1856 A group of Kansas City merchants organize a Board of Trade for the purpose of buying and selling.

1869 The Chamber of Commerce reorganizes as the Kansas City Board of Trade. After about a year, the organization changes its name to the Commercial Exchange, representing a variety of business interests. The organization continues to be referred to as the Board of Trade by members who trade grain.

1876 "Grain Call" trading is established under rules and guidelines approved by the Board of Trade. June marks the beginning of futures trading in Kansas City.

1895 All references to previous business names are dropped as 200 members organize as an association.

1925 The KCBT moves from 8th and Wyandotte to larger offices at 10th and Wyandotte.

1966 With continued growth, the KCBT moves to 4800 Main Street. For the new location, Jac T. Bowen constructs 1/2 mile of brass tubing, creating the world's largest hand-wrought brass relief. The relief depicts eight major grains - wheat, corn, sorghum, grain sorghum, oats, rye, barley and soybeans.

1973 The KCBT incorporates as a Delaware for-profit corporation.

1976 The Kansas City Board of Trade celebrates its centennial in June.

1977 The KCBT asks the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to approve a stock index futures contract based on 30 industrial stocks.

1979 In April, the KCBT requests the CFTC's approval of an amended stock index futures contract based on the Value Line®.

January 1980 President Jimmy Carter embargoes export grain shipments to the Soviet Union. The board closes for two days and reopens in a flurry of activity.

December 1981 Class B associate memberships for trading Value Line stock index futures are established.

February 24, 1982 The KCBT becomes the first exchange in the world to trade stock index futures as Value Line is launched.

July 29, 1983 The KCBT begins trading Mini Value Line stock index futures for the smaller investor.

August 3, 1983 The KCBT votes to allow leasing of exchange memberships.

October 30, 1984 Options on Kansas City wheat futures begin trading.

May 17, 1985 "Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser," public television's leading program, is broadcast from the KCBT trading floor.

February 21, 1986 A "B" membership trades for $33,000, an all-time high.

February 17, 1987 The KCBT hosts a Value Line investment forum in conjunction with the five-year anniversary of trading. Peter Eliades, Robert Prechter and Stan Weinstein give stock market forecasts to more than 1,100 members of the investment community.

October 19, 1987 The Dow falls 508 points, now commonly referred to as The Crash of '87 or Black Monday. The Value Line contract falls 47 points.

March 8, 1988 The CFTC approves a change to base the Value Line futures contract on an arithmetic, rather than a geometric, average of the underlying Value Line Composite Index.

July 1, 1992 Mini Value Line options begin trading.

November 11, 2002 Wheat options open interest sets a new record of 88,455 contracts.

2002 The exchange trading volume exceeds 3 million contracts for the first time ever by trading 3,326,836 contracts and breaking the previous record set in 2000 by nearly 25 percent. Wheat options annual trading volume sets a new record at 570,823 contracts.

May 12, 2003 Wheat options set a new single-day trading volume record of 11,374 contracts.

July 14, 2004 KCBT announces that the KCBT Clearing Corporation (KCBTCC) will begin providing clearing processing services to WCE Clearing Corporation (WCECC) marking the first time the KCBT extends its clearing processing services to another exchange.

December 12, 2004 Electronic trading begins for the KCBT wheat futures and options contracts only after regular trading hours, while the Value Line starts trading exclusively on the electronic trading platform.

September 14, 2005 Open interest in the KCBT hard red winter wheat futures contract exceeds 100,000 contracts for the first time in exchange history with open interest at 100,969 contracts, breaking the previous record of 98,939 contracts set on August 24, 2005.

April 20, 2006 A KCBT membership sells at a groundbreaking $200,000.

April 25, 2006 The KCBT Board of Directors voted to extend the electronic trading hours of the hard red winter wheat futures contract. A second daily electronic trading session will be added to mirror the open outcry trading hours of 9:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Monday through Friday. This new daytime electronic session is in addition to the current after-hours trading session from 6:32 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Sunday through Friday. The change takes effect Aug. 1, 2006.

June 30, 2006 KCBT June trading volume in the wheat futures contract tops 500,000 for the first time ever in a single month. A total of 514,595 contracts are traded, topping the previous single-month volume record of 492,978 contracts set in February 2006.

July 12, 2006 Wheat futures open interest sets a new record of 172,936 contracts.

August 1, 2006 Side-by-side trading begins in the wheat futures contract.

August 2, 2006 KCBT wheat futures volume sets new single-day trading volume record of 39,711 contracts.

August, 2006 KCBT August trading volume for the exchange tops 600,000 contracts for the first time in history as 612,113 contracts are traded, breaking the previous monthly total exchange record of 566,272 set in June 2006 by 8.1 percent. The wheat futures contract also sets a new monthly record of 559,282 contracts, breaking the previous record of 514,595 contracts set in June 2006 by 8.7 percent.

November 1, 2006 A KCBT membership sells at a monumental $300,000.

November 10, 2006 The exchange formally celebrated its 150th anniversary with a gala at Union Station.

2006 The Kansas City Board of Trade trades 5 million contracts for the first time, setting new annual volume records for the exchange as a whole and for the wheat futures contract. Total exchange volume for 2006 amounted to 5,287,190 contracts, topping the previous record of 3,953,536 contracts set in 2005 by 33.7 percent. For the 11th time in 13 years, the KCBT set a new annual trading volume record in the hard red winter wheat futures contract. Trading volume for 2006 was 4,763,168 contracts, breaking the previous annual record of 3,682,919 contracts set the previous year by 29.3 percent.

August 14, 2007 KCBT announces CFTC approval to make amendments to the hard red winter wheat contract starting with the July 2008 wheat futures contract. Salina/Abilene and Wichita were added as delivery points. Wheat must be No. 2 or better with a maximum of 10 IDK per 100 grams. Also implemented were a load out fee of 8 cents per bushel and a storage fee of 4.5 cents per month. Railcar load out cadence was also changed. Please see the Rule Book for more information.

August, 2007 The Kansas City Board of Trade set a new all-time monthly trading volume record in the hard red winter wheat futures contract as 565,463 contracts were traded during the month of August, topping the previous monthly record of 559,282 contracts that was set in August 2006.

December 18, 2007 A KCBT membership sells for a record $725,000.

January 13, 2008 Electronically traded products now hosted on CME Globex® platform beginning business date January 14.

February 11, 2008 KCBT wheat futures volume sets new single-day trading volume record of 47,933 contracts. The previous record of 39,711 contracts was set on Aug. 2, 2006. Each wheat futures contract represents 5,000 bushels, with record trading volume amounting to 239.665 million bushels.

April 14, 2008 Side-by-side trading in the hard red winter wheat options contract begins.

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Value Line® is a registered mark of Value Line, Inc., a New York corporation that provides financial services and publications. Since 1982, the Kansas City Board of Trade has been licensed to use the Value Line® mark in connection with its efforts to establish futures markets tied to the Value Line® index. The Kansas City Board of Trade and Value Line, Inc. are not affiliated corporate entities.