30. Gunpowder
- Invented By: The Ancient Chinese
Gunpowder is one of our greatest scientific breakthroughs, yet possibly one of our worst. Due to the severe gun violence today, one could conclude this invention has a ton of drawbacks. However, it helped to shape the world we live in today and that makes it very important. The Chinese would actually use Gunpowder for numerous different things. It is technically older than guns, funny enough.

Gunpowder was invented in the 9th Century while the first, what could be considered an actual gun, was not invented until the 10th century. We simply call it gunpowder today due to how most tend to use it. The Chinese used it for numerous artillery items, yet they also used it for rockets and even fireworks. They also notably used it for explosives, especially for mining and road-building purposes.