Robert Goddard is shown here (hi-res image) in 1926 with the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, which reached an altitude of 41 feet. For more information, see Rockets and Robert Goddard and also the NASA page Robert Goddard: a Man and His Rocket. (You'll find out how his work--and his understanding of Newtonian mechanics--was trashed in a 1920 New York Times editorial, which the Times retracted just after the launch of Apollo 11.)
