Milestones

1724
Longman was founded in London by Thomas Longman.

1755
Longman published the first English dictionary in the world, A Dictionary of the English Language, by Dr Samuel Johnson.

1958
Longman opened its office in Hong Kong.

1968
Longman was acquired by Pearson plc, a world renowned media company.

1982
Longman's first secondary English textbook series for Hong Kong, Integrated English, was published and took a significant market share.

1988
Welcome to English, a textbook series for primary students, was launched with huge success. It became market leader and has been adapted for 5 countries.
Longman's first bilingual dictionary, Longman English-Chinese Dictionary of Contemporary English, was published.

1996
Addison Wesley Longman was formed by the merger of Addison-Wesley and Longman to create the world's largest ELT publisher.

1997
We were the first educational publisher in Hong Kong to establish a company website, which served teachers, students and the public with the latest information about local education, our products as well as teaching support materials.

1998
Pearson Education, the world largest educational publisher, was formed from the merger of Addison Wesley Longman and Simon & Schuster education, business, reference and professional businesses. Pearson Education employed over 10,000 people and published over 40,000 educational texts and programmes in 18 languages in 40 countries.

Longman pioneered in IT education with the formation of Electronic Publishing Department. It publishes multimedia course components to cater for the rising demand in IT education in Hong Kong.

Longman's first pre-school English coursebook series, Welcome to English (pre-school), gained popularity among nurseries and kindergartens.

1999
Pearson Education North Asia established its regional headquarters in Hong Kong.

2000
The first publisher in Hong Kong that launched companion websites, providing online support materials that accompany our coursebook series to teachers and students.

The two secondary English coursebook series, Longman Target English and Longman Express, won landsliding victory in the market with their outstanding quality.

2001
Longman Teachers' Resource Centre was established in Macau.

2003
Pearson Education Asia, headquartered in Hong Kong, was formed with the offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines joining Pearson Education North Asia.