1950-2000
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1952 | General Electric acquires Ken-Rad Tube Manufacturing Corporation, headquartered in Owensboro, Kentucky and designates the Ken-Rad's plants located in Owensboro and Bowling Green, Kentucky, Tell City and Huntingburg, Indiana as its primary vacuum tube manufacturing facilities |
| 1953 | Lexan accidentally developed by a GE Plastics scientist while searching for a new wire coating |
| 1955 | GE Research Laboratory announces the ability to create the first artificial diamonds, primarily for industrial use |
| 1958 | Ralph J. Cordiner becomes Chairman & CEO, replacing Phillip D. Reed |
| 1962 | General Electric scientist Bob Hall invents the solid state laser |
| 1963 | Gerald L. Phillippe becomes Chairman, replacing Ralph J. Cordiner |
| 1964 | General Electric sponsors Carousel of Progress at the 1964 New York World's Fair and continues sponsorship after it is moved to Disneyland from 1967 to 1973, then to Magic Kingdom (1975–1985) |
| 1967 | Fred J. Borch becomes Chairman & CEO, replacing Gerald L. Phillippe |
| 1970 | Computer systems division sold to Honeywell |
| 1971 | CFM International is formed with partner SNECMA for the purpose of producing medium-sized civil turbofan |
| 1972 | Reginald Jones becomes Chairman and CEO, replacing Fred J. Borch |
| 1981 | Jack Welch whose management style would leave a lasting effect upon General Electric and corporate America, replaces Reginald Jones as CEO |
| 1982 | CFM International's CFM56 is introduced; The CFM56 would go on to dominate the engine market for short haul airliner |
| 1983 | General Electric begins sponsoring Horizons at EPCOT Center which ends in 1993 |
| 1984 | GE spins off its commercial computer graphics products and services Genigraphics Operation to the Genigraphics Corporation |
| 1985 | GEnie, one of the pioneering online services, was developed using extra processor cycles on General Electric Information Services mainframes |
| 1986 | General Electric re-acquires RCA, primarily for the NBC television network and sells the remaining components to Thomson—along with General Electric's consumer electronics division— and Bertelsmann |
| 1988 | General Electric begins sponsorship of IllumiNations, a series of fireworks displays, at EPCOT Center which continues until 1998 |
| 1989 | The Consumer News and Business Channel, or CNBC, is formed to provide business news to cable television subscribers |
| 1993 | GE Aerospace Division sold to Martin Marietta, now Lockheed Martin |
| 1996 | MSNBC is formed with partner Microsoft, to compete with the Cable News Network |
| 1996 | GEnie is sold to Yovelle, now part of IDT Corp. |
| 1996 | General Electric sponsors the Main Street Electrical Parade for the farewell season at Disneyland |
| 1999 | Harkening back to the Easy-Bake Oven, General Electric introduces the Advantium oven, which uses halogen lights to cook food |
| 1999 | Montgomery Ward exits Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and becomes a subsidiary of GE Capital, a major creditor |
Read more about this topic: General Electric Timeline