Facebook's share sale is just the latest landmark moment in the social network's rapid rise. Over the last eight years it has grown from a college project into one of the internet's most visited sites, attracting millions of advertising dollars along the way.
September 2004
The Wall, the original space where users and their friends can post and share content, is added to users' profiles. Status updates which were of the form "user is..." are now "What's on your mind?".
September 2006
News Feed and Mini-Feed are introduced - now users can see what their friends are doing on the network.
May 2007
Facebook Platform launches, enabling third party developers to build applications and integrate with Facebook. It's the platform on which hit games like Farmville are built.
May 2008
Facebook Connect starts. Users are able to "connect" their Facebook identity to any site. It marks the beginning of the "log in with Facebook" world.
February 2009
The "Like" social plug-in is added, allowing users to give positive feedback about online content they enjoy.
August 2010
Location-based service Facebook Places begins allowing users to share information about where they are. This feature is later integrated with status updates.
January 2012
Facebook announces "Timeline" will be mandatory for all users. Timeline was launched in September 2011, allowing users the option to replace their existing profile with an audio visual timeline of their life.
February 2004
Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin launch Facebook from student accommodation at Harvard.
August 2005
The network's web address thefacebook.com becomes simply facebook.com.
September 2006
Facebook registration is opened up so anyone can join. The days of having to be a student to sign up are gone forever.
October 2007
Microsoft takes a $240m equity stake in Facebook, the deal suggests the network is worth about $15bn.
December 2007
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg apologises to users for the way it launched social advertising system Beacon. The service was eventually shut down in 2009.
March 2008
The word "Facebook" enters the Collins English Dictionary as both a noun and a verb. A year later the New Oxford American Dictionary names "unfriend" as its word of the year.
May 2010
Following widespread criticism Facebook rolls out new set of privacy settings to all its users. Mark Zuckerberg admitted the company had "missed the mark".
December 2010
Mark Zuckerberg is named as Time Magazine's person of the year.
January 2011
Goldman Sachs invests $450m in Facebook, the investment suggests investors think the social network is worth around $50bn.
January 2012
Facebook overtakes Google's Orkut as Brazil's most visited social network. Analysts say there are only six markets where Facebook is not the leading social network.
February 2012
Facebook announces plans for a stock market flotation. The initial public offering (IPO) is expected to be the biggest sale of shares by an internet company. Documents show Facebook's net income in 2011 rose 65% to $1bn.
April 2012
Facebook buys the popular photo-sharing smartphone app Instagram for $1bn (£629m) in cash and stock. Instagram was launched in October 2010 but has about 30 million users uploading more than five million new pictures every day.
May 2012
Facebook is set for a stock market flotation, and could sell its shares at a price that makes it worth more than US corporate giants Disney, Ford and Kraft Foods.
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