Timeline

By about 8,000 BC, the early farmers already had the thought of improving agricultural skills as they settled in a place.

Thousand years later, people learnt to use bacterium to make bread and wine. So they had an idea of modifying varies types of organism.

It develops to genetic modification nowadays.

Time	Events
1500 BC	Mexican farmers perform traditional genetics by transforming maize by selective breeding.
1700s	Naturalists begin to identify many kinds of hybrid plants — the offspring of breeding between two varieties of plants.
1840s	Gregor Mendel begins a meticulous study of specific characteristics he found in various plants which were passed to future plant generations.
1895	Charles Darwin's 'The Origin of Species' puts forward a theory of evolution by natural selection which has fundamentally influenced the developemnt of biological science and laid the ideological framework of molecular research. In the same year Gregor Mendel writes that there exist inherited qualities, which are later named genes.
1861	Louis Pasteur defines the role of micro-organisms and establishes the science of microbiology.
1900	European botanists use Mendel's Law to improve plant species. This is the beginning of classic selection.
1950	First regeneration of entire plants from an in vitro culture.
1953	Enter James Watson and Francis Crick. These two future Nobel Prize winners discovered the double helix structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, commonly known as DNA. Proteins are made up of strings of amino acids. The number, order and kind of amino acids determine the property of that protein. DNA holds the information necessary to order the amino acids correctly. The DNA transmits this hereditary information from one generation to the next. But it wasn't until three decades later that even larger strides occurred in the field.
1970s	The gene can now be isolated, or 'interrupted' making gene cloning theoretically possible.
1973	Researchers develop the ability to isolate genes. Specific genes code for specific protein.
1980s	Scientists discover how to transfer pieces of genetic information from one organism to another, allowing the expression of desirable traits in the recipient organism. This is called genetic engineering, one process used in biotechnology. Using the technique of "gene splicing" or "recombinant DNA technology" (rDNA), scientists can add new genetic information to form a new protein which creates traits that protect plants from diseases and pests.
1982	The first commercial application of this technology is used to develop human insulin for diabetes treatment.
1983	The first transgenic plant: a tobacco plant resistant to an antibiotic.
1985	Genetically engineered plants resistant to insects, viruses, and bacteria are field tested for the first time.
1990	The first successful field trial of genetically engineered cotton plants (bt cotton) is conducted. DEKALB receives the first patent for transformed corn.
1993	First GM plant commercialized in the US - a delayed-ripening tomato.
1994	The Flavr-Savr tomato, designed to resist rotting, is approved by the FDA for sale in the United States.
1995- 1996	Monsanto's Roundup Ready soybeans, which are resistant to herbicides, and YieldGard Corn, which is protected from the corn borer, are approved for sale in the United States. Bollgard cotton first commercialized in the US.
1996	Gm tomato puree hits US stores. EU approves use of biotech company's Monsanto's Roundup Ready GM soya beans in foods for people and feed for animals.
1997	GM maize approved for use in processed foods on sale in UK shops ranging from crisps to pasta.