Short answers, pulled from the story.
Billboard Advertising was founded on the 1st of November 1894 by William Donaldson and James Hennegan. The publication began as an eight-page trade magazine dedicated to the advertising industry and bill posters in Cincinnati.
Billboard introduced a mail-forwarding system in 1904 that allowed the magazine to receive mail on behalf of traveling performers and publish notices in its Letter-Box column. This service became one of the magazine's largest sources of profit and connected thousands of entertainers to their fans.
James Albert Jackson became the first black critic at a national magazine with a predominantly white audience when he was hired to helm a weekly column devoted to black performers in 1920. Donaldson hired Jackson to write this column which identified discrimination against black performers and helped validate their careers.
Billboard published its first music hit parade on the 4th of January 1936. This event marked the beginning of the magazine's transformation from a trade journal for bill posters to the undisputed leader in music-industry news.
The Billboard Hot 100 chart of the top-selling songs was introduced in 1958. It tracks the most popular songs in the United States and has become a primary indicator of commercial success alongside the Billboard 200 album chart.
Billboard announced the launch of BillboardPH on the 15th of June 2016 as its first chart company in Southeast Asia. The publication mainly operates in the Philippines and signals a new era of international expansion for the magazine.