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The Telex messaging network comes out of the early period of Germany’s Third Reich. Telex starts as a way to distribute military messages, but soon becomes a world-wide network of both official and commercial text messaging.
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USSR launches Sputnik into space and, with it, global communications.
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Bell Labs researchers invent the modem (modulator - demodulator), which converts digital signals to electrical (analog) signals and back, enabling communication between computers.
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The United States government creates the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in response to Sputnik launch.
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Leonard Kleinrock pioneers the packet-switching concept in his Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) doctoral thesis about queueing theory: Information Flow in Large Communication Nets.
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J.C.R. Licklider writes memos about his Intergalactic Network concept of networked computers and becomes the first head of the computer research program at ARPA.
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Online transaction processing makes its debut in IBM´s SABRE reservation system, set up for American Airlines. Using telephone lines, SABRE links 2,000 terminals in 65 cities to a pair of IBM 7090 computers, delivering data on any flight in less than three seconds.
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The Rand Corporation's Paul Baran develops message blocks in the U.S., while Donald Watts Davies, at the National Physical Laboratory in Britain, simultaneously creates a similar technology called packet-switching. The technology revolutionizes data communications.
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ARPA sponsors a study on "cooperative network of time-sharing computers."
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Lawrence Roberts (MIT) and Thomas Marill get an ARPA contract to create the first wide-area network (WAN) connection via long distant dial-up between a TX-2 computer in Massachusetts and a Q-32 computer in California. The system confirms that packet switching offers the most promising model for communication between computers.
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Lawrence Roberts leads ARPAnet design discussions and publishes the first ARPAnet design paper: "Multiple Computer Networks and Intercomputer Communication." Wesley Clark suggests the network is managed by interconnected ‘Interface Message Processors’ in front of the major computers. Called IMPs, they evolve into today’s routers.
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Donald Watts Davies of the National Physical Laboratory in England publishes his paper on “packet-switching,” the term he coins.
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Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc. (BBN) is awarded the ARPA contract to build the Interface Message Processors.
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Steve Crocker heads UCLA Network Working Group under Professor Leonard Kleinrock to develop host level protocols for ARPAnet communication in preparation for becoming the first node. The group, which includes Vint Cerf and Jon Postel, lays the foundation for protocols of the modern Internet.
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The first data packets are sent between networked computers on October 29th by Charley Kline at UCLA, under supervision of Professor Leonard Kleinrock. The first attempt resulted in the system crashing as the letter G of “Login” was entered. The second attempt was successful.
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The physical Interface Message Processor (IMP) network is constructed, linking four nodes: University of California at Los Angeles, SRI (in Stanford), University of California at Santa Barbara, and University of Utah.
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Steve Crocker and a team at UCLA released NCP (NetWare Core Protocol) in 1970. NCP is a file-sharing protocol for use with NetWare.
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Professor Peter Kirstein of University College London starts the first European ARPAnet node with transatlantic IP connectivity.
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Dr. David Clark implements Internet protocols for the Multics systems, the Xerox PARC ALTO and the IBM PC.
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Ray Tomlinson sent the first e-mail.
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ALOHAnet, a UHF wireless packet network, is used in Hawaii to connect the islands together. Although it is not Wi-Fi, it helps lay the foundation for Wi-Fi.
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Fifteen nodes (23 hosts) comprise the IMP network.
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Robert Kahn demonstrates the ARPAnet to the public for the first time by connecting 20 different computers at the International Computer Communication Conference, and in doing so, imparts the importance of packet-switching technology.
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While at the Information Science Institute, Jon Postel helps create the first Internet address registry, which later becomes Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). This administers IP addresses and other critical Internet functions.
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Louis Pouzin leads the French effort to build CYCLADES, France’s version of the ARPAnet.
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Faced with the "good fortune to be the first person in the world to be given the problem of connecting a roomful of computers," Bob Metcalfe co-invented the Ethernet at Xerox Parc.
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Development begins on what will eventually be called TCP/IP protocol by a group headed by Vint Cerf (Stanford) and Robert Kahn (DARPA). The new protocol will allow diverse computer networks to interconnect and communicate with each other.
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Danny Cohen was the first to implement “packet video” and “packet voice” (Network Voice Protocol) when he adapted the visual flight simulator to run over the ARPANET in 1973. It was the first application of packet switching to real-time applications
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An experimental VoIP call was made, officially introducing VoIP technology and capabilities. However, the first software allowing users to make VoIP calls was not available until 1995.
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The first international connection to the ARPAnet is made by the University College of London (England) via NORSAR (Norway).
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Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn publish "A Protocol for Packet Network Interconnection" which specifies in detail the design of a Transmission Control Program (TCP) and coins the term “Internet” for the first time.
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Lawrence Roberts helps Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN) found Telenet, the first public packet data service, a commercial version of ARPAnet.
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The first routers were used at Xerox. However, these first routers were not considered true IP routers.
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Elizabeth “Jake” Feinler begins to help lead SRI International’s Network Information Center (NIC), where her group eventually develops the first Internet “yellow-” and “white-page” servers, the first query-based network host name and address (WHOIS) server, and the Host Naming Registry for the Internet. As a part of this effort she and her group develop the top-level domain naming schemes of .com, .edu, .gov, .mil, .org, and .net.
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Ginny Strazisar developed the first true IP router, originally called a gateway.
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Lawrence Landweber creates CSNET (Computer Science Network), a network for all US university and industrial computer research groups. By 1984, over 180 university, industrial, and government computer science departments are participating in CSNET.
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Bob Kahn invented the TCP/IP protocol for networks and developed it, with help from Vint Cerf.
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Jaap Akkerhuis becomes instrumental in the development of the Internet in the Netherlands and Europe and plays a key role as a global connector in the technical community.
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As a DARPA manager, Dr. Barry Leiner helps establish the Internet Activities Board (later the Internet Architecture Board), which leads the effort to set early Internet technical standards.
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Radia Perlman designs IS-S (Intermediate System to Intermediate System) protocol for routing IP, which continues to flourish today, and the Spanning Tree algorithm, which allows the Ethernet to handle large clouds of data.
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Dr. Van Houweling helps oversee the operation and management of NSFnet, the foundation on which the global Internet is built.
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Lawrence Landweber establishes the first network gateways between the U.S. and European countries. He also establishes the “Landweber Conferences,” which are instrumental in showing scientists from around the world how to implement national academic and research networks in their countries.
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Ira Fuchs co-founds BITNET, a precursor to the Internet that offers many of the Internet’s core services years before the Internet’s commercialization.
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Internet protocol version 4, or IPv4, was officially defined in RFC 791. IPv4 was the first major version of the Internet protocol.
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CSNET (Computer Science Network) was developed by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
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Teus Hagen initiates the European Unix Network (EUnet) as the EUUG dial-up service, which becomes the first public wide area network in Europe, serving four initial “backbones.”
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Kilnam Chon develops the first Internet connection in Asia, called SDN, and his pioneering work inspires others to promote the Internet’s regional growth.
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Paul Mockapetris expands the Internet beyond its academic origins by inventing the Domain Name System (DNS). John Klensin helps facilitate early procedural and definitional work for DNS administration and top-level domain definitions.
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The ARPAnet changes its core networking protocols from Network Control Programs to the more flexible and powerful TCP/IP protocol suite, marking the start of the modern Internet.
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Dr. Jun Murai, known as the ‘father of the Internet in Japan,’ develops the Japanese University UNIX Network (JUNET), the first inter-university network in that nation.
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The first email arrives in Germany from the U.S. on August 3, 1984. "Willkommen CSNET," it says. Werner Zorn plays a critical role in this event and establishing the German Internet.
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Ben Segal convinces CERN that TCP/IP is the key to making the Internet functional.
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Craig Partridge designs how email is routed using domain names.
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BITNET II was created to address bandwidth issues with the original BITNET.
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Florencio Utreras leads the connection of Chile to the BITNET network.
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Srinivasan Ramani plays a key role in India’s Education and Research Network (ERNET) and leads the effort to set up ERNET’s international gateway, starting with a link to Amsterdam.
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While serving as executive director at SANGONeT, an Internet service provider and training institution for civil society, labour and community organizations, Esterhuysen, with many others, helps establish email and Internet connectivity in Southern Africa.
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The first T1 backbone was added to ARPANET.
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Dr. Glenn Ricart sets up the first Internet Exchange point, connecting the original federal TCP/IP networks and first U.S. commercial and non-commercial Internet networks.
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Dr. Kanchana Kanchanasut led Thailand’s effort to secure a domain name.
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Daniel Karrenberg helps build EUnet, the first pan-European Internet Service Provider. By 1989, Karrenberg helps found Reseaux IP Europeens (RIPE), the key collaborative forum for Internet coordination in Europe. He also leads the formation of the world’s first Regional Internet Registry, the RIPE Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC).
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WaveLAN network technology, the official precursor to Wi-Fi, was introduced to the market by AT&T, Lucent, and NCR.
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Details about network firewall technology were first published. The published paper discussed the first firewall, called a packet filter firewall, that was developed by Digital Equipment Corporation the same year.
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Van Jacobson develops algorithms for the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) that help solve the problem of congestion and are still used in over 90% of Internet hosts today.
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Alan Emtage conceives of and begins developing the world’s first Internet search engine, called Archie, pioneering many techniques used by search engines today.
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Dr. Stephen Goldstein plays a key role in evaluating and funding the development of Internet initiatives around the world, helping connect about 25 countries to the NSFNET.
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Geoff Huston leads the effort to bring the Internet from the academic and research sector to the Australian public. Through his work with the Australian communications service provider, Telstra, he helps facilitate the large-scale deployment of the Internet across Australia and as a transit service provider in the Asia Pacific region.
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At CERN, the European Physical Laboratory, Tim Berners-Lee creates the World Wide Web. Robert Cailliau is a key proponent of the project and helps Berners-Lee author a proposal for funding. Later, Cailliau develops, along with Nicola Pellow, the first web browser for the Mac OS operating system.
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Kalpana, a U.S. network hardware company, developed and introduced the first network switch.
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Gihan Dias helps set up and run the academic Internet in Sri Lanka (LEARN).
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Linus Torvalds creates Linux and becomes a leading supporter of Open Source software.
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Dr. Stephen Kent pioneers secure communications over open networks.
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Ida Holz helps lead a group of computing pioneers whose efforts resulted in the development of the first Latin American networks.
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Toru Takahashi helps bring the Internet to Japan and promotes it throughout Asia in the 1990s. He is key to the early commercial development of the Internet in the region.
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Dai Davies helps introduce Internet technology into the pan-European backbone EuropaNet, which would eventually be dominated by TCP/IP.
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Kees Neggers leads the effort to create the first European Internet Provider (IP) backbone.
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Al Gore creates the High-performance Computing and Communications Act of 1991 (the Gore Bill), which allocates $600 million for high-performance computing and helps create the National Research and Educational Network. The Gore Bill also creates the National Information Infrastructure, known as the Information Superhighway.
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The World Wide Web is made available to the public for the first time on the Internet.
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Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn found the Internet Society. Meanwhile, hosts on the Internet pass the one million mark.
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Nabil Bukhalid leads the team at the American University of Beirut that brings the Internet to Lebanon and establishes the Lebanese Domain Registry.
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DMT (Discrete Multitone)-based DSL technology developed by Dr. John Cioffi, “Father of DSL,” becomes the US standard.
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Mark Andreessen and Eric Bina create the Mosaic browser at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), which helps popularize the World Wide Web among the general public.
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Jianping Wu leads the design, development and evolution of CERNET, the first Internet backbone in China, helping it become the largest national academic network in the country.
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Madam Qiheng Hu leads a delegation to the US for discussions with the National Science Foundation, which facilitates the setting up the first direct TCP/IP connection in mainland China.
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Dr. Henning Schulzrinne co-develops key protocols that enable Voice over the Internet protocol (VoIP).
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IPv6 is introduced as an improvement over IPv4, including a wider range of IP addresses, improved routing, and embedded encryption.
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There is more email than postal mail in the U.S., and Brewster Kahle founds the Internet Archive, a free digital library with a mission to provide “universal access to all knowledge.” Chronicling over 85 billion pieces of deep Web geology, Kahle creates a history of the Internet’s formation.
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The first version of the 802.11 standard for Wi-Fi is introduced, providing transmission speeds up to 2 Mbps.
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Shigeki Goto helps found Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) in 1997, which is instrumental in the expansion of the Internet across Asia-Pacific.
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Tan Tin Wee founds the multilingual Internet domain name system and is instrumental in its internationalization. In the 1990s, under his leadership, Singapore hosts the first Chinese and Tamil websites. He is widely recognized for his award-winning technological efforts in the Tamil-speaking community and guides the development of the Tamil Internet.
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Anne-Marie Eklund Lowinder helps the .SE board understand the importance of DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions), the Internet protocol guards that enable users to be sure they are visiting a secure site.
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The 802.11a standard for Wi-Fi was made official, designed to use the 5 GHz band and provide transmission speeds up to 25 Mbps.
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802.11b devices were available to the public, providing transmission speeds up to 11 Mbps.
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The WEP encryption protocol for Wi-Fi is introduced, for use with 802.11b.
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Mitchell Baker gets involved in the Mozilla Project and becomes a founding chairperson of the Mozilla Foundation. She helps legitimize Open Source Internet application clients.
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Professor Nii Quaynor, known as Africa’s ‘Father of the Internet,’ convenes the first training workshop for the African Network Operators’ Group. His efforts have a profound impact on the continent’s Internet growth.
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Under the leadership of Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig, Aaron Swartz helped build the open architecture for Creative Commons, which works to minimize the barriers to sharing and reusing research and educational materials.
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Jimmy Wales launches Wikipedia. There are half a million Internet users.
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Mahabir Pun, with the help of volunteers from the US and Europe, connects the first village in Nepal to the Internet using long-range wireless links built from homemade antennas. This is the beginning of the Nepal Wireless Network, which has since connected 175 villages to the Internet.
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802.11g devices were available to the public, providing transmission speeds up to 20 Mbps.
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The WPA encryption protocol for Wi-Fi is introduced, for use with 802.11g.
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The WPA2 encryption protocol is introduced, as an improvement over and replacement for WPA. All Wi-Fi devices are required to be WPA2 certified by 2006.
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Ermanno Pietrosemoli secures the world record for the longest WiFi connection at 382 km.
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The 802.11n standard for Wi-Fi was made official. It provides higher transfer speeds over 802.11a and 802.11g, and it can operate on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bandwidths.
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By 2010, there are over 450 million Chinese Internet users.
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Live streaming of Will and Kate’s wedding is the biggest event ever watched on the Internet, and UCLA, where the first ARPAnet node was built, opens its Internet History Center.
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The Wi-Fi Alliance introduced WPA3 encryption for Wi-Fi, which includes security enhancements over WPA2.
