| 1905 | Albert Einstein explains the photoelectric effect—shining light on certain materials can function to release electrons from the material—and suggests that light itself consists of individual quantum particles or photons. | 阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦（Albert Einstein）解释了在某些材料上发光的光电效应可以从材料中释放电子，并认为光本身由单个量子粒子或光子组成。 |
| 1924 | The term quantum mechanics is first used in a paper by Max Born | 量子力学这个术语是马克斯·波恩在一篇论文中首次使用的 |
| 1925 | Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, and Pascual Jordan formulate matrix mechanics, the first conceptually autonomous and logically consistent formulation of quantum mechanics | Werner Heisenberg、Max Born和Pascual Jordan提出了矩阵力学，这是量子力学的第一个概念自主和逻辑一致的公式 |
| 1925~1927 | Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg develop the Copenhagen interpretation, one of the earliest interpretations of quantum mechanics which remains one of the most commonly taught | 尼尔斯·玻尔和维尔纳·海森堡发展了哥本哈根解释，这是量子力学最早的解释之一，也是最常教授的解释之一 |
| 1930 | Paul Dirac publishes The Principles of Quantum Mechanics, a textbook that has become a standard reference book that is still used today | 保罗·迪拉克（Paul Dirac）出版了《量子力学原理》（The Principles of Quantum Mechanics），这本教科书已成为标准参考书，至今仍在使用 |
| 1935 | Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen publish a paper highlighting the counterintuitive nature of quantum superpositions and arguing that the description of physical reality provided by quantum mechanics is incomplete | 阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦（Albert Einstein）、鲍里斯·波多尔斯基（Boris Podolsky）和内森·罗森（Nathan Rosen）发表了一篇论文，强调了量子叠加的反直觉性质，并认为量子力学对物理现实的描述是不完整的 |
| 1935 | Erwin Schrödinger, discussing quantum superposition with Albert Einstein and critiquing the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, develops a thought experiment in which a cat (forever known as Schrödinger’s cat) is simultaneously dead and alive; Schrödinger also coins the term “quantum entanglement” | 埃尔文·薛定谔（Erwin Schrödinger）与阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦（Albert Einstein）讨论了量子叠加，并批评了量子力学的哥本哈根解释，他开发了一个思维实验，其中一只猫（永远称为薛定谔的猫）是同时死亡和活着的；薛定谔还创造了“量子纠缠”这个术语 |
| 1947 | Albert Einstein refers for the first time to quantum entanglement as “spooky action at a distance” in a letter to Max Born | 阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦（Albert Einstein）在给马克斯·波恩（Max Born）的一封信中首次将量子纠缠称为“远距离的幽灵行为” |
| 1976 | Roman Stanisław Ingarden of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland, publishes one of the first attempts at creating a quantum information theory | 波兰托伦尼古拉斯·哥白尼大学的罗曼·斯坦尼斯·阿瓦·英加登发表了创建量子信息理论的首批尝试之一 |
| 1980 | Paul Benioff of the Argonne National Laboratory publishes a paper describing a quantum mechanical model of a Turing machine or a classical computer, the first to demonstrate the possibility of quantum computing | 阿贡国家实验室的保罗·贝尼奥夫发表了一篇论文，描述了图灵机器或经典计算机的量子力学模型，首次证明了量子计算的可能性 |
| 1981 | In a keynote speech titled Simulating Physics with Computers, Richard Feynman of the California Institute of Technology argues that a quantum computer had the potential to simulate physical phenomena that a classical computer could not simulate | 在题为“用计算机模拟物理”的主题演讲中，加州理工学院的理查德·费曼（Richard Feynman）认为，量子计算机具有模拟经典计算机无法模拟的物理现象的潜力 |
| 1985 | David Deutsch of the University of Oxford formulates a description for a quantum Turing machine | 牛津大学的David Deutsch对量子图灵机进行了描述 |
| 1992 | The Deutsch–Jozsa algorithm is one of the first examples of a quantum algorithm that is exponentially faster than any possible deterministic classical algorithm | Deutsch–Jozsa算法是量子算法的首批示例之一，它比任何可能的确定性经典算法都快得多 |
| 1993 | The first paper describing the idea of quantum teleportation is published | 第一篇描述量子隐形传态思想的论文发表了 |
| 1994 | Peter Shor of Bell Laboratories develops a quantum algorithm for factoring integers that has the potential to decrypt RSA-encrypted communications, a widely-used method for securing data transmissions | 贝尔实验室的Peter Shor开发了一种用于分解整数的量子算法，该算法有可能解密RSA加密通信，这是一种广泛使用的数据传输安全方法 |
| 1994 | The National Institute of Standards and Technology organizes the first US government-sponsored conference on quantum computing | 美国国家标准与技术研究所组织了第一次由美国政府主办的量子计算会议 |
| 1996 | Lov Grover of Bell Laboratories invents the quantum database search algorithm | 贝尔实验室的Lov Grover发明了量子数据库搜索算法 |
| 1998 | First demonstration of quantum error correction; first proof that a certain subclass of quantum computations can be efficiently emulated with classical computers | 量子纠错的首次演示；量子计算的某个子类可以用经典计算机有效模拟的第一个证明 |
| 1999 | Yasunobu Nakamura of the University of Tokyo and Jaw-Shen Tsai of Tokyo University of Science demonstrate that a superconducting circuit can be used as a qubit | 东京大学的中村雅雄和东京理工大学的蔡慎证明超导电路可以用作量子比特 |
| 2002 | The first version of the Quantum Computation Roadmap, a living document involving key quantum computing researchers, is published | 量子计算路线图的第一版已经出版，这是一份涉及关键量子计算研究人员的活文档 |
| 2004 | First five-photon entanglement demonstrated by Jian-Wei Pan's group at the University of Science and Technology in China | 中国科技大学潘建伟小组首次演示了五光子纠缠 |
| 2011 | The first commercially available quantum computer is offered by D-Wave Systems | 第一台商用量子计算机由D-Wave Systems提供 |
| 2012 | 1QB Information Technologies (1QBit), the first dedicated quantum computing software company, is founded | 1QB信息技术（1QBit）成立，是第一家专门的量子计算软件公司 |
| 2014 | Physicists at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, teleport information between two quantum bits separated by about 10 feet with zero percent error rate | 荷兰代尔夫特理工大学卡夫利纳米科学研究所的物理学家在两个相距约10英尺的量子比特之间传送信息，错误率为零 |
| 2017 | Chinese researchers report the first quantum teleportation of independent single-photon qubits from a ground observatory to a low Earth orbit satellite with a distance of up to 1400 km | 中国研究人员报道，首次将独立单光子量子比特从地面天文台量子隐形传送到距离高达1400公里的近地轨道卫星 |
| 2018 | The National Quantum Initiative Act is signed into law by President Donald Trump, establishing the goals and priorities for a 10-year plan to accelerate the development of quantum information science and technology applications in the United States | 美国总统唐纳德·特朗普（Donald Trump）签署了《国家量子倡议法案》（National Quantum Initiative Act），将其纳入法律，为美国加快量子信息科学和技术应用发展的十年计划确立了目标和优先事项 |
| 2019 | Google claims to have reached quantum supremacy by performing a series of operations in 200 seconds that would take a supercomputer about 10,000 years to complete; IBM responds by suggesting it could take 2.5 days instead of 10,000 years, highlighting techniques a supercomputer may use to maximize computing speed | 谷歌声称，通过在200秒内执行一系列操作，达到了量子霸主的地位，这需要一台超级计算机大约10000年才能完成；IBM的回应是，它可能需要2.5天而不是10000年，并强调了超级计算机可以使用的最大化计算速度的技术 |