1853 - Eliphalet A. Bulkeley petitions the Connecticut Legislature to incorporate Aetna Life Insurance Co.
1899 - Aetna enters the field of health insurance.
1902 - Begins offering accident and liability coverages and soon after expands into other property/casualty lines.
1906 - Pays out nearly $3 million in claims from the San Francisco earthquake.
1911 - Bond department forms to sell fidelity and surety coverages.
1913 - Group department forms to sell group life insurance.
1917- Company changes names to Aetna Casualty & Surety Co.
1919 - Begins offering group disability policies.
1930 - Becomes the first multiline insurer in America to pay out $1 billion in claims. Aetna enters pension business.
1934 - Safety Education department forms.
1936 - Offers first group hospitalization policy.
1944 - Provides insurance for the Manhattan Project, which produced the world's first atomic bomb.
1947 - Offers group coverages to United Nations.
1951 - Group department introduces major medical coverages.
1960 - Enters international arena by acquiring Canada's Excelsior Life Insurance Co.
1965 - Aetna Life & Casualty name is used for the first time.
1966 - Pays the first Medicare claim. Aetna partners with Italy's Assicurazioni Generali to service multinational clients around the world.
1967 - Aetna Life & Casualty Inc., a holding company, is formed.
1968 - Begins trading on New York Stock Exchange.
1973 - Creates health maintenance organization subsidiary.
1981 - Reorganizes along market segments.
1985 - As nation's largest health insurer, forms Partners National Health Plans, an alternative delivery health care joint venture.
1991 - Sells individual health business to Mutual of Omaha.
1996 - Merges with U.S. Healthcare. Sells property/casualty operations to Travelers Inc. Combines financial services units into Aetna Retirement Services. Aetna Life & Casualty is renamed Aetna Inc.
1997 - Aetna Retirement Services purchases Financial Network Investment Co., a leading financial planning company.
1998 - Announces plans to purchase NYLCare Health Plans from New York Life Insurance Co.
1999 - Acquires Prudential HealthCare.
2000 - Separates global health and global financial services businesses into publicly traded companies....Board rejects unsolicited invitation from WellPoint Health Networks Inc. and ING America Insurance Holdings to discuss a purchase of Aetna....Announces $7.7 billion deal to sell financial services and international operations to ING Groep N.V. Spins off new health insurance business, Aetna Inc.
2001 - Reporting for the first time as an independent health care and related benefits company, Aetna posts operating earnings of $193.6 million for 2000, excluding certain items, down 40.9%....
Blames $48.2 million first-quarter net loss on higher-than-expected medical costs. Announces shift from fully insured HMOs toward self-insured HMO products as part of an effort to boost profits.
Source: Aetna Inc., Business Insurance