New York - In just 50 years Rupert Murdoch has transformed a single Australian newspaper into News Corporation, one of the world's most powerful media empires. The following is a timeline of some of the company's key events and acquisitions:
1953 - After his father's death, Murdoch returns from his studies at Oxford University to take charge of The News in Adelaide, Australia.
1956 - Begins publishing Australia's first and most successful weekly television magazine, TV Week.
1964 - Launches The Australian, the country's first national newspaper.
1968 - Starts international expansion by acquiring The News of the World, the most popular English-language newspaper with a circulation of more than 6 million.
1969 - Buys the popular British tabloid The Sun.
1972 - Acquires the Sydney morning tabloid The Daily Telegraph.
1970 - Buys stake in London Weekend Television (sold in 1979).
1973 - Enters US market with purchase of what is now the San Antonio Express-News.
1976 - Buys the New York Post from Dorothy Schiff for 30 million dollars.
1976 - Buys New York magazine and Village Voice.
1976 - Buys the prestigious British papers The Times and The Sunday Times.
1980 - News Corporation established.
1982 - Buys Boston Herald.
1983 - Buys Chicago Sun-Times.
1985 - Buys TCF Holdings (parent company of Twentieth Century Fox Film).
1985 - Buys seven US television stations from Metromedia for 2 billion dollars to form Fox Television Network.
1985 - Becomes US citizen in line with regulations barring foreign ownership of television stations.
1986 - Takes on powerful unions to move London newspapers to new facilities.
1986 - News Corp listed on New York Stock Exchange.
1989 - Launches Sky Television, which quickly dominates satellite TV market in Britain.
1993 - Acquires Asian satellite channel Star TV.
1996 - Launches Fox News cable channel.
2003 - Acquires a 34 per cent stake in Hughes Electronics, operator of the largest US satellite TV system, DirecTV, from General Motors for 6 billion dollars.
2005 - Buys Intermix Media Inc, the owner of popular website MySpace.com for 580 million dollars.
2007 - Buys America's most serious and prestigious newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, as part of his 5.6-billion-dollar acquisition of the Dow Jones media empire.
