History

Year Event
1917 Union Carbide & Carbon Corporation is incorporated on November 1, 1917 and acquires the stock of: Linde Air Products Co.; National Carbon Co., Inc.; Prest-O-Lite Co., Inc.; and Union Carbide Company (formed in 1898).
1919 George Curme files the first patent for commercial preparation of ethylene.
1920 Union Carbide establishes Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Corporation; also, the first commercial ethylene plant is completed at Clendenin, W. Va. — the start of the petrochemical industry.
1923 Eleven acres of land in South Charleston, W. Va. are leased to set up a commercial scale plant, which will — in a few years — begin production of several ethylene-based chemicals.
1939 Bakelite Corporation merges into Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation. Bakelite, founded by Dr. Leo Baekeland, was a pioneer in plastics.
1941 Chemical production begins at Texas City, Tex.
1947 Union Carbide purchases plant in Institute, W. Va., which it had previously built and operated for the government for the production of butadiene and styrene at the start of World War II
1954 Chemical production at Seadrift, Tex. begins.
1957 Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation changes name to Union Carbide Corporation.
1959 Union Carbide Consumer Products Co. is formed as a division.
1960s Electronics Division is established.
Hydrocarbons Division is formed.
Ferroalloys Division is formed and takes over production and marketing of chromium, manganese and silicon alloys.
The Mining and Metals Division is formed by combining the Metals and Ore Divisions and part of the Nuclear Division.
First chemical products are shipped from Taft, La. plant in 1966.
Jennat Corporation, producer of latex, is purchased by Union Carbide.
1977 UNIPOL Process technology for making polyethylene is announced.
1978 Union Carbide completes major divestiture, selling nearly all of its European petrochemical operations to BP Chemicals Ltd.
1981 Union Carbide sells portion of its metals business.
1983 A major advance expanding the scope of the UNIPOL Process technology to include polypropylene is announced.
1984 In December, a gas leak at a plant in Bhopal, India, caused by an act of sabotage, results in tragic loss of life. (http://www.bhopal.com)
1985 GAF Corporation announces bid to takeover Union Carbide Corporation.
1986 GAF halts takeover bid in response to Union Carbide's defense, which includes plans to make major divestitures.
Union Carbide divests a number of businesses: films packaging, major portions of metals business, battery products, specialty polymers and composites, home and automotive products and agricultural products business.
Union Carbide purchases Amerchol Corporation from CPC International.
1988 Allied-Signal and Union Carbide complete the formation of UOP joint venture. UOP provides process technology, catalysts and adsorbents to the petroleum refining, petrochemical, gas-processing and energy industries.
1989 Carbon products and industrial gases businesses become subsidiaries on Jan. 1st. Carbon products business is renamed UCAR Carbon Company and industrial gas business is named Union Carbide Industrial Gases Inc. On July 1st Union Carbide Corporation becomes a holding company, owning these two subsidiaries plus Union Carbide Chemicals and Plastics Company, Inc.
1990 Urethane polyether polyols and propylene glycol business is sold to Arco Chemcial Co.
UCC purchases Triton surfactant and alkylphenol business from Rohm & Haas.
1991 Mitsubishi Corporation buys 50% stake in UCAR Carbon; UCAR Carbon later becomes a publicly traded independent company.
1992 Union Carbide Industrial Gases is spun-off as an independent company. Its name changes to Praxair, Inc.
1993 OrganoSilicon Products business is sold to DLJ Merchant Banking Partners L.P. and affiliates of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Inc.
1994 Alberta & Orient Glycol Company Ltd. opens a 660,000 lbs. per year ethylene glycol plant at Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. Alberta & Orient Glycol is a joint venture between Union Carbide (50%), Far Eastern Textile Ltd. (25%) and Mitsui & Company Ltd. (25%).
Sale of Union Carbide's 50.9% interest in Union Carbide India Limited to McLeod Russel is completed.
1995 UCC acquires ethylene oxide and derivatives businesses, including facilities in the United Kingdom, from ICI.
Union Carbide becomes a partner in Polimeri Europa S.r.l., a 50-50 ethylene/polyethylene joint venture between Union Carbide and EniChem S.p.A.. It will produce polyethylene for the European market.
Union Carbide forms Asian Acetyls Company, Ltd. a joint venture in Korea with BP Chemicals and Samsung Fine Chemicals Company to manufacture vinyl acetate monomer.
Union Carbide and two partners (Petrochemical Industries Company and Boubyan Petrochemical, both of Kuwait) form Equate Petrochemical Company. The new firm will build and operate a petrochemicals complex in Kuwait; products include ethylene, polyethylene and ethylene glycol.
1996 Purchase of the polypropylene assets and business of Shell Oil Company is completed.
Plans for Union Carbide and Nova Corporation to build a 2.8-billion pound ethylene plant in Alberta, Canada are announced. Union Carbide will build a Unipol Process polyethylene plant to consume its half of the output.
1997 Union Carbide and Exxon Chemical Company launch a joint venture, Univation Technologies, for the licensing of polyethylene technology and for research, development and commercialization of metallocene and other advanced catalysts for the production of polyethylene. The venture is also the licensing agent for Union Carbide's UNIPOL Process technology for polypropylene.
1998 UCC and Petronas (the national oil company of Malaysia) form a joint venture to build a new petrochemical complex in Malaysia. The planned complex will include an olefins cracker and have facilities for production of ethylene oxide and its derivatives and oxo alcohols and oxo derivatives, primarily serving solvents and intermediates end-uses.
1999 On August 4th, Union Carbide and The Dow Chemical Company announce that their boards of directors have approved an $11.6 billion transaction which would result in Union Carbide becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company.
2001 On February 6th, Union Carbide Corporation became a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company.