Since the 1950s, the scientific community has directed its attention towards the study of structures at the microscopic level, with the advent of increasingly sophisticated laboratory equipment and the growing necessity to develop ever smaller devices. At beginning, research focused on structures measuring one millionth of a metre and, subsequently, on those comparable to atomic or molecular dimensions. This led to the examination of one billionth of a metre, a scale commonly referred to as the nanometre in modern scientific terminology. Materials examined at this level of magnification exhibit properties that are unexpected and not observed at the macroscopic scale. This essay presents an historical foundation of the history of nanoscience and nanotechnology—emergences, inventions and discoveries—divided by decades from the 1950s to the 2020s. It analyses the most significant facts and events, selected through a meticulous historical research, from both the instrumental and theoretical nanoscopic and theoretical standpoints. Of course, due the ocean of nano, the result is far to be exhaustive and complete.