History of the Internet By fluffyt.bread 1957 Soviet Sputnik Launch, prompting the US to form ARPA. 1969 ARPA creates ARPANET 1972 First Email Program is created 1981 ARPANET links computers at more then 200 sites 1982 DOD builds Defense Data Network based on ARPANET. 1983 ARPA splits into ARPANET and Milnet. Internet is in place 1989 ARPANET ceases to exist 1991 World Wide Web (WWW) is launched 1992 Internet links more than 17k networks in 33 countries 1994 Internet has more than 3 million users 1998 102 million people use the Internet worldwide