At the Turning of the Year

I would now like to give thanks to the time-binding bipeds, now dead, who gave us:

The plant we now know as Corn
The plant we now know as the Potato
Paper
The Compass
Printing
Celestial Navigation
Glass Windows
The University
The Chimney
"No Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will We not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right."
Distillation
Double-Entry Bookkeeping
Eyeglasses
Insurance
Movable Type
The Full-Rigged Ship
The Caravel
The Joint Stock Company
Representative Government 2.0 See: Glorious Revolution of 1688. This evolved into something more stable and durable than Representative Government 1.0 See: Athens, Siege of Syracuse and That Did Not Go Well.

With many omissions, that brings us up to 1700.

My ancestors, I thank you and salute you