This will go down in history as one of science and medical research's greatest achievements. Perhaps the most impressive.
I put together a preliminary timeline of some key milestones to show how several years of work were compressed into months.

There are several points noteworthy related to this timeline:
1. Moderna had a head-start, so why didn't their Phase 3 trial finish first?
Part of #OperationWarpSpeed (OWS), they were requested to slow down enrollment to get better minority representation
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/21/us/politics/coronavirus-vaccine.html?searchResultPosition=1

2. 3 scientists led the way
Katalin Karikó, worked on a mRNA vaccine for ~30 years, was demoted from @PennMedicine d/t losing her grants, went to @moderna_tx
https://www.statnews.com/2020/11/10/the-story-of-mrna-how-a-once-dismissed-idea-became-a-leading-technology-in-the-covid-vaccine-race/
and the husband and wife team @BioNTech_Group
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/business/biontech-covid-vaccine.html

3. The 5 days from sequencing the virus to design of an mRNA vaccine, relayed by Tony Fauci in our conversation
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1284503783045623809 @Medscape

4. Whose idea was OWS and when did it kick in?
Peter Marks @US_FDA
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/21/us/politics/coronavirus-vaccine.html?searchResultPosition=1 @SharonLNYT
It was announced May 15th
https://www.defense.gov/Explore/Spotlight/Coronavirus/Operation-Warp-Speed/