AOL Time Warner group chronology 

This chronology is indicative only. There's a separate, more general communications and media timeline.

     print and film

1907 four Warner brothers establish film distribution business and move into production

1917 Warners have first major success with My 4 Years In Germany

1918 brothers open their first West Coast Studio on Sunset Boulevard

1923 Time launched

1923 Warner Brothers incorporated

1925 Warners establish Vitaphone Co., begin experimental sound pictures at Warner Vitagraph studio in Brooklyn

1926 Warners Don Juan, starring John Barrymore, features music but no spoken dialogue

1927 Warners move Vitaphone to Hollywood, release Al Jolson's The Jazz Singer

1930 Fortune magazine launched

1935 first Porky Pig cartoon from Warners animation unit

1936 Life launched

1937 Detective Comics (DC) founded

1939 All-American Comics founded

1940 Bugs Bunny introduced by Warners

1944 twilight of the Studio System, with court ruling that Warners must release Olivia de Havilland after 7 year contract

1947 Atlantic Records founded

1948 much of Warners film library sold to MGM

1949 Warners ordered to divest cinema chain

1949 Warners begins to license cartoon characters to children's clothing manufacturers

     conglomerates

1950 Elektra Records founded by Jac Holzman

1954 Sports Illustrated launched

1957 Time-Life buys Indianapolis television station

1958 Warner Bros. Records founded, later renamed WEA

1963 Warners closes animation unit

1963 Warners buys Sinatra's ailing Reprise records

1967 Jack Warner sells his stake in Warners to Seven Arts

1967 Atlantic records bought by Warner-Seven Arts

1967 DC and All-American Comics bought by parking-lot to funeral parlour conglomerate Kinney National Services

1967 New Line Cinema founded

1968 Time buys Boston publishing house Little, Brown (founded 1837)

1969 Warner-Seven Arts acquired by Kinney National and becomes Warner Communications

1970 Warner Music opens in Australia

1970 Warner Communications buys Elektra records

1970 Geffen founds Asylum label

1972 Time buys out Charles Dolan from Home Box Office (HBO) cable tv network, Dolan establishes Cablevision

1972 Money launched

1972 Life ceases

1973 Time buys pulp and paper group Temple Industries to form Temple-Eastex

1974 People launched

1976 Turner buys Arlanta Braves sports team

1976 Nolan Bushnell sells Atari to Warners for US $28 million

1976 Turner's WTCG in Atlanta beamed via satellite to US cable networks

1977 Turner buys Atlanta Hawks

1978 Time buys cable operator American Television & Communications

1979 Turner Communications Group becomes Turner Broadcasting System, WTCG is renamed WTBS

1980 CNN, world's first 24-hour all-news network

1982 Tri-Star Pictures formed by CBS television, HBO and Columbia Pictures

1984 Time spins off Temple-Eastex and Inland Container Corporation to form Temple-Inland

1984 Warner sells most of loss-making Atari to founder of Commodore Computers

1984 Warner sells cosmetics business

1985 Quantum Computer Services formed, later renamed AOL

1985 Time buys Southern Progress group (founded 1886), with Progressive Farmer (1886), Southern Living (1966) and Oxmoor House (1969)

1985 Time buys Scott Foresman publishing group

1985 Laurence Tisch buys 25% of CBS to thwart Turner bid

1986 Turner buys MGM film library

1987 Warner buys Chappell Music publishing company for US$275 million

1988 WEA buys Teldec records (Germany) and Magnet records (UK)

1989 Time Warner created with Time's acquisition of Warner Communications

1989 WEA buys CGD Records (Italy) and MMG Records (Japan)

1989 Scott, Foresman and Little, Brown sold to Murdoch-controlled Harper & Row

     computers

1989 Quantum renamed America Online

1990 Entertainment Weekly launched

1990 New Line Cinema launches art house division, Fine Line Features

1990 WEA buys Carrere Disques (France)

1991 Chicago Tribune takes 10% stake in AOL for US$5m

1992 WEA buys Erato records (France)

1993 WEA buys Spanish DRO Group, Hungarian Magneoton label, Swedish label Telegram Records, Continental Records in Brazil and Finnish Fazer Musiiki

1994 Warner/Chappell Music acquires CPP/Belwin, becoming world's largest music publisher and largest publisher of printed music

1994 Turner Broadcasting System, Castle Rock and New Line Cinema merge

1994 Seagram buys 14.5% stake in Time Warner

1994 AOL reaches 1 million subscribers and links to the internet for the first time

1995 AOL buys WebCrawler, Ubique, ANS, Global Network Navigator, WAIS, Medior, BookLink Technologies and NaviSoft

1995 WB Network launched

1995 AOL Germany

1996 US Telecommunications Act results in billions of dollars of broadcast properties changing hands

1996 rest of Atari sold to Midway Games

1996 Time Warner takes over Turner Broadcasting System

1996 AOL buys games specialist ImagiNation Network

1996 AOL UK, AOL Canada and AOL France

1996 AOL launches Buddy List instant message feature for AOL members and AIM instant message service for internet users

1997 AOL chat rooms opened to advertisers

1997 Time Warner sells American Lawyer magazines for US$63 m

1998 AOL buys CompuServe and ICQ online messaging

1998 WEA buys 90% of Nuova Fonit Cetra, Italian record and music publishing group

1998 98 AOL and Bertelsmann launch AOL Australia

1999 AOL buys Netscape, MovieFone, Spinner, Winamp, SHOUTcast and DMS

1999 Time Warner Cable video-on-demand trials in Austin , and Tampa

2000 Time Warner buys Times Mirror Magazines from Tribune Company, including Golf, Ski, Skiing, Field & Stream, Yachting and other titles

2000 AOL buys online travel information provider MapQuest

2000 AOL merges with Time Warner

2001 global AOL subscribers surpass 30 million

2001 Asiaweek, Family Life and On closed

2001 AOLTW announces plan to spend US$6.75bn buying Bertelsmann's 49.5% stake in AOL Europe

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