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.