The McGraw-Hill Companies Timeline

New York, New York

Profile

Imprints

1930-1980

1888-1929 [Back to Top]

1888	James H. McGraw, a teacher, buys American Journal of Railway Appliances.
1899	McGraw incorporates The McGraw Publishing Co., Inc.
1902	John Hill, journal editor of American Machinist and Locomotive Engineer, imcorporates Hill Publishing Company, Inc.
1909	At the urging of the heads of their two book units, McGraw and Hill merge their book publishing operations into McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. They flip a coin. Heads gets the name of the company and tails gets the presidency.
1916	Hill dies at 57.
1917	The rest of the two companies are merged into McGraw-Hill
1920	McGraw-Hill purchases the Newton Falls Paper Company
1928	McGraw-Hill purchases the A.W. Shaw Company, owner of the Magazine of Business. Two months before Black Friday in 1929, it is launched as Business Week.
1929	McGraw-Hill, in a show of optimism goes public.

1930-1980 [Back to Top]

1930	McGraw-Hill forms Whittlesley House (named for McGraw's father-in-law), a trade publisher.
1935	James McGraw retires and is succeeded by his son Jay.
1930s-1940s	McGraw-Hill publishes trade journals in aviation, health care and atomic energy.
1944	McGraw-Hill acquires Embasy Book Ltd. of Toronto, later McGraw-Hill of Canada, and finally McGraw Ryerson.
1947	The trade division publishes Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book, which sold 2.3 million copies the first year.
1949	McGraw-Hill purchases the Greg Company.
1950s- 1960s	McGraw-Hill begins printing for the elementary and secondary school markets.
1953	McGraw-Hill purchases Warren C. Platt, petroleum industry publishers.
1954	McGraw-Hill acquires Blakiston Co., medical titles, from Doubleday.
Late 1950s	McGraw-Hill begins publishing encyclopedias, including the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology.
1961	McGraw-Hill acquires F. W. Dodge Corp. (construction information).
1965	McGraw-Hill purchases California Test Bureau.
1966	McGraw-Hill, in one of its most significant purchases, buys Standard and Poor's financial services.
1966	McGraw-Hill purchases Shepard's Citations, Inc.
1968	The company becomes McGraw-Hill, Inc.
1972	McGraw-Hill purchases four TV stations.
1974	Harold McGraw becomes president of McGraw-Hill.
1979	American Express attempts a takover of McGraw-Hill. Astonished by the ferocity of Harold McGraw's defense of the company, American Express withdraws its bid.

1983-1995 [Back to Top]

1983	Harold McGraw retires and is replaced by Joseph Dionne
1987	McGraw-Hill sells American Machinist & Automated Manufacturing, Coal Age, and Mining Journal.
1988	McGraw-Hill acquires Random House's college division for $200 million.
1989	McGraw-Hill sells its trade books division.
1989	McGraw-Hill begins Primis Custom Publishing, a partnership with Koday and R.R. Donnelley to produce customized college textbooks.
1989	McGraw-Hill begins joint venture into textbooks and eduational software with Macmillan. It is called Macmillan/McGraw-Hill Publishing.
1990	McGraw-Hill purchases J. J. Kenny (municipal securities information).
1993	McGraw-Hill purchases Macmillan's share of Macmillan/McGraw-Hill for $160.8 million when Macmillan's parent, Maxwell Communications, declares bankruptcy.
1993	Mc Graw-Hill purchases 25% of Liberty Brokerage.
1995	The company becomes The McGraw-Hill Companies.

1996-2002 [Back to Top]

1996	McGraw-Hill swaps the legal publishing unit, which includes Shepard's Citations, for the Times Mirror Higher Education Group.
1996	McGraw-Hill acquires Open Court Publishing Co. (K-8).
1997	McGraw-Hill School Systems sells its library automation products (including CLS) to CASPR Library Systems.
1997	Standard and Poor's acquires Fund Research.
1997	McGraw-Hill sells Datapro Information Services to Gartner Group.
1998	Harold "Terry" McGraw III, great grandson of the founder, becomes CEO.
1998	McGraw-Hill sells the computer and communications publications, including Data Communications, LANTimes, and Byte, to CMP Media for $28 million.
1999	McGraw-Hill purchases Appleton & Lange from Pearson for $46 million.
1999	McGraw-Hill sells its trade magazines and trade show businesses to Veronis Suhler (now Veronis Suhler Stevenson).
2000	McGraw-Hill sells Tower Group International (customs consulting) to FedEx for $140 million.
2000	McGraw-Hill purchases Tribune Education (K-12 supplements) for $635 million.
2001	McGraw-Hill purchases Mayfield Publishing and Frank Schaeffer Publications.
2001	McGraw-Hill acquires Harcourt's higher-education and professional corporate divisions from Reed Elsevier Group.
2002	McGraw-Hill closes its Lifetime Learning unit and sells some of the assets to The Thomson Corporation.
2003	McGraw-Hill sells S&P ComStock, its financial data provider, to Interactive Data Corp. for $155 million.