TIMELINE: History of Merrill Lynch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The following is a brief history of Merrill Lynch, which agreed to be acquired by Bank of America in a $50 billion (27.7 billion pounds) transaction. This history is taken from Merrill's website, published reports, and publicly available information.

1907: Charles Merrill arrives in New York to work for a textile company. He meets Edmund Lynch, who is looking for someone to share his boarding-house room at the 23rd Street YMCA. Both men were born in 1885.

1914: Charles E Merrill & Co opens its doors in January. Lynch joins him, and in May they open an office at 7 Wall Street in downtown Manhattan.

1915: The firm changes its name to Merrill, Lynch & Co. An associate notices a difference between the partners: "Merrill could imagine the possibilities; Lynch imagined what might go wrong in a malevolent world."

1938: Edmund Lynch dies. Merrill Lynch drops the comma from its name.

1956: Merrill helps take Ford Motor public, giving the firm its first billion-dollar year in underwriting. The same year, Charles Merrill dies.

1958: Firm changes its name to Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith.

1960: Merrill opens its first London office. Four years later, it opens its first Tokyo office.

1964: Merrill buys C.J. Devine, becoming a dealer in fixed-income securities.