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The Cold War begins between the USSR and the USA
The end of the Second World War brought about a new war between the USSR and the USA - the 'Cold War' was to last 50 years, and the relationship between the 2 super powers became one of competetiveness - each trying to get ahead in technology and communications development, as well as for new methods of attack and defence. -
The space race
With the advance of the Cold War between the US and Russia, the space race also took off. Satellites were launched in a bid to get research equipment and astronauts into space. This heralded the beginning of newer communication technologies, as each super power vied to achieve precedences in their technological developments. -
ARPA computer network
In response to Russia's Sputnik 1 satellite being launched, the US Department of Defence tried to establish a lead in science and technology. They formed ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) and created the first computer network within their Department of Defence. This network would have relayed military information to various departments. The advance of networking allowed information and data to be shared quickly and effectively. -
Two computers talk to eachother!
The MIT Lincoln Lab was home to the first experiment in enabling computers to 'talk' to eachother. The experiment was conducted by Larry roberts, and utilised Packet-Switching technology to deliver the messages. -
Unix operating systems influence others' designs
Unix was developed over a period of years to enable multi processing functionality and the ability to support operating systems and user programmes for multiple users. The inception of Unix operating system heavily influenced the design of Linux and FreeBSD - the most popular operating systems in today's web servers / web hosting services. -
ARPANET Network
ARPANET was the first network to run on packet switching technology, and designed by the Military to share data across long distances. On the 29/10/69, computers from Stanford and UCLA connected for the first time, and essentially were the first hosts on the Internet. The computers crashed on the first message, which was to be LOGIN; it crashed on the letter G! Packet technology divides messages before being sent - they are recompiled at destination, suitable for emails and webpages. -
The first email
The ARPANET network established between Harvard MIT and BBN (the creator of 'Interface Message Processor' computers used to connect networks) in 1970, enabled developer Ray Tomlinson to send his first email. He also prompted the use of the symbol @ to seperate the user name from the computer name - later becoming the domain name. Email revolutionised free communications. -
Project Gutenberg and the birth of the eBook
Project Gutenberg is the name given to the global effort to make books and documents in the public domain available electronically-for-free in a variety of eBooks and electronic journals. Michael Hart realised that the future of computers wasn't just in computing itself, but the retrieval and searching for information. He launched the Gutenberg Project to make all information contained in books available electronically, and more importantly - freely. -
Network emails
Electronic messages were further developed by Ray Tomlinson, who created emails. The programmer sent the first email between more than one machine (instead of terminal-to-terminal) using a program called SNDMSG; he also procured the use of @ as an email symbol that became standard. -
Cyclades
France began an ARPANET-like project in 1972 and although it was eventually closed down - a pioneer idea was formed; the host computer should be responsible for data transmission rather than the network itself. -
First trans Atlantic connection
ARPANET made the first trans Atlantic connection in 1973 with the University College of London and NORSAR (of Norway). During this year emails accounted for 75% of all ARPANET network activity. -
TCP/IP proposed
TCP/IP was proposed in a paper written by Vinton G. Cerf and Robert Kahn. The paper was titled 'A Protocol for Packet Connection' detailing the design of TCP (Transmission Control Protocol); the packet technology described made Internet possible. -
The Queen sends her first email
The Queen sent her first email from an army base whilst on a Royal visit. Emailing developed through the 1970's before the global standard was met in the 1990's, however with the Queen's approval emailing became noteworthy and more widely acceptable. -
First case of Spam
The first case of spam was an email advertisement sent to 400 other computer users by Gary Thuerk. He used ARPANET to email people regarding an advert for mini computers created by the Digital Equipment Corporation, where he worked. -
Usenet conceived
Usenet was one of the first peer-to-peer systems created for a discussion service, and was the precursor to all web-based message boards and Internet Relay chat applications used around the globe. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980. The idea is regarded to be a hybrid between an email and web forums, where discussions are delivered through news feeds and by using news reader software. -
The first computer virus accidentally propgated
In 1980 ARPANET ground to a halt after a status message virus was accidentally started. Named "Creeper", it affected users' printers as well as carrying a message. This virus is noteworthy as unlike other viruses it was able to delete old versions and replicated itself. The first antivirus software was called "Reaper". -
JANET network created for education and research
JANET is a British government computer network solely for education and research. Research Councils, schools, further education and higher education organisations are connected to JANET, derived from Joint Academic NETwork, which enables schools and universities to share and relay academic data and resources. -
.com introduced
Internet pioneer Dr Jon Postel introduced the top level domain names .com; .org, .gov, .edu and .mil with a 'Request for Comments'. These domain names are all around us today. -
GIF image
CompuServe developers released the GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) Image efficient algorithm which revolutionised the appearance of the Web, enabling viewing in full colour. The Efficient Lossless Compression Algorithm supported animation as well as other graphics and logos, by reducing file size without degrading visual quality. -
Real time chat
Jarkko Oikarinen created the IRC client to expand the popular BBS system to facilitate real-time-chat. IRC runs on about 40 servers and allows many of us to communicate easily with one another. -
World Wide Web proposed
Tim Berners-Lee saw that Nuclear research required an efficient way for scientists to share information. He proposed WWW and began a rudimentary experiment with Hypertext which was presented to CERN in a paper called 'WorldWideWeb: Proposal for the Hypertext Project'. The World Wide Web is born, and ARPANET came to an end. -
Mosaic Beta
Mosaic was the first web browser to be developed. It was created by a student called Marc Andreessen, and this was a crucial step in firing interest in websites. The 1.0 version was released in April 1993. Mosaic was the precursor to other browsers such as Yahoo (developed in 1994) and Google (developed in 1996). -
SSL developed
Andreessen further developed a follow up to Mosic with mozilla. He also developed Encryption for the secure delivery of data and content SSL, Secure Socket Layer. This is the standard used today. -
Hotmail created
Hotmail was the first web-based email provider; a concept driven by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith from 1995. It was launched in 1996 and bought out by Microsoft in 1997. The development of this method of communication is a milestone in modern communications, allowing any networked computer to communicate. -
Apache released
Half of the websites developed use servers running Apache. This is a free, open-source HTTP Server software which delivers web pages. Apache helped to fuel the growth of the Web, and was used by Microsoft to run Hotmail until 2000. -
Flash 1.0
Macromedia Flash appeared in 1995 in pen and tablet drawing software - SmartSketch; later to become FutureWare software, and then changed to FutureSplash Animator. It is now owned by adobe and is installed in roughly 95% of the world's PC's. -
RSS created
RSS feeds based on XML language allow users to subscribe to website content using an RSS feed reader. Initially developed by Dave Winer in 1997, RSS lead to the accessibility of blogs and podcasting. -
GMail
The advent of Google's free email service seta new paradigm shift in the free email service; offering 1GB storage, it outbid the predecessors such as Hotmail and Yahoo who were offering storage of 2 and 4MB respectively. Major web-based email providers now offer this level of storage as standard. -
YouTube.com created
The concept of Herbert Elwood Gillilard in 1997, the idea was taken and founded by a group of individuals who were later taken to court by the creator. YouTube.com experienced massive popularity and growth almost instantly, and has become a huge influence on social networking and entertainment. It has become a means of allowing anyone and everyone to post a vast aray of material.