Short answers, pulled from the story.
Friedrich Miescher discovered nuclein in 1869 while examining pus-filled bandages from a surgical hospital in Tübingen, Germany. He isolated the phosphorus-rich substance from the nuclei of white blood cells and initially called it nuclein.
James Watson and Francis Crick published their description of the double helix structure of DNA in 1953. Their model relied on X-ray crystallography images produced by Rosalind Franklin, whose data was shared without her knowledge by Maurice Wilkins and Max Perutz.
Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase conducted the blender experiment in 1952 to prove that DNA is the genetic material. They used radioactivity to tag the protein coat with sulfur and the DNA with phosphorus, showing that only the DNA entered the bacteria to direct virus production.
Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl designed the Meselson-Stahl experiment in 1958 to confirm that DNA replication is semiconservative. They grew E. coli bacteria in a medium containing nitrogen-15 and then transferred them to a medium with nitrogen-14 to track strand distribution.
Scientists discovered that the genetic code is a triplet code in 1961. This finding revealed that three sequential bases of DNA, known as a codon, specify each successive amino acid of a protein.
The CRISPR-Cas9 system became accessible for individual researchers for under 10000 dollars in the early 2020s. This democratization of genetic engineering allowed scientists in developing nations and independent labs to edit genomes with unprecedented ease.