human dissection (grave robbing)
translating the Bible into English
silk production outside of China (death penalty for exporting worm eggs)
rubber production in Asia (seeds smuggled out of Brazil)
the Underground Railroad
heliocentrism
AIDS treatment (see Dallas Buyers Club)
Needle exchange programs for IV drug users
Ridesharing/airbnb/napster (obvious ones)
SF gay marriage licenses (in defiance of CA law)

but yeah..theres also https://seangeiger.substack.com/p/a-brief-history-of-oral-peptides

okok thats not the entire history... https://sci-hub.sg/10.1021/acs.chemrev.6b00838