Leo Hendrik Baekeland invented plastic.
Within a decade of immigrating to America, Belgium-born Dr. Baekeland sold the rights of his first major invention to George Eastman and Kodak for $1 million. The invention was a printing paper that could be developed under artificial light called Velox. A few years later in 1907, Dr. Baekeland invented Bakelite, considered the first plastic, by mixing together carbolic acid and formaldehyde.