It took Facebook a little over eight years to go from fledgling Internet startup to a $114 billion company. Here's a timeline of the social network and how it got to where it is right now:

February 4, 2004:

Facebook is founded by Harvard classmates Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. At the time, it was known as Thefacebook.

June 2004:

Facebook gets its first big investors. Venture capitalist Peter Thiel sees promise in the new company and invests $500,000 in Facebook. Sean Parker, the founder of Napster, becomes Facebook's president.

September 2004:

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss claim Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook from them and sue the company. After years of legal wrangling and dismissals, the twins drop their lawsuits in 2011.

March 2005:

Facebook rebuffs an offer from media giant Viacom to buy the site for $75 million.

March 2006:

Yahoo! offers to buy Facebook for $1 billion. Facebook rejects the offer.

October 24, 2007:

Microsoft buys a 1.4 percent stake in the company, valuing Facebook at $15 billion.

August 26, 2008:

Facebook reaches 100 million active users

January 2009:

Facebook overtakes MySpace to become the Internet's largest social network.

May 2010:

Game company Zynga makes their social games available on Facebook. These include hits such as Farmville, Mafia Wars and Cafe World.

October 1, 2010:

The Social Network premieres. The Oscar-nominated film traces the history of Facebook and delves into the squabbles between Zuckerberg, Saverin and the Winklevoss twins.

June 2010:

Facebook roles out the popular Like button, which users utilize to denote content they appreciate.

September 2011:

Facebook introduces Timeline, a controversial feature that revamps user's profiles into a streamline of events of their documented experiences on the social network.

February 1, 2012:

Facebook files for an initial public offering.

April 24, 2012:

Facebook reaches 900 million active users.

May 18, 2012, 11:30 a.m. EST:

Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) shares go on the stock market. The Facebook IPO is priced at $42, valuing the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company at $114 billion, or roughly eight times it was worth when notable investors first jumped in on the social networking craze.

You can see a history of Facebook through it's timeline here.