Gardiner Hubbard and Thomas Sanders agree to finance the work of Alexander Graham Bell, a teacher of deaf students in New England who was trying to invent a "talking telegraph."
March 7, 1876: Bell is granted his first patent for the invention of the telephone.
March 10, 1876: Bell transmits the words, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you," to assistant Thomas Watson in the first spoken words ever transmitted via electricity.
1877: Bell is granted his second patent for the invention and forms the Bell Telephone Co. with Hubbard and Sanders.
1878: The first telephone exchange opens in New Haven, Conn.
March 1879: Bell Telephone is renamed the National Bell Telephone Co.
March 1880: National Bell is renamed American Bell Telephone Co.
1882: American Bell buys a controlling interest in Western Electric from Western Union to gain an equipment supplier.
March 3, 1885: The American Telephone and Telegraph Co. is incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary of American Bell to build and operate the first long-distance telephone network starting in New York.
1892: The Bell telephone network reaches Chicago.
1894: Bell's second telephone patent expires, opening the telephone industry to competition.
Dec. 30, 1899: AT&T acquires all of the assets of American Bell.
Dec. 9, 1913: In a letter known as the Kingsbury Commitment, AT&T settles an antitrust lawsuit filed by the Justice Department by agreeing to sell its controlling stake in the Western Union telegraph company and allow other telephone companies to connect to its network, creating the second government monopoly.
Jan. 25, 1915: AT&T opens the first transcontinental telephone line.
April 7, 1927: In the first demonstration of television, Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover's live picture and voice are transmitted over telephone lines to New York from Washington.
1958: AT&T introduces the first commercial computer modem.
July 10, 1962: The company launches Telstar, the first satellite designed to transmit telephone and high-speed data.
1963: AT&T introduces touchtone service.
1968: AT&T introduces 911 as the first nationwide emergency number.
Jan. 8, 1982: AT&T agrees to be split into seven companies to settle a 1974 Justice Department lawsuit.
Jan. 1, 1984: The Bell telephone system is split into seven independent regional operating companies known as "Baby Bells."
September 1991: AT&T buys computer maker NCR Corp. for $7.48 billion.
Sept. 19, 1994: AT&T finishes its $11.5 billion acquisition of McCaw Cellular Communications Inc. after the Federal Communications Commission clears the way for the combination of the U.S.'s largest long-distance service provider and the largest cellular operator.
Feb. 17, 1999: AT&T receives approval from shareholders and the Federal Communications Commission for its $57.5 billion purchase of Tele-Communications Inc., the No. 2 U.S. cable TV company.
Oct. 25, 2000: AT&T says it will divide into four separate companies in 2002 to reverse a stock slide that cut its market value more than $61.5 billion in 2000.
Dec. 19, 2001: Comcast Corp. agrees to buy AT&T's cable-television unit.
Jan. 31, 2005: SBC, the second-biggest U.S. telephone company, agrees to buy AT&T for about $16 billion. SBC has grown from the smallest of seven local-phone providers spun off in the 1984 breakup to become a company with more than 50 million local-calling customers.
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First Published: February 1, 2005, 5:00 a.m.
