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Technology builds upon itself. For example, in 1900 electricity was still a novel concept with limited use by a few. Finding ways to produce it cheaply, and then ways to use it, dominated innovation throughout the 20th Century and is largely responsible for the world we live in today.
Those who first connected arc lamps to a simple generator almost certainly had no idea that in 2010 we'd have a computer at home, a cinema in the lounge room and that we'd be carrying around an entire music collection in our pocket. All of that is ultimately built upon electricity, which itself is built upon coal (1700's), alternators (1800's) and steam turbines (early 1900's).
Likewise anything else. We wouldn't have aircraft, for example, if we hadn't previously worked out how to produce sheets of aluminium and also how to produce powerful, relatively lightweight engines. And we wouldn't have aluminium if we hadn't previously worked out mining and smelting. And we wouldn't have the engines without oil extraction / refining and metals fabrication. And so on.
In terms of things in the past 20 years though, I'd personally tend to look at their impact rather than when they were actually invented. In that context mobile phones, having a computer at home and the emergence digital music devices would surely top the list in terms of impact upon the general population in developed countries.