A Brief History of Electromagnetism

A Brief History of Electromagnetism

1770-90 Cavendish and Coulomb establish foundations of electrostatics

1820 Oersted makes connection between flowing charge and magnetism

1820s Ampere identifies currents as the source of all magnetism (even permanent magnets)

1831 Faraday (also Henry) discovers that time varying magnetic fields serve as sources for electric fields

1864 Maxwell puts it all together

1887 Hertz demonstrates existence of electromagnetic radiation

For a more extensive timeline, including optics, go here or here.
For more brief biographies of the key players, go here.
For more brief biographies of famous physicists, go here.
For brief biographies of famous mathemeticians (including many physicists!) go here.