This is part of a Special Report on Swiss commodities trader Glencore.
1974 - Founded as Marc Rich + Co.
1987 - Buys first stake in an industrial asset: 27 percent of U.S. Mount Holly aluminium smelter
1988 - Takes first controlling position in an industrial asset with two-thirds stake in Peruvian mine
1994 - Marc Rich sells his stake; company renamed Glencore
1996 - Company sells first bonds to investors
2001 - In final days of his presidency, U.S. President Bill Clinton pardons Rich
2002 - Swiss peer Xstrata buys $2.5 billion of Glencore coal assets and lists in London. Ivan Glasenberg succeeds Willy Strothotte, also Xstrata chairman, as chief executive
2008-9 - Company begins to lift veil of secrecy as credit crisis sends the cost of insuring its debt to severely distressed levels
2009 - Issues $2 billion of convertible bonds in move "towards the public equity markets" (Reporting by Quentin Webb)