1910s
1918 – The four Warner Brothers, Jack, Albert, Harry and Samuel, open their first West Coast studio
1920s
1921 – Luce and Yale classmate Briton Hadden begin working together as reporters for The Baltimore News
1923 – The four brother’s film distribution and production business is incorporated and called Warner Brothers Pictures Inc.
1923 – Luce and Hadden use the $86,000 they raised to release Time magazine. Hadden becomes editor while Luce serves as business manager
1927 – Warner Brothers film production releases the first “talkie” Al Jolson’s The Jazz Singer
1928 – First Time Man-of-the-Year features Charles Lindbergh
1929 – Hadden dies of a streptococcus infection. Luce takes over as Time editor
1930s
1930 – Fortune magazine is launched by Luce as part of Time Inc.
1931 – March of Time radio program first airs
1934 – Luce launches Architectural Forum
1935 – March of Time newsreel first runs its first newsreel
1936 – Life magazine is launched
1937 – Detective Comics (DC) is created
1938 – Ted Turner born in Cincinnati, OH
1940s
1940 – Bugs Bunny appears for the first time in a Warner Brothers’ short A Wild Hare
1942
1947 – Jack Warner testifies before House Committee on Un-American Activities
1948 – Warner Brothers sells film library to MGM. The Supreme Court’s anti-trust Paramount Decree forces movie studios to divest themselves from owning theaters
1950s
1950 – Elektra Records is founded by a college student, Jac Holzman
1952 – House and Home magazine launched. Time makes first investment in television industry by purchasing KOB-TV Albuquerque, NM
1954 – Sports Illustrated is launched
1958 – Warner Bros. Records is founded. Label is later called WEA (Warner/Elektra/Atlantic)
1960s
1960 – Brown University expels Ted Turner
1961 – Time-Life Inc. is formed to be Time Inc.’s book division
1963 – Ted Turner’s father Ed commits suicide because of financial difficulties. Ted takes over family’s billboard business
1963 – Animation division at Warner closed. Frank Sinatra sells his Reprise record label to Warner Brothers
1967 – Henry Luce dies in Phoenix, Arizona
1967 – Seven Arts Ltd. buys Warner Brothers for $84 million. Company becomes known as Warner-Seven Arts. Warner Seven-Arts purchases Atlantic Records
1967 – New Line Cinema formed
1967 – Kinney National Company, a funeral parlor conglomerate purchases D.C. Comics and All-American Comics. Kinney also buys Ashley Famous talent agency
1968 – Time-Life Inc. acquires Little, Brown and Company
1969 – Kinney National Company acquires Warner-Seven Arts and in 1972 renames the company Warner Communications Inc.
1970s
1970 – Holzman sells his Elektra Records to Warner Communications
1970 – Turner purchases Atlanta UHF television station, WJRJ, renaming it WTCG (Turner Communications Group)]
1972 -Time Inc. buys Home Box Office (HBO) from Charles Dolan. HBO transmits first programming to 365 subscribers in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Money magazine launched
1974 – People magazine launched
1976 – Ted Turner purchases Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves. Turner Broadcasting’s WTCG becomes cable television’s first Superstation as it is beamed via satellite to cable homes across the country
1976 – Video game pioneer Nolan Bushnell sells Atari to Warner Communications for $28 million.
1977 – Turner Communications Group purchases the National Basketball Association’s Atlanta Hawks. Turner wins yachting’s America’s Cup
1978 – Warner Communications acquires cable operator American Television & Communications (ATC)
1979 – Turner Communications Group becomes Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. WTCG is renamed WTBS
1980s
1980 – The first 24-hour, all-news network, CNN, is launched with 1.7 million subscribers
1982 – Turner Broadcasting launches CNN Headline News and thwarts a takeover attempt by Westinghouse
1984 – Warner Communications sells most of its stake in Atari off to Jack Tramiel, deposed president of Commodore Computers.
1986 – Time acquires Scott Foresman & Company book publishing unit
1986 – Turner Broadcasting buys MGM library of movies and television shows
1987 – Warner acquires Chappell Music
1988 – TNT cable network launched
1989 – Time Warner Inc. is formed after Time merges with Warner Communications
1989 – Publishing houses Scott Foresman and Little, Brown sold off to Harper Row
1990s
1990 – Entertainment Weekly is launched
1991 – The Internet bulletin-board system Quantum Computer Services changes name to America Online. Steve Case is one of the company’s founders
1991 – The Tribune Company receives a 9% stake in AOL after making a $5 million investment in the company
1992 – Gerald Levin takes control of Time Warner after death of Steven J. Ross. New York 1 News launched
1992 – America Online becomes a publicly traded company
1992 – Turner Broadcasting launches Cartoon Network
1993 – Turner Broadcasting System merges with Castle Rock and New Line
1994 – AOL reaches 1 million subscribers
1994 – Turner Classic Movies is launched
1994 – Warner/Chappell Music becomes the world’s largest music publisher after it acquires CPP/Belwin
1994 – In Style magazine is launched
1994 – Edgar Bronfman Jr.’s Seagram company acquires a 14.5% stake in Time Warner
1995 – AOL launches services in Europe. AOL purchases WebCrawler
1995 – Time Warner acquires Houston Industries
1995 – WB network broadcast network is launched
1996 – Telecommunications Act of 1996. Time Warner acquires Turner Broadcasting System
1997 – Time Warner sells American Lawyer magazine to investment bankers Wasserstein Perella
1997 – AOL acquires CompuServe and ICQ
1998 – AOL acquires Netscape
1999 – AOL acquires Spinner, Winamp, SHOUTcast and DMS
1999 – Turner acquires a National Hockey League expansion franchise. The Atlanta Thrashers begin play in 1999
2000 – Present
2000 – AOL acquires MapQuest
2000 – Time Warner makes deal with Tribune Company for Times Mirror magazines that include Golf, Ski, Skiing, Field & Stream, and Yachting
2000 – AOL and Time Warner announce their $183 billion merger. The largest corporate merger in history is finalized in January of 2001. The world’s largest media and entertainment company changes name to AOL Time Warner
2001 – AOL Time Warner acquires the United Kingdom’s top magazine publisher, IPC Media, from Cinven for $1.67 billion.
2002 – AOL Time Warner buys out AT&T’s stake in Time Warner Entertainment. AOL-Time Warner then created its own cable operation while AT&T merged with Comcast.
2003 – Steve Case steps down as AOL Time Warner chairman. Dick Parsons replaces Case. AOL Time Warner reports $54.24 billion quarterly loss. Company changes name back to Time Warner
2004 – Time Warner sells the Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Thrashers, and Philips Arena to a local investment group
2004 – The Time Warner Center opens
2004 – Time Warner finalizes deal to sell the WEA CD and DVD manufacturing division to Cinram International. The company agrees to sell Warner Music Group (including its record labels Warner Brothers, Atlantic, Elektra and music publishing division Warner Chappell) to private investor group led by Edgar Bronfman, Jr.
2005– America Online Inc. agrees to buy Weblogs Inc., the publisher of 85 freelance online sites about cars, movies, parenting, travel and other subjects, the latest move by the Dulles-based Internet service to increase the size of its audience and profit from ads.
All information from:
http://cjrarchives.org/_deprecate/timewarner-timeline.asp
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/28/AR2005102800747.html
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