1943 - When he was 17 years old his father gave him a gift for succeeding in his studies. The gift was used to establish his own business.
1945 - The first IKEA advertisements appeared when Ingvar Kamprad outgrew his ability to make individual sales cells. So he began advertising in local newspapers and began operating a makeshift mall order catalog
1955 - Pressure from its competitors caused suppliers to boycott IKEA. IKEA begins designing its own furniture.
1956 - IKEA pioneered flat pack furniture. They began thinking about designing flat pack furniture when an employee had to remove the legs off a Lovet table to fit it in a car. This simple but ingenious idea took off, and flatpack become part of the "IKEA" concept., and was exported from Sweden around the world.
1973 - The first store outside Scandinavia was opened just Zurich, Switzerland, followedby rapid expansinon in Germany starting with IKEA Munich in 1974. German still remains the largest IKEA market today.
1975 - The first IKEA store are opened in Canada and the Netherlands.
1985 - The first IKEA store opens in the USA.
1993 - IKEA reaches 114 stores in 25 countries.
1994 - It was revealed that Kamprad has attended some pro-Nazi meeting during the 40s. He publicly apologized for his involvement and even wrote letters to employees acknowledging his mistakes.
1997 - IKEA introduces Children's IKEA. IKEA has always provided the furnishings for the entire family, so since kids are the most important people in the world, IKEA decide to put them in the spotlight.
1999 - IKEA has 53,000 co-workers across a global network of over 150 stores in 29 countries in over 4 continents
2000 - The first IKEA store open in Russia.
2005 - As of March, the sliding value of the U.S. dollar put Kamprad ahead as the richest person in the world in another report.
2010 - IKEA gives bikes to its 12, 400 U.S. employees.
