Western Union has taken of 451st position in the rating Fortune 500 in 2009, having moved from 473rd line in 2008. July 3, 1884 the company's shares were included in the calculation base for the newly created stock index Dow Jones Transportation Average. In October 2006 the company made an initial public offering of shares on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming independent from First Data company. In 1933, by the Western Union Company were invented "singing telegrams". In October 1871 the company Western Union began to provide money transfer services, drawing on its own extensive telegraph network.