Timeline: Key dates in the history of CME Group

Following are key dates in the 167-year history of the exchange, according to the exchange operator:

1848 - Chicago Board of Trade creates the world's first futures exchange, based in Chicago

1865 - CBOT formalizes grain trading with the development of standardized agreements called "futures" contracts

1870 - CBOT develops first octagonal futures trading pit

1877 - CBOT launches corn, wheat and oats futures

1885 - CBOT constructs a new building at LaSalle and Jackson streets, its home to this day

1936 - CBOT launches soybean contract

1961 - CME launches first futures contract on frozen, stored meats - frozen pork bellies

1969 - CBOT begins trading silver futures, its first non-agricultural product

1972 - CME launches first financial futures contracts, offering contracts on seven foreign currencies

1975 - CBOT launches first interest rate futures, offering a contract on the Government National Mortgage Association

1992 - First electronic futures trades are made on CME Globex electronic trading platform

2002 - CME becomes first U.S. exchange to go public

2007 - CME acquires CBOT to form CME Group Inc

2008 - CME Group acquires NYMEX, adding energy and metals to its product offerings

2012 - Kansas City Board of Trade ceases operations and its benchmark hard red winter wheat contract becomes part of CME Group

2015 - CME Group announces that it will close down most of open outcry trading pits

(Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)