Milestones in the History of Legal Research

c. 1772 BC - Code of Hammurabi
c. 529 AD - Corpus Juris Civilis
1180 - Rambam completes the Mishneh Torah
1769 - Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England
1873 - Shepard's Legal Citation System begins
1906 - American Association of Law Libraries founded
1913 - CCH creates the first looseleaf service
1916 - West introduces the pocket part
1933 - Practising Law Institute founded
1968 - Rombauer method established
1973 - Mead Data introduces LEXIS, the first electronic legal research service
1989 - Commando Legal Research videotapes by Robert Berring
2000 - W.S. Hein goes online
2011 - Bloomberg acquires BNA
2012 - LawFirmSearchEngine.com arrives!

We include our own site in this list with a wink! ;) This timeline is not comprehensive. For more information about the history of legal research, please see Kendall Svengalis's excellent publication, the Legal Information Buyer's Guide & Reference Manual.