On Nov. 2, 1949, Sandia Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Electric, took over management of Sandia Laboratory. Sandia began in 1945 as Z Division, the ordnance design, testing, and assembly arm of Los Alamos National Laboratory. It became Sandia Laboratory in 1948.

A second site was opened in California’s Livermore Valley in 1956. In 1979, the U.S. Congress made Sandia a Department of Energy national laboratory. Sandia Corporation became a wholly owned subsidiary of Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin Corp.) in 1993.