[4] Alcoa emerged in 1888 as the brainchild of Charles Martin Hall, with the funding of Alfred E. Hunt and Arthur Vining Davis.

[6] Alcoa has been criticized for its lax environmental record, but it no longer ranks highly as one of the worst polluters in the United States.

In 1886, Charles Martin Hall, a graduate of Oberlin College, discovered the process of smelting aluminum, almost simultaneously with Paul Héroult in France.

[citation needed] In 1887, Hall agreed to try his process at the Electric Smelting and Aluminum Company plant in Lockport, New York.

[citation needed] From 1902 until 1915, additional plants in Massena, New York (1903), Alcoa, Tennessee (1911), Edgewater, New Jersey (1915), Badin, North Carolina (1915) came online while New Kensington had 31 buildings in the complex housing six departments (tubes, sheets, rods, bar and wire, extrusion, jobbing, foil) and two subsidiaries (Aluminum Cooking Utensil Company and Aluminum Seal Company).

In Badin, Alcoa, Maryville and other locations, the company funded the construction of schools, parks, playgrounds, and medical facilities.

"[15] By the end of World War I Alcoa's New Kensington facility accounted for 3,292 workers—a fifth of the local population—and covered over 1 million square feet of manufacturing space on 75 acres.

[15] After WWI, Alcoa obtained the rights to Alfred Wilm's duralumin patent, which led to additional research into other aluminum alloys.

By 1923, Alcoa's New Kensington, Pennsylvania plant was using horizontal extrusion presses, with preheated billets, for aerospace and construction applications.

Infrastructure was necessary to support the workforce required by the aluminum plant, so the company funded the construction of schools, parks, playgrounds, and medical facilities.

[26][27] In 2004, Alcoa's specialty chemicals business was sold to two private equity firms led by Rhône Group for an enterprise value of $342 million, which included the assumption of debt and other unfunded obligations.

[29] Alcoa moved its headquarters back to Pittsburgh effective September 1, 2017, as part of a general consolidation of administrative facilities around the world.

[32] In May 2007, Alcoa Inc. made a US$27 billion hostile takeover bid for Alcan in an attempt to form the world's largest aluminum producer.

[35] On April 23, 2010, Alcoa's board of directors selected Kleinfeld to the office of chairman, following Belda's planned retirement.

[38] On January 9, 2014, Alcoa settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice over charges of bribing Bahraini officials.

The facility was improperly managed and operated, and as a result, soils on the York Oil Property and nearby wetlands sediments and groundwater were contaminated.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a Superfund Unilateral Order on December 31, 1998, requiring Alcoa to excavate, treat and dispose of the contaminated wetlands sediments.

[41] In April 2003, Alcoa Inc. agreed to spend an estimated $330 million to install a new coal-fired power plant with state-of-the-art pollution controls to eliminate the vast majority of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions from the power plant at Alcoa's aluminum production facility in Rockdale, Texas.

The settlement was the ninth case the Bush administration pursued to bring the coal-fired power plant industry into full compliance with the Clean Air Act.

[43] In 2008, the Political Economy Research Institute ranked Alcoa 15th among corporations emitting airborne pollutants in the United States.

[citation needed] In 1988, the Jamaican government gained a 50% share in the subsidiary and renamed the operation to Jamalco, Alcoa being the managing partner.

The U.S. Department of State expressed concerns that the Dominican Republic might follow Jamaica's lead in imposing higher taxes on Alcoa's operations.

This period was marked by intense discussions and negotiations regarding the taxation and revenue from bauxite mining, highlighting the complexities of international business operations and the impact of global commodity markets on local economies.

This area offers an opportunity to observe endemic species and serves as a reminder of the environmental dimensions of industrial operations.

Alcoa Road's transition from an access route for mining to a gateway for environmental observation underscores the evolving relationship between industry and conservation.

[48] Alcoa's affiliate in Ghana, the Volta Aluminum Company, was completely closed between May 2003 and early 2006 due to problems with its electricity supply.

[49][50] Alcoa is a major owner of the Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée through Halco Mining, together with Rio Tinto Alcan and the Guinean government.

[66] Alcoa also operates an aluminum smelting plant of similar size to the one in Tennessee in Warrick County, Indiana, just east of Newburgh.

The "Tech Center" is as large as some college campuses, has its own zip code, and maintains an extensive intellectual and physical resource for innovation.

The series featured some of the early work of director Sidney Lumet, the five-time Oscar nominee known for the 1957 version of 12 Angry Men.