Gunpowder was invented by _____.

Roger Bacon, a 13th-century English Franciscan friar, described the formula for gunpowder (saltpeter, charcoal, sulfur) in his 1267 work 'Opus Majus.' While gunpowder origins trace to 9th-century China, Bacon documented it in Europe. Colt and Gatting are 19th-century firearm inventors; C.V. Raman was a 20th-century physicist.