Establishbed in 1941, NORC is celebrating its 65th year of social science research in the public interest. Key dates in NORC history include:
- 1941 - Harry Field establishes NORC at the University of Denver as an independent survey research organization to provide the public and government with objective measures of public opinion.
- 1942 - NORC opens an office in New York City.
- 1946 - Field killed in plane crash while traveling on NORC business in Europe.
- 1947 - NORC relocates its headquarters from the University of Denver to the University of Chicago.
- 1963 - NORC conducts a study of public reaction to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
- 1969 - Norman Nie of NORC and the University of Chicago and a team of colleagues develop the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).
- 1972 - The General Social Survey is conducted for the first time.
- 1975 - SPSS incorporated and became a separate legal entity that is still very active today.
- 1982 - NORC field staff begin using "portable" computers to interview respondents in their homes.
- 1989 - NORC conducted the first experiment using computer-assisted personal interviewing(CAPI), implementing it nationwide in 1991.
- 1991 - The Dupont Circle office opens in Washington, DC.
- 2003 - Researchers travel to the middle east to assist the government of Qatar in a nationwide education reform effort. This marks NORC's entry into international work on a large scale.
- 2004 - NORC pioneers the collection of biomarkers and biomeasures by field interviewers without previous medical training.
- 2007 - NORC implements goundbreaking use of hybrid-assisted telephone interviewing (HATI) dialing technology to dramatically increase interviewer efficiency in random-digit-dialed telephone studies.