Swiss Painter Josse Amman publishes plates on the fashions of the day. Produced in Frankfurt in Latin, this is widely regarded as the world's first fashion magazine

John Dunton publishes The Ladies Mercury, which concerned 'all the nice and curious questions concerning love, marriage, behaviour, dress and humour in the female sex, whether virgins, wives or widows'.

The Ladies Diary or Women’s Almanack is published by John Tipper.

Lloyd's List, the shipping trade title, is founded.

The Scots Magazine, the oldest consumer magazine still in print, is first published.

Samuel Johnson's dictionary credits Edward Cave, founder in 1731 of The Gentleman's Magazine, with coining the term 'magazine' (meaning storehouse) in its modern sense of referring to a periodical.

Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna establish H W Smith in Little Grosvenor Street, London. In 1846, the prospering newsagent, now run by Henry’s son, William Henry, changes its name to WHSmith & Son. It opens its first railway "bookstall" at Euston in 1848.

German Alois Senefelder develops lithography to produce high-quality printed images.

The Economist is founded to campaign for free trade.

The Illustrated London News publishes its Christmas special with a colour cover produced using coloured wood blocks. The issue sells 130,000 copies a week – ten times the daily sale of The Times.

The WE forster Education Act makes learning to read and write compulsory under free schools system.

Cosmopolitan launched in the US as a fiction magazine.

Cassell’s launches The Woman’s World, with Oscar Wilde as editor until 1889.

Vogue is founded in the US by Arthur Turnure and Harry McVickar. It launches in Britain in 1916.

More than 20,000 readers cancel their subscription to Strand Magazine when Sherlock Holmes is killed off in "The Final Problem". Arthur Conan Doyle relents in 1902, bringing the detective hero back in "The Adventure of the Empty House".

Liberal Party MP Horatio Bottomley publishes John Bull magazine. The penny weekly becomes the UK’s largestselling magazine, claiming a circulation of 1.35m on its front cover in 1916.

William Randolph Hearst buys Pall Mall and Nash in the UK and becomes the first US publisher to operate on a global basis, founding the National Magazine Company as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Hearst Corporation.

A group of publishers begins gathering regularly for lunch at The Howard Hotel on London's Embankment. Their discussions lead, on November 19, to the formation of The Society of Weekly Newspapers and Periodical Proprietors Limited. Discussions at the Howard Hotel are dominated by the issues of the day: printing, paper and ink supplies, unionisation, distribution of magazines to retailers, and postal delivery – all of which demand a professional body through which to offer a single voice. The PPA is born!

On July 28, the world descends into a global conflict that would last four years. Few details remain of the activities of the fledgling Society of Weekly Newspapers and Periodical Proprietors during this period, but records show it continues with a focus on matters of importance to members, including copyright law, railway distribution, import duties and levies, and rationing.

War Illustrated launches a competition for readers to coin a new name as the First World War draws to a close, leading to it being renamed News Illustrated.

1922 Good Housekeeping, launched in 1922 by Hearst subsidiary the National Magazine Company, provides a fascinating study of how magazines both charted and shaped the fashions, styles and social trends of the interwar period.

The Radio Times launches a year after the creation of the British Broadcasting Corporation. A decade later it would be selling two million copies a week.

A system of agency recognition was established jointly with the Newspaper Society to set out standards expected by publishers of the emerging advertising industry. It exists today as the PPA's Agency Recognition Scheme.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations is established in the UK, covering national and regional newspapers.

Odhams, owner of bestselling magazine John Bull as well as The People and The Herald newspapers, launches Woman’s Own. The new title comes with a free cover-mounted gift – three skeins of wool.

After investing in a new plant in Watford kitted out with the Speedry Gravure Process, Odhams launches the fullcolour weekly magazine Woman at a price of 2d. Within a year the title is selling 500,000 copies a week.

Following the outbreak of World War Two, enforced paper shortages by The Paper Controller lead to a number of magazine closures. Launches are prohibited altogether.

A directory of PPA members’ titles is published – the earliest surviving example in the association’s archives.

The War Office asks for the use of magazine posters as part of its efforts to camouflage machine gun defence posts in London as bookstalls. Publishers concede but firmly refuse the demand to pay for the privilege. PPA members are also pressured by government to carry advertising warning of the dangers of venereal disease as well as austerity patterns issued by the Department for Civilian Clothing.

On the night of May 11, the association’s offices in Fleet Street, which it shares with the Newspaper Publishers Association, are devastated by a direct hit during a nighttime bombing raid.

The publishers of Punch offer immediate temporary accommodation while the hunt for a new home is discussed at an association meeting on July 15. A levy of 50% on members and an increase of 25% in subscriptions funds the move to Imperial House in Kingsway, which is equipped at a cost of £1,000, and becomes home to the association until 1995.

Lord Beaverbrook, Minister of Supply, further cuts paper rates to 20% of pre-war levels. The government warns it will not hesitate to confiscate publishers’ supplies for munitions if required. The allowance stays at 20% after a meeting between the Minister and the association – the PPA's first minuted lobbying success.

A women's publications group is established within the PPA, reflecting the strength of the sector at a time when returning soldiers are being reabsorbed into the workforce.

Having modernised as 'The PPA', the association reconstituted to have a central council with group councils for periodicals and another for trade titles.

Woman's Own, restricted to 20-24 pages in wartime, celebrates the end of paper rationing with a bumper 48-page issue.

Wage discussions in the printing industry erupt into an all-out dispute as 90% of employees are dismissed. The PPA engages in emergency talks with the British Federation of Master Printers.

The end of paper rationing brings the debate over sale or return (SOR) into sharp focus. After discussing various options, the PPA council decides to maintain its policy of no returns, prompting the Board of Trade to intervene and demand SOR for the first four issues of any new publications.

Marcus Morris, an Anglican vicar from Lancashire, publishes the first issue of The Eagle comic. It blends to great effect colour gravure printing with quality paper, excellent illustrations, stories and characters, including the legendary Dan Dare. Morris goes on to become Managing Director and Editor-in- Chief of the National Magazine Company, launching Cosmopolitan in the UK, and with Condé Nast he forms COMAG, one of the UK's largest media distribution companies. His achievements and influence are still recognised by the PPA through the annual presentation of the Marcus Morris Award.

The National Federation of Retail Newsagents (NFRN) writes to the PPA to protest about mounting losses from publishers' sale or return policies.

PPA members support the restoration fund of £210,000 to rebuild St. Bride's church in Fleet Street, with president Alan Agnew becoming patron and director Ernest Norton joining the executive committee.

New Musical Express, formed through the merging of Accordion Times and Musical Express, publishes the first official UK record chart.

Magazines play their part in – and pay their share of – the establishment of a Press Council, created in response to the Royal Commission on the Press and to coincide with the Queen's Coronation.

The British Standards Council (BSC) attempts to produce a British standard for periodical design. The idea is laughed out by the PPA's Periodicals Council. In 1964, the British Standards Institution makes an equally unsuccessful attempt to standardise the sizes of magazines and periodicals on a global basis.

After a hiatus of 15 years, the association's annual dinner is reinstated at a cost of £5 per head – a week's wage for a senior journalist at the time.

The end of paper rationing triggers a transformation in the style, size and type of magazines published, prompting Home Secretary Gwilym Lloyd George to introduce The Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act of 1955, prohibiting magazines that are thought to be harmful to children.

The PPA's Trade and Technical Council lobbies for reduced postal rates on periodicals.

Having jointly chartered a steamer to sail from the NFRN conference in Southend to Margate, the PPA finds itself in a new row with retailers over unsolds. The NFRN eventually lifts a threatened block on new titles not offering sale or return.

New Scientist launches.

Distribution arrangements are redrafted and wholesalers are asked to cut adrift from retailers in favour of separate relationships with the PPA and NPA.

A colour brochure promoting advertising in magazines is produced by the Magazine Publishers of America, inspiring the PPA to invest £1,000 seeking advice as to whether it should follow suit. This is the first record of the PPA engaging in advertising promotion – a function still carried out today by the PPA Marketing Board.

Audit Bureau of Circulations expands to cover magazines.

The Code of Advertising Committee was established to provide standards for advertising and was followed in 1962 by the founding of the Advertising Standards Authority.

Private Eye launches, edited by Christopher Booker, designed by Willie Rushton and backed by, among others, Peter Cook.

Mark Boxer produces The Sunday Times Magazine, printed by Odhams' Sun Printers and inserted separately by newsagents.

A major dinner event is planned for the association's 50th anniversary in 1963 at The Savoy. Hamish MacDougall, PPA Director, writes to his predecessor Ernest Norton to invite him to the event and to arrange a meeting to research "some of the highlights prior to 1939 – and this can be much better uncovered over a friendly smoke".

The PPA changes name from the Periodical Proprietors Association to the Periodical Publishers Association.

PPA members face a levy of 1% of payroll to fund the PPITB training body.

Associated-Iliffe Press, George Newnes and Odhams Press – the three largest magazine publishing houses – merge to become IPC Magazines Ltd as part of the International Publishing Corporation Ltd. Two years later IPC is acquired by Reed Group Ltd.

The Post Office is created as a nationalised industry rather than a government department, raising issues on the treatment of periodicals in the pricing structure.

Harper's Bazaar and Queen merge as Harper's & Queen.

John Lennon joins protests against the 15-month sentences handed to Jim Anderson, Felix Dennis and Richard Neville for conspiracy under the UK's Obscene Publications Act 1959 over "sexually perverted cartoons and articles" in the May 1970 issue of Oz magazine. The convictions are quashed on appeal.

The PPA meets with HM Customs & Excise independently of newspaper and book organisations to make the case for a VAT zero rate for magazines. The following year, a historic note to members explains that the decision has been secured – one of the most momentous achievements in the association's history.

The PPA publishes an in-depth report on the Postal Threat to Magazines after postal strikes and price rises impact upon members' businesses.

The UK is home to the first international edition of Cosmopolitan.

Prime Minister Edward Heath adjusts his notes at the PPA's 60th Anniversary Dinner as the association's president Sir Gordon Brunton makes his address. The 470 guests include 263 women, each of whom receive a bar of Floris toilet soap.

May 7 marks the inaugural meeting of the Federation of Associations of Periodical Publishers in the EEC.

The Whitfield Committee is established to examine the issue of photocopying and publishers' rights – an issue raised six years earlier at a meeting of the PPA, the Publishers Association and the Music Publishers Association.

Comag is formed by Condé Nast and the National Magazine Company.

John Copeman proposes the establishment of a training association for periodical publishers, which evolves into the Periodicals Training Trust and then the Periodicals Training Council (PTC).

Sir Keith Skinner of IPC proposes the introduction of the PPA Editorial Awards.

The PPA recruits three graduates as development officers – Malcolm Greenhill, James Bilton and Jane Cocks. The scheme is driven by Executive Director Tom Hooson, who becomes Director General of the PPA and is elected MP for Brecon and Radnor in 1979.

Emap launches Smash Hits, a fortnightly pop magazine devised by Nick Logan. Logan follows a year later with The Face, and again in 1986 with Arena.

High Life in-flight magazine is produced by Highgate Publications for British Airways – this is widely regarded as the first-ever contract publishing title.

Based on a proposal from Timothy Benn, the PPA holds its first-ever conference in October.

The Europa Hotel hosts the inaugural PPA Awards on May 7 with state trumpeters and a band.

Computer magazines such as Acorn User at Addison-Wesley start to use email systems and online bulletin boards. Meanwhile, Your Computer editor Toby Wolpe invents the cover disc – a 33.3 rpm vinyl single holding Sinclair ZX81 games.

Peter Mason, IPC's in-house lawyer, presents plans for a voluntary licensing structure which results in the creation of the Publishers Licensing Society (PLS) and the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA). Within 20 years, annual revenues of £60m were being returned to PPA members.

The British Business Press is formed to promote the business media sector.

Postscript-based software, such as Aldus Pagemaker and Adobe Illustrator, running on Apple Macintosh and allied to laser printers, herald the advent of desktop publishing.

Quark Xpress is introduced.

Michael Heseltine addresses the 75th anniversary dinner at Guildhall, with PPA Chairmanelect David Arculus.

Ian Locks is appointed as the association's first full-time Chief Executive.

The PPA publishes the first issue of Magazine News to coincide with the FIPP Congress taking place in London for the first time.

Elizabeth Reece-Jones of Murdoch Magazines becomes the first woman to serve on the PPA Board.

The UK government announces its plans to deregulate TV and radio listings.

The PPA establishes a section for smaller independent publishers. This evolves to become the Specialist Publishers Advisory Council and is today known as the Independent Publishers 1989 Network (IPN).

Terry Mansfield, Managing Director of the National Magazine Company, proposes that an award be presented in the name of Reverend Marcus Morris OBE to honour an individual who has made a significant and longstanding contribution to the magazine publishing business. Nick Logan is the first to receive this prestigious accolade.

PPA Chairman David Arculus declares magazines to be a "sunrise not a sunset medium", with the previous decade witnessing a rise in the number of consumer titles from 1,350 to 2,289 and an increase in business publications from 2,600 to 4,260.

PPA takes the lead in proposing the establishment of a funding body similar to ASBOF to finance the new Press Complaints Commission (PCC).

A campaign leaflet developed by the PPA for the Press Assize symposium in Brussels highlights the raft of legislation flowing from Brussels threatening advertising, working practices, zero rate VAT, and the operating costs of the press.

The first PPA Magazine Handbook goes to press.

The board meeting of March 1992 is marked by a bomb scare in a reminder of the ongoing difficulties with the IRA. When the meeting is reconvened, Neil McRae takes over as Chairman from Clifford Jakes, and Sally Cartwright of Hello! is welcomed as a new board member.

Ian Locks led a small delegation to represent magazines at a hearing of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission inquiry into national newspaper distribution.

The Association of Publishing Agencies (APA) is established as a section of the PPA.

PPA's Alternative Forms of Distribution initiative is reported to be attracting the attention of Royal Mail, which attempts to respond with reduced prices in cities where it is under threat.

Reed Elsevier plc is formed through the merger of Dutch academic publisher Elsevier and Reed International, owner of the UK's largest magazine publisher IPC.

Under the threat of the VAT zero rate on magazines being removed by the John Major government, the PPA collaborates with other media associations on the Don't Tax Reading campaign. Chairman Neil McRae, assisted by staff members in 16th century attire, burn copies of magazines in the garden at Stationers' Hall where books had been burned 400 years before.

IPC launches Loaded, starting a boom in "lads mags", which sees the sector sell millions of copies over the next few years.

The first banner advert appears on the internet for the US edition of WIRED magazine.

After a hard-fought campaign, the PPA claims victory as the VAT zero rate is maintained in the 1994 budget.

The PPA website launches.

Backed by publishers, the PPA employs private detectives to track down illegal routes to market, with a farm in Essex subsequently closed down as a result.

The PPA moves from Imperial House, its home since 1941, to its present location in Queens House, Kingsway.

Ray Barker takes on the chair of the New Media Committee to track issues related to "electronic publishing".

PPA Chairman Bob Findlay proposes a project for magazines in schools which is eventually developed in Scotland and taken up years later by the Stationers Company supported by the PPA and The Newspaper Society.

The PPA Board agrees that there should be complete resistance to retailer attempts to introduce a charge for display of magazines on shelves.

A Private Members Bill from Peter Luff MP leads to the creation of the Teenage Magazine Arbitration Panel (TMAP) to establish a code, adjudicate on complaints, and hold editors of teenage magazines to account.

Filipacchi Medias and Hachette Magazines merge to form Hachette Filipacchi Medias, the world's largest magazine publisher.

Julian Treasure relaunches the New Media Committee as PPA Interactive.

Venture capital firm Cinven funds a management buyout of IPC from Reed Elsevier plc for £860m. US media giant Time Inc then acquires IPC from Cinven three years later for £1.15bn.

A proposal to create a PPA Scottish Council is approved, leading eventually to the formation of PPA Scotland, led by Business Manager Kathy Crawford. PPA Ireland is also set up in the wake of the peace plan initiated by John Major and concluded by Tony Blair.

In his AGM report, Bob Findlay says he had a "sneaking pride" in helping the PPA appoint its first female Chair in Sally Cartwright.

Lawrence Reed, a PPA director since 1986, stands down to be replaced by his son Charles.

The first issue of heat magazine is launched by emap. Within three years, the title is selling more than 500,000 copies per week.

Prime Minister Tony Blair is welcomed by Chairman Sally Cartwright and Chief Executive Ian Locks outside Grosvenor House for the PPA's Magazines and B2B conference of 2000.

The PPA is asked by the DTI to set up and manage a Digital Content Forum for publishing associations. It also forms part of UK Publishing Media – a £16bn alliance of newspapers, books, and magazines.

Prince Charles joins PPA members for a lunch hosted by Sly Bailey and PPA Chairman Kevin Hand at IPC.p>

Condé Nast launches Glamour, the first "handbagsized" title, which is a huge and immediate success.

"This is the PPA at its best, and I pay tribute to all those involved", says PPA Chairman Derek Carter on the association's successful efforts to persuade WHSmith and Tesco to abandon their national distribution plans.

Representatives of The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph approach the PPA with a view to forming a UK equivalent of the Online Publishers Association. The PPA Board gives its blessing and the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) is set up under the PPA umbrella.

Lord Heseltine leads an initiative to bring publishers and wholesalers together with the NFRN to maintain absolute territorial protection (ATP), and thus safeguard the retail supply chain.

A crusade by Shaun Woodward MP leads to the PPA brokering a code of undertakings about "lads mags" signed by the relevant publishers.

ShortList magazine is launched by ex-FHM Editor Mike Soutar, heralding the beginning of the "freemium" market.

The "Vote Dalek!" issue of Radio Times wins The Great Cover Debate in a PPA Magazine Week poll.

PPA hosts the FIPP Congress in London, an international showcase for the UK's hugely successful magazine industry, including a starring turn from Felix Dennis.

In an interview with MediaWeek, new PPA CEO Barry McIlheney outlines his plans to re-energise the association and put magazines back at the top of the agenda.

Charles Reed, great-grandson of founding PPA Board member Leicester Morgan Reed, succeeds Peter Phippen as PPA Chairman.

BBC Magazines agrees to sell or license its magazines to Exponent, a private equity firm, and Immediate Media Co. is born.

Against a backdrop of digitally-driven change, the association rebrands as the Professional Publishers Association but is still referred to as the PPA.

An attempt to challenge the OFT’s decision not to investigate the magazine supply chain is dismissed following efforts from the PPA, newspaper publishers, and wholesalers, marking a successful end to many years of lobbying on this critical issue.

The PPA launches an anti-piracy portal to defend magazine publishers against the growing threat of digital copyright infringement.

The PPA's Business Media Group relaunches as PPA Business under new chairman Michael Dell with a set of ten commitments to underpin the group's work to support all B2B members.

Lord Justice Leveson publishes his report into "the culture, practices and ethics of the press".

Charles Reed (centre) is thanked for his service to the PPA by Chairman Kevin Hand (right) and incoming Deputy Chairman Kevin Costello of Haymarket Media Group.

The PPA celebrates its 100th birthday with a glittering party at London's Millbank Tower. Please raise a glass to the next 100 years!