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LinkUSSR launches Sputnik into space and, with it, global communications.
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LinkBell 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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LinkJ.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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LinkThe first universal standard for computers, ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Exchange) is developed by a joint industry-government committee. ASCII permits machines from different manufacturers to exchange data.
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LinkARPA sponsors study on "cooperative network of time-sharing computers."
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LinkThe 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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US Senator Edward Kennedy sends BBN a congratulatory telegram on winning the ARPA contract to build the "Interfaith" Message Processors. -
LinkProfessor Peter Kirstein of University College London starts the first European ARPAnet node with transatlantic IP connectivity.
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LinkVint 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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CSNET 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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LinkKilnam Chon, a Professor at Keio University in Japan, 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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LinkDr. Stephen Wolff leads the development of NSFNET, the first U.S. open computer network supporting research and higher education.
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LinkWhile at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Dr. Kanchana Kanchanasut registers the .TH country-code top-level domain for Thailand and remains the .TH administer to this day.
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LinkAs 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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LinkCraig Newmark founds Craigslist, which is to become one of the most widely used websites on the Internet. He changes the way people used classifieds, transforming it into a largely Internet-based industry.
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LinkJimmy Wales launches Wikipedia. There are half a million Internet users on Wikipedia.
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Dorcas Muthoni founds OPENWORLD LTD, a software company which has been involved in the delivery of some of the most widely used Web and cloud applications in Africa.
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LinkBy 2010, there are over 450 million Chinese Internet users.
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LinkAaron Swartz co-creates RSS, a program that collects news from various web pages and puts them in one place for readers, with the goal of making information freely available to everyone.
