Timeline of special relativity and the speed of light

This timeline describes the major developments, both experimental and theoretical, of: This list also mentions the origins of standard notation (like c) and terminology (like theory of relavity).

Also, not all experiments are listed here – repetitions, even with much higher precision than the original, are mentioned only if they influence or challenge the opinions at their time.

The measurements of speed of light are also mentioned only to the minimum extent, i.e. when they proved for the first time that c is finite and invariant.

Innovations like the use of Foucault's rotating mirror or the Fizeau wheel are not listed here – see the article about speed of light.

This timeline also ignores, for reasons of volume and clarity:

Albert Einstein and Hendrik Lorentz in 1921 in Leiden
Task Force One, the world's first nuclear-powered task force. Enterprise , Long Beach and Bainbridge in formation in the Mediterranean, 18 June 1964. Enterprise crew members are spelling out Einstein's mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc 2 on the flight deck.
A redrawn version of the illustration from the 1676 news report. Rømer compared the apparent duration of Io's orbits as Earth moved towards Jupiter (F to G) and as Earth moved away from Jupiter (L to K).
Michelson and Morley's interferometric setup, mounted on a stone slab that floats in an annular trough of mercury
Hermann Minkowski, who introduced the spacetime formalism to special relativity in 1908.
Schematic representation of a Sagnac interferometer.