It was 1908 when the Chicago Cubs last won a World Series. We'veseen a lot of change in the insurance industry since then.

Related: What makes life insurance sovaluable?

The Cubs beat the Detroit Tigers on Oct. 14 that year, winningthe World Series for the second consecutive year. While the Cubswould make it back to the series seven more times (the team's lastWorld Series appearance was in 1945), they would not win again,earning the nickname the Lovable Losers.

The Cubs are back in the World Series this year, and Chicagobaseball fans are hoping their team will break its fabled 108-yearchampionship drought. In those 108 years, the world has seen twoworld wars, a human being walking on the surface of the moon, andtechnology advances that have dramatically changed almost everyaspect of life.

The insurance industry has experienced dramaticchange during the more than a century since the Cubs last tastedWorld Series victory, including evolution in products andregulatory influences.

Related: Surprise, surprise: Voluntarysales keep soaring

Continue reading to see a decade-by-decade breakdown of how theinsurance industry has changed in the 108 years since the Cubs lastwon a World Series.

Northwestern Mutual paid out $500,000 in deathbenefits for 13 policy owners who perished when the Titanic sunk onApril 15, 1912. The Titanic is shown here departing Southampton onApril 12, 1912. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

1910s

1911: Group life insurance is born when EquitableLife Assurance Society wrote a policy covering all 125employees of the Pantasote Leather Co. without requiring individualapplications or medical exams. In 1912, Equitable organizes adepartment to promote group coverage and soon begins insuringemployees of Montgomery Ward.

The U.S. Supreme Court rules that life insurance policies are anasset (Grigsby v. Russell). Like all assets, policies arefreely assignable for value. This principle, upon which the viaticalsettlement and later the life settlement industry are based,remains little-used for almost eight decades until the onset of theAIDS crisis.

1912: When 13 policyowners perished in thesinking of the R.M.S. Titanic, Northwestern Mutual paidout more in death benefits ($500,000) as a result of the tragedythan any other life insurance company.

The Pennsylvania Company for Insurance on Lives and GrantingAnnuities becomes the very first American company to offer annuities to the public (outside a group).

1914: Eleven years after OrvilleWright made the first powered airplaneflight, Northwestern Mutual pays benefits for its firstdeath claim caused by an airplane accident when policyowner Frank M. Bell fell from his aircraft. The policy,amounting to $15,000, was purchased in 1907.

1916: LIMRA is founded to perform research andother activities to help member companies — businesses that marketlife, health, disability and long-term care insurance, annuities,mutual funds and retirement savings products — improve theirmarketing and distribution effectiveness.

1917: Harold Pierce, a Philadelphia-basedgeneral agent of New York Life, wrote a $2.5 million policyon J.P. Morgan. At the time, it's the largest life insurancepolicy ever issued to an individual. The sale earned Pierce, knownas the Million Dollar Policy Writer, $61,600 in first-yearcommission.

MassMutual's assets under management exceed $100 million. Thecompany begins offering annuity products.

1918: The Carnegie Foundation establishedthe Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association(TIAA), a fully funded system of pensions for college anduniversity professors. Incorporated as a life insurance company inthe state of New York, 30 public and private institutions signed onby the end of its first year.

North American became the first company to offer a disabilityinsurance policy for women.

1920s

(A solemn crowd gathers outside the Stock Exchange after thecrash in 1929. James Cash Penney lost substantially all of hispersonal wealth in the crash and eventually borrowed against his life insurance policy tofinancially recover. Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

1927: The MillionDollar Round Table was created by 32 life insuranceproducers, each of whom had sold at least $1 million of lifeinsurance. The goal is to produce an international idea exchangeforum dedicated to fostering a high-standard, professional approachto life insurance sales and service. Paul F. Clark, CLU, ofJohn Hancock, is the first president of the organization, which metat the Peabody in Memphis, Tennessee.

The American College of Life Underwriters was foundedby Solomon Huebner of the Wharton School at theUniversity of Pennsylvania, offering the Chartered Life Underwriter(CLU) designation. Now known as the American College andlocated in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, the institution has accreditedmore than 94,000 CLU recipients, and since 1982, more than 41,000Chartered Financial Consultants (ChFC).

1928: MassMutual began offering accidental deathinsurance.

1929: James Cash Penney, founder of J.C.Penney Co. stores, loses virtually all of his personal wealth as aresult of the 1929 stock crash. He borrowed against his lifeinsurance policies to help the company meet its payroll andeventually recovered financially.

State Farm Life Insurance Co. was founded in Bloomington,Illinois, by G.J. Mecherle, who buys the first policy of $2,000 ofordinary life.

Unemployed men queued outside a depression soup kitchenopened in Chicago by Al Capone. By the eve of the Great Depression,there were more than 120 million life insurance policies in placein the United States. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

1930s

1930: After coming through the crash of1929 relatively unscathed, MetLife insured every fifth man, woman and childin the United States and Canada. The company's financial stabilityenables it to aid in the financing of the Empire State Building andRockefeller Center.

Life insurance sales rose dramatically after World War I,peaking at $117 billion of insurance in force in 1930. By the eveof the Great Depression there were more than 120 million lifeinsurance policies — equivalent to one policy for every man, womanand child living in the United States at that time.

1939: Following the 1935 passage of theSocial Security Act, amendments were passedthat add two new categories of benefits: Payments to the spouse andminor children of a retired worker (so-called dependents benefits)and survivors benefits, which are paid to the family in the eventof the premature death of a covered worker. This change transformsSocial Security from a retirement program forworkers into a family-based economic security program.

Guardian Life board member Branch Rickey, general manager ofthe Brooklyn Dodgers, expected backlash resulting from his hiringof Jackie Robinson (pictured), the first African American to playin the major leagues. (Photo: Bob Sandberg/WikimediaCommons)

1940s

1942: American National became the first Texasinsurance company to claim $100 million in assets. Two years later,the company's insurance in force passed the billion-dollar mark.During World War II, American National was a significant financialcontributor to the military efforts of the United States,purchasing about $33 million worth of government war bonds.

1945: The McCarran-Ferguson Act was passedby Congress, partially exempting insurance companies from thefederal antitrust legislation that applies to most businesses. Italso allowed for the state regulation of insurance.

Guardian Life board member Branch Rickey, generalmanager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, tendered his resignation inanticipation of adverse publicity resulting from his hiringof Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play in themajor leagues. The board rejected Rickey's resignation.

Northwestern Mutual deployed a large-scale IBM computer,similar to this one deployed at the National Advisory Committee forAeronautics, in 1957. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

1950s

1951: Metropolitan Life authorizedits agents to solicit African-American business in New York,subject to the same rules on commissions that apply to whitelives.

1952: As increasing life expectancies andhigh inflation rates changed the playing field for pensionproviders, TIAA created the world's first variable annuity, the College RetirementEquities Fund. An editor at Fortune magazine wrote to acolleague: "I think this is the biggest development in theinsurance-investment business since the passage of the SocialSecurity Act."

1956: Minnesota Mutual bought its firstcomputer — a Burroughs Datatron 205 — which was expected to savethe company an estimated $100,000 a year. Installed in July 1957,the bulky $355,000 13-unit computer occupied 1,000 square feet. Thecompany housed the machine in a custom-built fourth-floor room withone glass wall, so visitors could see the futuristic machine inaction.

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1957: In an effort to improve service aswell as reduce costs, Northwestern Mutual became thefirst business in the country to own a large-scale IBM. Its new"electronic brain" arrived in a semi-trailer, and it takes severalmonths to prepare the IBM 705's climate-controlled home. By thetime installation is complete, the total cost of the computeramounted to $1.6 million.

The AmericanAssociation of Life Underwriters was founded by a group ofleading producers with the sole purpose of influencing legislationon a single key issue — minimum deposit life insurance.

1958: Aflac introduced one of theworld's first cancer-expense insurance policies.

Virtually uninsurable, Apollo astronauts signed postcardsprior to missions that were expected to increase exponentially invalue in the event they died. The makeshift insurance policy wasnever needed. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

1960s

1962: Bankers Life Co. ended its practiceof terminating female employees when they marry and implemented the"9 to 3 Plan," allowing women to work during the hours theirchildren are in school from September through June.

1964: Aflac pioneered the"cluster-selling" technique of making presentations to groups of employees. Today, more than 96percent of the company's policies are purchased at work, most on apayroll-deduction basis.

1965: Serviceman's Group Life Insurancewas enacted into law to provide life insurance to members of the armed forces on active duty. Theinsurance is underwritten by a pool of commercial insurers, and thefederal government pays administrative expenses and the extra costresulting from the increased risk of military duty.

1969: As early Apollo program astronautswere virtually uninsurable, NASA devised a makeshift insurance inthe form of "insurance covers" — essentially postcards signed byeach astronaut and postmarked as close to launch date as possible(from Apollo 11 to 16). Each crew member received a number ofthese, and while the collector value was instantly high, it wouldrise dramatically should the astronauts never return. Survivingfamily members could cash in these makeshift insurance policies ifnecessary. (It never was.)

A scathing Federal Trade Commission (headquarters pictured)report led to a downswing in permanent life insurance purchases. (Photo:Wikimedia Commons)

1970s

1971: Minnesota Mutual unveiled theindustry's first flexible life insurance policy — Adjustable Life. Designed to change with theneeds of a policyholder, it allowed owners to set their own premiumpayment levels, which determined the cash surrender value of thepolicy.

1976: Variable life insurance was introduced in theUnited States.

Seventy-two percent of the adult population in the United Statesand more than 90 percent of all husband-and-wife families ownedsome form of life insurance.

Related: 15 trends in voluntaryinsurance

1979: The scathing Task Force InsuranceReport was published by the Federal Trade Commission, causing adownswing in the purchase of permanent life insurance. The studystated, "In far too many instances, consumers who use cash valueinsurance as a way to save receive a rate of return which issubstantially below what is readily available in the marketplace."The report also said effective price competition did not exist inthe life insurance business and that most consumers bought lifeinsurance without being given adequate information to allow them tounderstand the costs of the policy.

1980s

(MassMutual purchased one of the first Apple Macintoshcomputers, similar to this one launched in 1984. Photo: WikimediaCommons)

1981: Hartford Financial Services Groupbecame the first major insurer to introduce universal life insurance coverage, four yearsafter the first universal life policy was issued.

The National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies,or NAILBA, was formed to represent and serve as a resource forindependent wholesale life brokerage agencies.

1982: Amid high inflation and competitionfrom investments offering short-term returns, GuardianLife developed Direct Recognition, which gives whole life policyholders higher dividends inexchange for not borrowing against the cash values of theirpolicies.

1984: Apple introduced the Macintoshcomputer. MassMutual purchased Unit #1.

1988: According to the American Council ofLife Insurers, the number of U.S. life insurance companies peakedat 2,343. It has since fallen steadily because of mergers and consolidations.

Sen. Phil Gramm and Reps. JimLeach and Thomas J. Bliley, Jr. co-sponsored theGramm–Leach–Bliley Act that allowed financial institutions to jointogether to offer more comprehensive services. (Photo: WikimediaCommons)

1990s

1990: After pioneering the Living NeedsBenefit in Canada, Prudential introduced it in the UnitedStates.

1991: Executive Life Insurance Co., oncethe largest life insurance company in California, failed, shockingits policyholders and the financial world. The failure resultedprimarily from money-losing investments in junk bonds.

1997: Securian became one of thefirst insurance companies in the 401(k) market to offer an interactive onlineservice. AccuServeOnline gave 401(k) plan participants secureaccess to check their retirement accounts and conduct transactionsanytime via the Internet.

Related: 401(k) plans: The haves andhave-nots

1999 The Gramm-Leach-BlileyAct of 1999 legislated that banks, brokerages, insurance firmsand other types of financial institutions can join together tooffer their customers a more complete range of services. The mainfunction of the act was to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act from the1930s that prohibited banks and other financial institutions fromoffering financial services, such as investments andinsurance-related services, as part of normal operations. In theinsurance business, this leads to a flurry of merger and acquisition activity.

More than $1.2 billion in life insurance claims were paid asa result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York,Northern Virginia and Pennsylvania. (Photo: WikimediaCommons)

2000s

2000: The Aflac duck wasintroduced to America in TV ads. The award-winning campaign,sometimes featuring celebrities in addition to the duck, was a hugesuccess. In 2004, the duck was inducted into Madison Avenue'sAdvertising Walk of Fame as one of America's favorite brandicons.

The Women Life Underwriters Conference, formed in 1979, changedits name to Women in Insurance & FinancialServices and moved forward with a renewed emphasis on themembership, education and corporate and public initiatives. Theorganization has more than 1,200 members and is headquartered inAlbany, New York.

Related: 15 women in insurance who are making adifference

2001: A total of 2,996 people perished inthe Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York,Northern Virginia and Pennsylvania. The Insurance Information Institute estimates$1.2 billion was paid out in life insurance claims. For example,Northwestern Mutual paid death benefits (most within five days ofthe claim) of about $125 million to the beneficiaries of 157policyowners who lost their lives.

The purchase of life insurance policies from senior citizensbecame known as life settlements, and grew from a $2 billionindustry to a $10 billion industry by 2005.

2004: Life Insurance Awareness Monthdebuted in September. Created by the LIFE Foundation inresponse to growing concern about the large number of Americans wholack adequate life insurance protection, LIAM is an annualindustrywide effort that is coordinated by the LIFE Foundation.

Related: The game of life(insurance)

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer led an attackon the contingent commission practices in the U.S. insuranceindustry, and the fallout from his investigations led to worldwidechanges. The attack centered on allegations that insurancecompanies have an oligopoly agreement between each other (not atwill, but caused by the immense influence of the largest brokers)to submit false prices to stifle real competition. The ensuingnegative publicity damaged the credibility of the industry.

2006: By the end of 2006 there are fewerthan 80 mutual life insurers in the United States. More than 200U.S. mutual life insurance companies have demutualized since 1930,converting from customer-owned organizations to form publiclytraded stock companies.

2007: Northwestern Mutual, celebrating its150th anniversary, became the first direct provider of lifeinsurance to reach $1 trillion of individual life insurance inforce.

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2008: On September 16, the Federal ReserveBank of New York extended American International Group a two-yearemergency secured loan of up to $85 billion. Because of its sizeand substantial interconnection with financial markets andinstitutions around the world, the government recognized that afailure of AIG would have severe ramifications. It is the largestgovernment bailout of a private company in U.S. history, thoughsmaller than the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a weekearlier. AIG subsequently sold a number of its subsidiaries andother assets to pay down loans received and continues to seekbuyers of its assets.

Independent agents held 56 percent of the new individual lifeinsurance sales market, followed by captive agents (36 percent),direct marketers (3 percent) and others, including stockbrokers,according to LIMRA.

The final U.S. Department of Labor fiduciary rule, releasedin April 2016 under the watch of Labor Secretary Thomas Perez,ended a process that began in 2010. (Photo: Nick Ut/APPhoto)

2010s

2010: The Federal Insurance Office was createdunder the Dodd-Frank Act. The FIO advises the Secretaryof the Treasury on major policy issues, consults with stateinsurance regulators, monitors all aspects of the insuranceindustry and identifies gaps in regulation that could contribute toa systematic crisis.

LIMRA’s “2010 Life Insurance Ownership Study” found that 30percent of U.S. households (35 million) have no life insuranceprotection at all, and only 44 percent of U.S. households haveindividual life insurance. This is a 50-year low.

Nearly 5 million people had long-term care insurance, accordingto a study by LIMRA International. The average first-yearpremium for individual long-term care coverage purchased in 2010 is$2,235.

2016: The U.S. Department of Labor'sfiduciary rule was released.

Related: Check out our DOL Fiduciary Rule page foranalysis and news