Timeline: History of Social Media

Jan 26, 1971

The first e-mail was delivered

Period: Jan 26, 1971 to Jan 26, 2015

History of Social Media

May 25, 1985

America Online (AOL) was founded

Jan 1, 1989

British engineers CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) started the creation of what was to be the World Wide Web

Jan 6, 1993

The first AOL Instant Message was sent by Ted Leonsis to his wife

It read, "Don't be scared ... it is me. Love you and miss you." His wife replied, "Wow ... this is so cool!"

Jul 5, 1994

Amazon.com founded

Jan 1, 1997

Blogging begins

Jan 1, 1997

Blackboard Inc. founded

May 1, 1997

AOL Instant Messanger (AIM) launched

Jul 1, 2000

Friends Reunited launched

1st online social network

Jan 1, 2003

LinkedIn

Aug 1, 2003

Myspace founded

Feb 1, 2004

Flickr launched

Feb 4, 2004

Facebook, Inc. founded

Mar 1, 2004

Facebook expands to other universities

Feb 14, 2005

YouTube goes live

Apr 23, 2005

The first YouTube video posted was posted by co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo.

Jun 1, 2005

Myspace becomes most popular social networking site in U.S.

Jun 23, 2005

Reddit launched

Sep 2, 2005

Facebook becomes available to high schools in United States

Oct 1, 2005

Facebook available in UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand

Mar 21, 2006

The first tweet was written by co-founder Jack Dorsey

Jul 15, 2006

Twitter begins

Mar 1, 2007

Facebook reaches 1 million users

Apr 1, 2008

Facebook becomes most popular social network site outdoing Myspace

Oct 7, 2008

App store opens via iTunes

Oct 1, 2009

Flickr hosts more than 4 billion images

Feb 1, 2010

Twitter users are sending 50 million tweets per day

Mar 1, 2010

Facebook beats out Google as the most trafficked site on the Internet.

Mar 1, 2010

Pinterest launches

Jun 1, 2010

Twitter users are sending 65 million tweets per day, roughly 750 tweets per second.

Jul 6, 2010

Lady Gaga becomes the first living person to have 10 million friends on Facebook. She is second overall only to Michael Jackson who has 14 million friends.

Jul 21, 2010

Facebook reaches 500 million active users. The site reaches the mark less than 18 months after it hit the 200 million active user mark.

Oct 1, 2010

Instagram launches

Oct 1, 2010

The Social Network, a film about Facebook and its creator, Mark Zuckerburg, opens in movie theaters in the United States.

Oct 26, 2010

Lady Gaga becomes the first person to receive one billion overall views on YouTube.

Feb 1, 2011

Social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook help activists organize an uprising in Egypt. The trend of using social networking websites to organize protests and demonstrations continues throughout 2011 in the Middle East and North Africa.

Feb 22, 2011

An Egyptian baby is named Facebook to honor the role that social media played in Egypt's revolution.

Jun 1, 2011

Google+ launches

Jul 1, 2011

Snapchat launches

Aug 19, 2011

StumbleUpon surpasses Facebook as the site that delivers more than half of all U.S. social media traffic.

Aug 22, 2011

Facebook Law

A teacher in Missouri sues the state over what has become known as the Facebook law. The new state law prevents teachers from contacting students through non-work related websites. The teacher's lawsuit argues that the new law makes it illegal for her to chat with her own child over Facebook.

Jan 1, 2012