1867: Bolton Evening News launched on March 19 by W F Tillotson, first halfpenny evening paper in the country, in Mawdsley Street.

1868: Founder members of Press Association

1889: W F Tillotson dies at the age of 44.

1894: First daily newspaper in Britain to produce a photograph by the half-tone process

1926: One of the first offices outside London to be equipped with Cread-Wheatstone apparatus which bought both home and foreign news over a landline into the offices

1956: Fred Tillotson, son of W F, retired, having guided the company both as director and chairman (and on a couple of occasions as editor) since 1901

1962: The Evening News made newspaper history when, for first time in a British paper, all editions contained a full-page printed in Hi-Fi colour

1967: Bolton Evening News named as country's best designed newspaper

1971: Tillotsons Ltd. bought by St Regis Paper Company of New York, and Marcus Tillotson, the last of the founding family to be connected with the Bolton Evening News and Chairman since 1956, retired.

1976: Old hot metal process of production replaced by computerised photo-setting

1982: Company sold to Reed International

1985: A historic breakthrough in newspaper production when company signed a single-keying agreement with its National Graphical Association tele-ad staff, first of its kind in the UK provincial newspaper industry

1987: The company relocated from Mealhouse Lane to Newspaper house in Churchgate. At same time the paper opened an out-of-town publishing centre at Lostock, and converted from letterpress to printing web-offset

1989: Full electronic page make-up introduced, making company first in the world to achieve the complete electronic newspaper where stories, photographs and advertisement processed by computer from the moment of compilation almost to point where paper is printed

1991: As company ownership of newspapers expands rapidly, the Lancashire Evening Telegraph and its associated weekly newspapers were bought from Thomson Newspapers, also to be printed at Bolton

1996: Newsquest founded in management buy-out from Reed.

1999: Newsquest became part of Gannett.

2001: Printing presses opened at Wingates Industrial Estate.