Tracing nearly 150 years of change with Aetna

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