In 2002, the world celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Teddy bear. Some of the milestones of that 100-plus-year journey are....
| 1834 | Robert Southey wrote "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." |
| Around 1850 | The Knickerbocker Toy Company was founded in Albany, New York, and initially manufactured educational toys. The first Teddy bears attributed to Knickerbocker are from around 1925, when the company started to use permanent labels. |
| 1880 | Margarete Steiff founded the Steiff Company. |
| 1894 | German toy company Gebrüder Sussenguth featured a stuffed bear toy in its catalog. |
| 1897 | Bear skittles and "roly-poly" toy bears were featured in the Steiff catalogue, and the Steiff company had its own stand at the Leipzig toy fair. |
| 1898 | German immigrant Adolph Gund founded Gund, which is now the oldest plush toy company in the United States. |
| 1899 | Margarete Steiff registered patents for 23 of her soft toy designs, including a dancing bear and a bear handler with a brown bear |
| November 1902 | US President Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot a tethered bear, thinking it unsportsmanlike and ordering the bear's release. |
| November 16, 1902 | Clifford Berryman's cartoon "Drawing the Line in Mississippi" was first published in The Washington Post. |
| November 1902 | Morris Michtom sold the first "Teddy's Bear" in his Brooklyn shop. |
| March 1903 | Steiff Company sold 3000 of its Baer 55PB or "Friend Petz" to American toy buyer Herman Berg. (By the end of the year, the order had been increased to 12,000.) |
| 1903 | The Michtoms formed the Ideal Novelty and Toy Co. with Butler Brothers, a wholesaling company. |
| March 1904 | Steiff introduced the button in the ear characteristic. |
| 1905 | Steiff patented the words "Knopf im Ohr" (Button in Ear). The slogan remains the Steiff trademark to this day. |
| 1905 | President Theodore Roosevelt adopted the Teddy Bear as his political mascot during his successful 1905 Presidential election campaign. Clifford Berryman continued to use the bear in most of his political cartoons. |
| May 1906 | The first advertisement for plush bear toys, still called Bruins, appeared in the American toy trade magazine Playthings. |
| 1906 | The Gund Manufacturing Corporation was founded. |
| October/November 1906 | American manufacturer E.J. Horsman placed the first advertisement to use the words "Teddy Bear" in the American toy trade magazine Playthings. |
| 1907 | Dean's Rag Book Company published "Teddy Bear," written by Alice Scott and illustrated by Sybil Scott Paley. |
| 1907 | Seymour Eaton published "The Roosevelt Bears" newspaper strip in book form. |
| 1907 | American composer J.K. Bratton wrote the music for "The Teddy Bear's Picnic," which was originally called "The Teddy Bear Two-Step." |
| 1908 | Dean's Rag Book Company advertised cut-out-and-sew Teddy bears in Home Chat magazine. |
| 1908 | J.K. Farnell company made the first British Teddy bears. |
| 1909 | "Little Johnny and the Teddy Bears," the first animated Teddy bear cartoon, was made in the USA. |
| 1910 | Bernard Fleischaker and Hugo Baum founded the Effanbee (pronounded "F and B") Company in New Jersey. |
| 1911 | The Bruin Boys first appearance in Arthur Mee's "Children's Encyclopedia." |
| 1912 | Gaspare Gatti's Teddy bear survived the 1912 Titanic disaster (Gatti unfortunately did not). |
| 1912 | Steiff created black Teddy bears to give as mourning gifts after the sinking of the Titanic. |
| 1915 | Dean's advertised plush Teddy bears, made in their new workshop, in its Kuddlemee toys catalog. |
| 1915 | Large-scale toy bear manufacturing began. |
| 1919 | The first non-stop Atlantic flight by Teddy bears occurred when aviation pioneers Alcock and Brown took Teddy bear mascots with them on their record-breaking flight. |
| 1919 | The first British comic-strip Teddy bear character, Bobby Bear, was published in the Daily Herald. |
| 1920 | The Knickerbocker Toy Company began operation. |
| 1920 | Little Lost Bear, the first Rupert Bear picture story written and illustrated by Mary Tourtel, appeared in the UK newspaper The Daily Express. |
| 1920s and 1930s | Musical bears and mechanical bears were very popular. |
| 1921 | German company Schuco patented the Yes/No bear, which shook its head "no" or nodded "yes" depending on how its tail was moved. |
| 1921 | J.K. Farnell set up the Alpha works and made bears designed by Cybil Kent. |
| August 21, 1921 | A. A. Milne and his wife gave an 18-inch-high teddy bear from Harrod's in London to their son, Christopher Robin Milne, on his first birthday. (The bear was later named Winnie-the-Pooh.) |
| 1924 | Walt Disney produced "Alice and the Three Bears," the first color animation film with a Teddy bear theme. |
| 1926 | The first Edition of Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne was published. |
| 1930 | UK firm Merrythought made its first Teddy bears with designs by Florence Atwood. |
| 1930 | Jimmy Kennedy wrote the lyrics of "The Teddy Bear's Picnic," which were set to the original music written in 1907. |
| 1938 | H.M. Queen Elizabeth (now The Queen Mother) granted a Royal Warrant to British Teddy bear makers Chad Valley. |
| 1944 | Smokey Bear was adopted as the mascot of the United States Forest Fire Prevention Campaign. |
| 1948 | "Biffo The Bear" appeared for the first time in The Beano publication. |
| 1952 | Sooty, the Teddy bear glove puppet and magician, made his first appearance on British television. |
| 1953 | Steiff celebrated the Golden Jubilee of Steiff bears with a new style bear, "a comical young bear cub," called Jackie Baby. |
| 1954 | Wendy Boston, a Welsh toy maker, produced the first truly washable Teddy bear. |
| 1956 | The real Pooh and friends were put on display at E.P. Dutton & Co. Publishers in New York City. |
| 1957 | Elvis Presley first sang "Teddy Bear." |
| 1958 | The first Paddington story, "A Bear Called Paddington" by Michael Bond, was published. |
| 1958 | Yogi Bear first appeared on "Huckleberry Hound." Yogi had his own show three years later. |
| 1959 | Walt Disney acquired the rights to Winnie-the-Pooh. |
| 1962 | Colonel Bob Henderson launched The Teddy Bear Club. |
| 1962 | Margaret Baker published "The Shoe Shop Bears." |
| 1963 | Russ Berrie and Company was founded in New Jersey by – who else? – Russ Berrie. Mr. Berrie passed away in 2002. |
| 1964 | Ideal founders' son Benjamin Michtom gave a 1903 teddy bear to Theodore Roosevelt's grandson Kermit, who then donated it to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. |
| 1969 | Peter Bull published "Bear With Me" (published as "The Teddy Bear Book" in the United States) |
| 1969 | Jim Ownby launched the Good Bears of the World charity. |
| 1969 | The real Pooh and friends visited England for an exhibition of the Ernest H. Shepard's drawings, on the occasion of the illustrator's 90th birthday. |
| 1974 | American doll maker Beverly Port presented Theodore B. Bear, a bear she had made, with one of her dolls. |
| 1975 | Beverly Port presented a slide show she had created about Teddy bears for the United Federation of Doll Clubs. Port also coined the phrase "Teddy Bear Artist" and is credited by many as beginning the industry. |
| 1975 | Walt Disney's first animated film of Winnie-the-Pooh appeared. |
| 1976 | The real Pooh and friends make their last trip to England to participate in the 50th birthday of Winnie-the-Pooh arranged by Methuen & Company Publishers. |
| 1979 | Peter Bull designed his traditionally styled Bully Bears for House of Nisbet. |
| 1979 | Marquis of Bath organized the Great Teddy Bear Rally at Longleat. |
| 1980 | The Steiff Co. introduced a special edition bear to commemorate their 100th anniversary, the success of which enabled them to begin reproducing some of their originals and to open the Steiff Museum in Geingen, Germany. |
| 1981 | Peter Bull's 1907 American bear, Delicatessen, starred in the television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel "Brideshead Revisited." |
| 1981 | Doll Reader magazine first used the term "Teddy bear artist." |
| 1983 | Teddy Bear and Friends magazine was established. |
| 1984 | Gary Lowenthal designed a 12-inch, fully jointed wool bear named "Matthew," and began the Boyds Collection as it is today. |
| 1985 | Christie's of London held the first-ever Teddy bear-specific auction. |
| 1986 | The first Teddy bear museum opened in Berlin, Germany. |
| 1986 | Teddy Bear Review magazine was established. |
| 1987 | Teddy Bear Review magazine began presenting its annual Golden Teddy Awards to artists and manufacturers for outstanding bear design. |
| 1988 | Gyles and Michele Brandreth founded The Teddy Bear Museum in William Shakespeare's home town of Stratford upon Avon. |
| 1989 | The first British Teddy Bear Festival was held in London. |
| 1989 | "Happy Anniversary," a 1926 tipped mohair Steiff bear, was sold at auction in London for £55,000 (approximately $88,000 US) to American Paul Volpp as a 42nd wedding anniversary gift for his wife, Rosemary. |
| 1989 | The National Association of Limited Edition Dealers (NALED) began presenting its annual Plush Collectible of the Year achievement award. |
| 1990 | The first Steiff UK Limited Edition was presented. |
| 1990 | Teddy Bear and Friends magazine began presenting its annual Teddy Bear of the Year (TOBY) Awards. TOBYs are presented for both Industry's Choice and Public's Choice categories. |
| 1992 | Annette Funicello (of Mickey Mouse Club and teen beach movie fame) founded the Annette Funicello Collectible Bear Company to fund research of neurological disorders such as Multiple Sclerosis. |
| 1994 | "Teddy Girl," a 1904 cinnamon Steiff bear formerly owned by Colonel Bob Henderson, was sold at auction in London for £110,000 (approximately $176,000 US) to Yoshihiro Sekiguchi, founder of the Teddy Bear Museum in Izu, Japan. |
| 1996 | Yoshihiro Sekiguchi bought "Teddy Edward," billed as the world's most traveled bear, at auction for £34,500 (approximately $55,200 US). |
| 1996 | The Bearington Collection, Inc., was founded in Marietta, Georgia. The business began as – and remains – family-owned and -operated. |
| 1998 | "Guinness" made by Lynn Lumb of Halifax, England, entered "The Guinness Book of Records" as the world's smallest Teddy bear. (He stands just 8.5 millimeters tall.) |
| 1999 | Dan Rothmel and Toni Samanie launched Jaymar Creations in Los Angeles, California (The name "Jaymar" is a combination of their middle names, Jay and Marie) |
| 1999 | Tanya and Roger Hall began creating Avalon Bears in Northumberland in the United Kingdom. |
| 1999 | Second Nature Designs introduced its Quarry Critter figurines. |
| 2000 | Steiff's Louis Vuitton bear sold in Monaco for approximately $210,000 US. |
| 2002 | The world celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Teddy Bear. |
| 2002 | Authentic Teddy bears was launched to coincide with the 2002 Teddy Bear Centennial. The company partnered with international Teddy bear designer Linda Mullins to develop faithful reproductions of the earliest American Teddy bears. |
