Western Union has taken of 451st position in the rating Fortune 500 in 2009, having moved from 473rd line in 2008. America was on the verge of civil war and needed a reliable connection between the North and South. On the telegraph market of the USA at this time were operated with six large companies: American Telegraph Company, New York Albany and Buffalo Electro-Magnetic Telegraph Company, Atlantic and Ohio Telegraph, Illinois & Mississippi Telegraph Company, New Orleans & Ohio Telegraph Company, and the brainchild of Sibley & Co. - The Western Union Telegraph. In 1860 the U.S. Congress arranged among the telegraph companies a competition to create a national line. The winner was Western Union. Most service points of Western Union work in the time convenient for customers throughout the week and throughout the year. In 1877, starting from September, New York City residents began to have the opportunity to check the time on clock with the "time ball", located on the roof of constructed in the same year a new corporate headquarters - Western Union Building. The Western Union Company is a leader in global payment services In 1933, by the Western Union Company were invented "singing telegrams". Western Union incomes for 2007 have made $4,9 billion US dollars, and the quantity of transactions has made 572 million. 1970 - a new service called On the market was placed about 765 million of ordinary shares of the company. On the first day trading on the exchange the company's shares rose by 3.3% and the cost was $ 19.96.