In the history of physics, X-rays are a quite recent discovery. Shortly after Conrad Röntgen had detected the first human made "X-Strahlen", X-rays where used for medical imaging purposes. Since then the number of applications and methods using X-rays have increased tremendously. The table below will give a short time table of the history of X-ray optics.
| Date | Event | Names correlated | Where? |
| 27.3.1845 | Birth of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen in Remscheid-Lennep | Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen | Remscheid-Lennep, Germany |
| 5.11.1895 | Discovery of X-rays in the late evening of Friday, 8. November 1895 in the former "Physikalischen Institut der Universität Würzburg". W. C. Röntgen called them "X-Strahlen". | W. C. Röntgen | Würzburg, Germany |
| 28.12.1985 | Application for publication of W. C. Röntgen: "Über eine neue Art von Strahlen" (On a New Kind of Rays) at the "Physikalisch-medizinische Gesellschaft Würzburg" (physical-medical association) | W. C. Röntgen | Würzburg, Germany |
| 23.1.1896 | First public talk of W. C. Röntgen invited by the "Physikalisch-medizinische Gesellschaft Würzburg" (physical-medical association) on "Über eine neue Art von Strahlen" (On a New Kind of Rays). At this convention the famous anatomist and privy councillor Rudolf Albert von Koelliker suggested to call X-rays "Roentgenstrahlen" (the term used in german language today). | W. C. Röntgen, R. A. von Koelliker | Würzburg, Germany |
| since 1896 | Developement of water-cooled anodes for X-ray tubes by "C.H.F. Müller Röntgenwerk" | Carl Heinrich, Florenz Müller | Hamburg, Germany |
| 1909 | Barkla and Sadler discover characteristic X-ray radiation | Barkla, Sadler | |
| 1912 |
Discovery of the principle of X-ray diffraction by von Laue, Friedrich, and Knipping |
Max von Laue, Friedrich and Knipping | Zurich, Swiss |
| 1913 | Henry Moseley establishes the relation between atomic number and the specific X-ray wavelength of elements (Moseley's law) which is the fundament of X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy | Henry Moseley | Manchester |
| 1913 | Bragg, father and son, build an X-ray spectrometer | Bragg | |
| 1914 | Max von Laue receives the Nobel Prize for physics, for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays on crystals | Max von Laue | Stockholm, Sweden |
| 1914 | The Nobel prize winner W. L. Bragg publishes his theoretical explanation of "The Diffraction of Short Electromagnetic Waves by a Crystal" | W. L. Bragg | |
| 1915 | W. L. Bragg receives the Nobel Prize | W. L. Bragg | Stockholm, Sweden |
| 1916 | Siegbahn and Stenstrom observe X-ray emission satellites | Siegbahn, Stenstrom | |
| 1917 | Barkla receives the Nobel Prize | Barkla | Stockholm, Sweden |
| 1921 | Wentzel observes two-electron excitations | Wentzel | |
| 1922 | Meitner discovers Auger electrons | Meitner | |
| 1924 | Lindh and Lundquist resolve chemical shifts | Lindh, Lundquist | |
| 1924 | Siegbahn receives the Nobel Prize | Siegbahn | Stockholm, Sweden |
| 1924-44? | Philips patents the safe Metalix tube, takes over Muller and concentrates tube manufacturing in Eindhoven and Hamburg. | ||
| 1927 | Coster and Druyvesteyn observe valence-core multiplets | Coster, Druyvesteyn | |
| 1931 | Johann develops bent-crystal spectroscopy | Johann | |
| 1945-69? | In cooperation with the US Naval Research Laboratories, North American Philips develops the world's first commercial X-ray diffractometer, which is branded Norelco, soon to be followed by the well-known Philips PW1050 diffractometer. | ||
| 1952 | Hans Wolter designes an aplanatic system of grazing incidence mirrors satisfying the Abbe sine condition (i.e. free of both spherical aberration and coma) used in Wolter telescopes | Hans Wolter | |
| 1957-1970 | Development of first prototypes of computer tomographs | Allan M. Cormack, Godfrey Hounsfield, A. Sasov et al | Tufts University, Massachusetts, USA; Hayes, UK; Moscow |
| 1963 | First rocket-borne telescope takes X-ray pictures of the sun. | John V. Lindsay et al | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
| 1970-89? | Launch of the PW1400 family of XRF spectrometers, rapidly becoming the standard in the industry | ||
| 1971 | First computer tomographic image of a human | Godfrey Hounsfield | |
| early 1970's | First orbiting X-ray telescope flies on Skylab and records over 35,000 full-disk images of the sun over a nine month period. | ||
| 1975 | The first successful X-ray image of an extra-solar object is obtained using a Kirkpatrick-Baez mirror coupled with an imaging proportional counter to obtain an image of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. | Paul Gorenstein et al | Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory |
| 1977 | First use of Wolter optics for extra-solar astronomy | Saul Rappaport et al | MIT |
| 1978 | First orbiting X-ray telescope, the Einstein Observatory | ||
| 1979 |
Nobel Prize (medicine) for Allan M. Cormack and Godfrey Hounsfield for the development of computer tomography |
Stockholm, Sweden | |
| 1983-86 | Use of "European Space Agency's X-ray Observatory" (EXOSAT) | ||
| 1990-99 | "Roentgen Satellite" (ROSAT) mission | ||
| 1993-2001 | "Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics" (ASCA): the first satellite using CCD-detectors for X-ray astronomy | ||
| 1994 | First soft X-ray scanning transmission microscope (STXM) | Haddad | |
| 1995 | Herbert Göbel presents the so called Göbel mirrors at the Denver X-ray conference | Herbert Göbel | Denver |
| since 1999 | "Chandra X-Ray Observatory" (CXO) in use |