when did all these alphabet belts come in to play?

[Rickety Cricket]

im watching tommy hearns vs espada from the late 70's and they said espada was the former wba champion, but i also remember watching 60's ali fights where they said he was THE champ. they must have started coming in between there but does anyone know the exact year or which fights were the first to present the wbc wba and ibf belts

[Mikhnienko]

Not positive but i had always thought it was in 1967 when they stripped Ali of the WBA portion of the championship and Ernie Terrell got ended up with it.