Internet Timeline

By mfilion

  • Kleinrock thesis describes underlying principles of packet-switching technology

    Leonard Kleinrock, a doctoral student at MIT, writes a thesis describing queuing networks and the underlying principles of what later becomes known as packet-switching technology.

  • DARPA deploys the IMPs

    DARPA deploys the IMPs. Kleinrock, at the Network Measurement Center at the University of California at Los Angeles, receives the first IMP in September. BBN tests the "one-node" network. A month later the second IMP arrives at Stanford, where Doug Englebart manages the Network Information Center, providing storage for ARPANET documentation. Dave Evans and Ivan Sutherland, professors researching computer systems and graphics at the University of Utah, receive the third IMP, and the fourth goes t

  • UNIX operating system

    At Bell Labs, Dennis Ritchie and Kenneth Thompson complete the UNIX operating system, which gains a wide following among scientists.

  • First e-mail program

    Ray Tomlinson at BBN writes the first e-mail program to send messages across the ARPANET. In sending the first message to himself to test it out, he uses the @ sign—the first time it appears in an e-mail address.

  • TCP/IP incorporated

    At DARPA’s request, Bill Joy incorporates TCP/IP (internet protocol) in distributions of Berkeley Unix, initiating broad diffusion in the academic scientific research community.

  • ARPANET hosts convert to new TCP/IP protocols

    All hosts connected to ARPANET are required to convert to the new TCP/IP protocols by January 1, 1983. The interconnected TCP/IP networks are generally known as the Internet.

  • The Internet

    ARPANET, and all networks attached to it, officially adopts the TCP/IP networking protocol. From now on, all networks that use TCP/IP are collectively known as the Internet. The number of Internet sites and users grow exponentially.

  • Internat Engineering Task Force expands

    The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) expands to reflect the growing importance of operations and the development of commercial TCP/IP products. It is an open informal international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers interested in the evolution of the Internet architecture and its smooth operation.

  • World Wide Web software developed

    CERN releases the World Wide Web software developed earlier by Tim Berners-Lee. Specifications for HTML (hypertext markup language), URL (uniform resource locator), and HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) launch a new era for content distribution. At the University of Minnesota, a team of programmers led by Mark McCahill releases a point-and-click navigation tool, the "Gopher" document retrieval system, simplifying access to files over the Internet.

  • Distribution of a browser accelerates adoption of the web

    Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina, of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, develop an easy-to-use graphical interface for the World Wide Web. Distribution of the "browser," NCSA Mosaic, accelerates adoption of the Web. The technology is eventually licensed to Microsoft as the basis for its initial Internet Explorer browser. In 1994 the team rewrites the browser, changing its name to Netscape. Later "browser wars" focus public a