrier | Air conditioning invention spurs south and west growth | |||
| 1958 | Steve | Case | Introduced Intervet via AOL discs, dought Time Warner, crashed | ||||
| 1888 | 1983 | James | Casey | Built UPS from bicycle messenger delivery after failed NV gold prospector | |||
| 1929 | Liz | Clairborne | Working women's clothing success | ||||
| 1893 | 1913 | Josephine | Cochrane | Dishwaher invention, company sold to Whirlpool | |||
| 1804 | 1886 | John | Deere | 1868 founding after self scouring moldboard wroght iron plow to ag largest. | |||
| 1965 | Michael | Dell | Customized PC production efficiencies | ||||
| 1892 | 1981 | Donald | Douglas | DC-3 and other innovative aircraft | |||
| 1851 | 1902 | Charles | Dow | Journalist, invented Dow-Jones 1896, founded WSJ with Edward Jones 1889 | |||
| 1904 | 1950 | Charles | Crew | Black blood bank inventor | |||
| 1839 | 1911 | John | Dryden | Small weekly payments for life insurance to poor, inspired Prudential UK, led US in IT | |||
| 1856 | 1925 | James | Duke | Monopolized cigarette marketing in US after rolling machine and packaging | |||
| 1870 | 1954 | Pierre | du Pont | Transformed from munitions to chemicals, helped found GM | |||
| 1950 | Richard | Fairbank | Capital One credit card innovations, balance transfers, affinity, tailored rates, terms | ||||
| 1959 | Nigel | Morris | Capital One partner, former management consultants | ||||
| 1819 | 1892 | Cyrus | Field | Laid transatlantic cable, helped start NY Subway | |||
| 1830 | 1913 | Henry | Flagler | Florida developer with railroads & hotels, Standard Oil partner | |||
| 1895 | 1959 | Paul | Galvin | Founded Motorola, son Robert moved it from radio to cellular phones | |||
| 1912 | 1986 | Wilbert | Gore | DuPont engineer invented Gore-Tex, innovative company waterproof to dental floss | |||
| 1955 | Donna | Dubinsky | Business mgr for Palm and Handspring | ||||
| 1957 | Jeff | Hawkins | Handwriting recognition software for Palm and Handspring | ||||
| 1946 | Michael | Milken | Developed junk bonds and markets to provide innovative financing for homes, tech, health | ||||
| 1919 | Wilson | Greatbatch | Invented cardiac pacemaker | ||||
| 1863 | 1914 | Charles Martin | Hall | Invented cheap aluminum extraction, cofounded Alcoa | |||
| 1891 | 1982 | Joyce | Hall | Founded Hallmark | |||
| 1926 | Hugh | Hefner | Playboy legitimizes sex | ||||
| 1880 | 1943 | William | Harley | American icon motorcycle icon with Arthur Davidson | |||
| 1914 | 1991 | Howard | Head | Aerospace engineer created high tech skis and tennis rackets | |||
| 1863 | 1951 | William Randolph | Hearst | Mining inheritance to publishing empire and yellow journalism | |||
| 1884 | 1946 | Milton Snavely | Hershey | Largest chocolate factory and town in PA | |||
| 1913 | 2001 | William | Hewlett | Technical soft spoken founder of HP | |||
| 1913 | 1996 | David | Packard | Business manager giant of HP | |||
| 1905 | 1963 | Howard | Hughes | Oil drill bit inheritance to movies, airplanes, medical | |||
| 1937 | Wayne | Huizenga | Garbage truck driver to Blockbuster | ||||
| 1925 | 2002 | Ken | Iverson | Nucor minimills rescued US steel industry via computer cost efficiency | |||
| 1918 | John | Johnson | Black publisher of Ebony, Jet, EM | ||||
| 1845 | 1910 | Robert Wood | Johnson | Sterilized gauze, Band-Aids, antiseptic dressings | |||
| 1882 | 1967 | Henry | Kaiser | Western builder of dams, roads, Liberty Ships, industry, health care | |||
| 1931 | Herb | Kelleher | Cofounded Southwest no-frills, low fare airline | ||||
| 1876 | 1958 | Charles | Ketterin | Delco founder, electric starter helped women, GM research head | |||
| 1838 | 1914 | Margaret | Knight | Paper bag mass production for groceries, Eastern Paper Bag Co. | |||
| 1944 | Henry | Kravis | Pioneered LBO's to finance companies | ||||
| 1902 | 1984 | Ray | Kroc | McDonald's, first great franchise founder | |||
| 1941 | Brian | Lamb | Cable innovator created C-Span | ||||
| 1902 | 1978 | William | Lear | Learjet founder, 8 track cassettes, automatic pilot, helped start Motorola | |||
| 1922 | Stan | Lee | Marvel Comics | ||||
| 1907 | 1994 | William | Levitt | Ex-Seabee, mass produced houses and towns after World War II | |||
| 1870 | 1927 | Marcus | Loew | Movie theater chain with Adolph Zukor, bought studios to form MGM | |||
| 1944 | George | Lucas | Director, movie producer, special effects ie Star Wars | ||||
| 1898 | 1967 | Henry | Luce | Time founder, later Fortune, Sports Illustrated | |||
| 1822 | 1877 | Roland | Macy | Retired whaler, banned haggling, formed department store titan like Wanamaker | |||
| 1869 | 1936 | Hiram | Maxim | Machine gun invention | |||
| 1927 | 1992 | Bill | McGowan | MCI broke AT&T long distance monopoly, slashed rates | |||
| 1887 | 1978 | William | McKnight | 3M head and innovator: sandpaper, Scotch tape, guard, post it's | |||
| 1917 | 1957 | Frank | McNamara | Diner's Club founder after invenintg credit card without wallet to pay for lunch | |||
| 1894 | 1957 | George IV | Merck | Published R&D led to best scientists stretomyacin, B12, cortisone | |||
| 1855 | 1956 | George | Merrill | Merrill Lynch retail broker brought Wall Street to Main Street | |||
| 1855 | 1934 | Joyce | Morton | Anticaking agent to salt in 1911 to start Morton Salt | |||
| 1873 | 1942 | Conde | Nast | Magazine chain on rich for others who wanted to know of them | |||
| 1924 | Al | Neuharth | Gannett newspapers and USA Today | ||||
| 1929 | Berry | Gordy | MoTown Records, black entrepreneur, king of pop in 60's | ||||
| 1853 | 1925 | Lucien | Nunn | High power AC in CO and UT for Westinghouse and Telsa | |||
| 1901 | 1990 | William | Paley | Family cigars to failing radio chain to CBS and then TV programming leadership | |||
| 1893 | 1979 | Mary | Pickford | Actress-producer, founded UA with Chaplin, Griffith, husband D Fairbanks | |||
| 1854 | 1914 | Charles William | Post | Businessman breakdown saved by Kellogg sanitarium, Grape Nuts sale, ads | |||
| 1816 | 1889 | Philo | Remington | Perfected breech-loading rifle, took over family arms, introduced typewriter with shift | |||
| 1941 | Leonard | Riggio | Bookstore to B&N superstores | ||||
| 1937 | 1839 | John D | Rockefeller | Standard Oil, philanthropy | |||
| 1865 | 1939 | Julius | Schmid | Sausage, Ramses, Sheik, rubber condoms from 1890 to US for WWII | |||
| 1953 | Howard | Schultz | Starbucks hangout and coffee shop | ||||
| 1937 | Charles | Schwab | Discount brokerage to and from BofA | ||||
| 1916 | 1999 | Leonard | Shoen | Uhaul self moving inventor | |||
| 1875 | 1966 | Alfred | Sloan | With Pierre du Pont, revived GM with cooperative decentralization, yearly models | |||
| 1850 | 1915 | Albert | Spalding | Red Sox player to sports chain, baseball mythology | |||
| 1865 | 1934 | George | Squier | Muzak over tlephone to elevators | |||
| 1896 | 1981 | Julian | Stein | Ophthalmogist to MCA founder | |||
| 1888 | 1981 | Earle | Haas | Patented Tampax, mass produced by Gertrude Tenderich from home | |||
| 1908 | 1983 | Earle | Tupper | Tupperware inventor, saved by Brownie Wise home marketing parties | |||
| 1947 | Craig | Venter | Celera Genomics to mass decode human genome | ||||
| 1918 | 1992 | Sam | Walton | IT to build biggest store chain | |||
| 1891 | 1969 | Sidney | Weinberg | Goldman Sachs transformation with Walter Sachs | |||
| 1846 | 1914 | George | Westinghouse | Air brake inventor to AC promoter to electrical conglomerate | |||
| 1909 | 1971 | Josephine | Wilson | Risked millions as Xerox CEO of Chester Carlson's photocopy technology | |||
| 1913 | 2003 | Kemmons | Wilson | Clean and friendly low-priced Holiday Inns | |||
| 1954 | Oprah | Winfrey | Star to entertainment billionaire | ||||
| 1909 | 1995 | Evelyn | Wood | Speed reading system Reading Dynamics in 1959 | |||
| 1901 | 1988 | Frank | Zamboni | Invented ice resurfacing machine | |||
| 1944 | Fred | Smith | FedEx after Yale C paper | ||||