-
1957
USSR launches Sputnik, first artificial earth satellite. In response, US forms the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), the following year, within the Department of Defense (DoD) to establish US lead in science and technology applicable to the military -
Article Wrote
Leonard Kleinrock, MIT: "Information Flow in Large Communication Nets" (May 31) -
1962
J.C.R. Licklider & W. Clark, MIT: "On-Line Man Computer Communication" (August) -
1964
Paul Baran, RAND: "On Distributed Communications Networks" -
1965
ARPA sponsors study on "cooperative network of time-sharing computers"
TX-2 at MIT Lincoln Lab and AN/FSQ-32 at System Development Corporation (Santa Monica, CA) are directly linked (without packet switches) via a dedicated 1200bps phone line; Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) computer at ARPA later added to form "The Experimental Network -
1966
Lawrence G. Roberts, MIT: "Towards a Cooperative Network of Time-Shared Computers" (October)
First ARPANET plan -
1967
ARPANET design discussions held by Larry Roberts at ARPA IPTO PI meeting in Ann Arbor, Michigan (April)
ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles in Gatlinburg, Tennessee (October)
First design paper on ARPANET published by Larry Roberts: "Multiple Computer Networks and Intercomputer Communication
First meeting of the three independent packet network teams (RAND, NPL, ARPA)
National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Middlesex, England develops NPL Data Network under Donald Watts Davies who coins -
1968
PS-network presented to the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA)
Request for quotation for ARPANET (29 Jul) sent out in August; responses received in September
University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) awarded Network Measurement Center contract in October
Network Working Group (NWG), headed by Steve Crocker, loosely organized to develop host level protocols for communication over the ARPANET. (:vgc:)
Tymnet built as part of Tymshare service (:vgc:) -
1969
Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc. (BBN) awarded Packet Switch contract to build Interface Message Processors (IMPs) in January
US Senator Edward Kennedy sends a congratulatory telegram to BBN for its million-dollar ARPA contract to build the "Interfaith" Message Processor, and thanking them for their ecumenical efforts
ARPANET commissioned by DoD for research into networking
Nodes are stood up as BBN builds each IMP [Honeywell DDP-516 mini computer with 12K of memory]; AT&T provides lines bundled to -
1970
First publication of the original ARPANET Host-Host protocol: C.S. Carr, S. Crocker, V.G. Cerf, "HOST-HOST Communication Protocol in the ARPA Network," in AFIPS Proceedings of SJCC (:vgc:)
First report on ARPANET at AFIPS: "Computer Network Development to Achieve Resource Sharing" (March)
ALOHAnet, the first packet radio network, developed by Norman Abramson, Univ of Hawaii, becomes operational (July) (:sk2:)
connected to the ARPANET in 1972
ARPANET hosts start using Network Control Protocol (NC -
1971
15 nodes (23 hosts): UCLA, SRI, UCSB, Univ of Utah, BBN, MIT, RAND, SDC, Harvard, Lincoln Lab, Stanford, UIU(C), CWRU, CMU, NASA/Ames
BBN starts building IMPs using the cheaper Honeywell 316. IMPs however are limited to 4 host connections, and so BBN develops a terminal IMP (TIP) that supports up to 64 terminals (September)
Ray Tomlinson of BBN invents email program to send messages across a distributed network. The original program was derived from two others: an intra-machine email program (SE -
1971
TCP split into TCP and IP (March)
Possibly the first commercial spam message is sent on 1 May by a DEC marketer advertising an upcoming presentation of its new DECSYSTEM-20 computers
RFC 748: TELNET RANDOMLY-LOSE Option -
1972
Ray Tomlinson (BBN) modifies email program for ARPANET where it becomes a quick hit. The @ sign was chosen from the punctuation keys on Tomlinson's Model 33 Teletype for its "at" meaning (March)
Larry Roberts writes first email management program (RD) to list, selectively read, file, forward, and respond to messages (July)
International Conference on Computer Communications (ICCC) at the Washington D.C. Hilton with demonstration of ARPANET between 40 machines and the Terminal Interface Processor -
1973
First international connections to the ARPANET: University College of London (England) via NORSAR (Norway)
Bob Metcalfe's Harvard PhD Thesis outlines idea for Ethernet. The concept was tested on Xerox PARC's Alto computers, and the first Ethernet network called the Alto Aloha System (May) (:amk:)
Bob Kahn poses Internet problem, starts Internetting research program at ARPA. Vinton Cerf sketches gateway architecture in March on back of envelope in a San Francisco hotel lobby (:vgc:)
Cerf and Kahn -
1974
Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn publish "A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication" which specified in detail the design of a Transmission Control Program (TCP). [IEEE Trans Comm] (:amk:)
BBN opens Telenet, the first public packet data service (a commercial version of ARPANET) (:sk2:) -
1975
Operational management of Internet transferred to DCA (now DISA)
First ARPANET mailing list, MsgGroup, is created by Steve Walker. Einar Stefferud soon took over as moderator as the list was not automated at first. A science fiction list, SF-Lovers, was to become the most popular unofficial list in the early days
John Vittal develops MSG, the first all-inclusive email program providing replying, forwarding, and filing capabilities.
Satellite links cross two oceans (to Hawaii and UK) as the first -
1976
Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom sends out an email on 26 March from the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment (RSRE) in Malvern
UUCP (Unix-to-Unix CoPy) developed at AT&T Bell Labs and distributed with UNIX one year later.
Multiprocessing Pluribus IMPs are deployed -
1977
THEORYNET created by Larry Landweber at Univ of Wisconsin providing electronic mail to over 100 researchers in computer science (using a locally developed email system over TELENET)
RFC 733: Mail specification
Tymshare spins out Tymnet under pressure from TELENET. Both go on to develop X.25 protocol standard for virtual circuit style packet switching (:vgc:)
First demonstration of ARPANET/SF Bay Packet Radio Net/Atlantic SATNET operation of Internet protocols with BBN-supplied gateways in July ( -
The word “Internet” is used for the first time.
The word “Internet” is used for the first time. -
Domain Name System (DNS) is established, with network addresses identified by extensions such as .com, .org, and .edu.Writer William Gibson coins the term “cyberspace.”
Domain Name System (DNS) is established, with network addresses identified by extensions such as .com, .org, and .edu.
Writer William Gibson coins the term “cyberspace.