The History of the Internet

  • USSR Launches Sputnik

    USSR Launches Sputnik
    USSR launches Sputnik, and with it the oppurtunity for global communications.
  • Bell Labs Invents Modem

    Bell Labs Invents Modem
    Bell Lab researchers create the modem, which changes digital signals to electronic signals and back, enabling communications between computers.
  • U.S. Government Creates ARPA

    U.S. Government Creates ARPA
    U.S. government creates the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in response to Sputnik launch.
  • ASCII Is Developed

    ASCII Is Developed
    ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Exchange) is developed by a joint industry-government committee. ASCII lets machines from different makers exchange data.
  • Period: to

    Paul Baran and Donald Davies Develop Msge Blocks/Pckt Switching

    Rand Corporations' Paul Baran develops message blocks in the U.S., while in Britain, Donald Davies creates packet-switching, which is similar to message blocks.
  • Roberts and Marill Create First Wide-Area Network

    Roberts and Marill Create First Wide-Area Network
    Lawrence Roberts and Thomas Marill get an ARPA contract to create the first wide-area network.This network proves that packet-switchingm offers the best model for communication between computers.
  • ARPAnet Project is Initiated

    ARPAnet Project is Initiated
    Robert Taylor, who is directing ARPA's computer research, initiates the ARPAnet project, the foundation for today's Internet.
  • ARPAnet Design Begins

    ARPAnet Design Begins
    Roberts comes to ARPA to help design and experiment with the ARPAnet plans.
  • BBN Inc. Wins Development Contract

    BBN Inc. Wins Development Contract
    Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc. (BBN) are awarded the ARPA contract to build the Interface Message Processers.
  • UCLA Sends First Data Packet

    UCLA Sends First Data Packet
    The first data packets are sent between networked computers at UCLA by Charlie Klein. The first try was unsuccessful, as the "G" of "LOGIN" crashed the system. The second try succeeded.
  • Kirstein Creates European ARPAnet

    Kirstein Creates European ARPAnet
    Professer Peter Kirstein of UCL in London starts the first European ARPAnet that has transatlantic IP connectivity.
  • Tomilson Invents Email

    Tomilson Invents Email
    Ray Tomilson of BBN invents the email program to send messages across a distributed network. The standard address was made "user@host".
  • Postel Helps Create First Internet Address Restistry

    Postel Helps Create First Internet Address Restistry
    Jon Postel helps create the first Internet address registry, which later becomes the Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA). This administeres IPaddresses and other important Internet functions.
  • The Term Internet is Coined

    The Term Internet is Coined
    Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn publish a paper which uses the term "Internet" for the first time.
  • CSNet Developed

    CSNet Developed
    Professor David Farber helps concieve and organize the National Science Foundation's Computer Science Network (CSNet).
  • Asia is Connected to Internet

    Asia is Connected to Internet
    Kilnam Chon, a professor at Keio University in Japan, develops first Internet connection in Asia, called SDN.
  • NSCA Releases Mosaic Browser

    NSCA Releases Mosaic Browser
    Mark Andreessen and Eric Bina create the Mosaic Browser at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).
  • World Wide Web is Opened to Public

    World Wide Web is Opened to Public
    The World Wide Web is finally made available to the public for the first time on the internet.
  • Al Gore Creates Bill to Fund "Internet Superhighway"

    Al Gore Creates Bill to Fund "Internet Superhighway"
    Al Gore creates the High-performance Computing and Communications Act of 1991 (the Gore Bill), which gives $600 million to improve high performance computing and create the National Research and Educational Network. It also creates the National Information Infrustructure, or Information Superhighway. (website refused to put event in correct place)
  • MP3 is Developed

    MP3 is Developed
    Brandenburg and his team settle on a file extention for the audio format, shortening MPEG, Layer 3 to MP3.
  • Google is Founded

    Google is Founded
    Google.com is registered as a domain, and is a play on the mathematical term for 1 followed by 100 zeros a "googol", to represent its seemingly infinite amount of data.
  • Jimmy Wales Creates Wikipedia

    Jimmy Wales Creates Wikipedia
    Jimmy Wales launches Wikipedia. There are a half a million Internet users.
  • YouTube is Founded

    YouTube is Founded
    YouTube.com was registered on February 14, 2005, as a video sharing site where anyone can upload a video and anyone can choose to view it.
  • Timeline is Uploaded to TimeToast

    Timeline is Uploaded to TimeToast
    A timeline is uploaded to TimeToast.com for a school project showing the history of the Internet by user bexgoodharttheawesome.