Internet History

Lawrence Roberts leads ARPAnet design discussions and publishes 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.

Danny Cohen develops the first real-time visual flight simulator on a general purpose computer and the first real-time radar simulator. His flight simulator work leads to the development of the Cohen-Sutherland computer graphics line clipping algorithms, created with Ivan Sutherland.

Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc. (BBN) is awarded the ARPA contract to build the Interface Message Processors

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.

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.

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.

Dr. David Clark implements Internet protocols for the Multics systems, the Xerox PARC ALTO and the IBM PC.

Fifteen nodes (23 hosts) comprise the IMP network.

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.

Ray Tomlinson of BBN invents the email program to send messages across a distributed network. The "@" sign is chosen from the punctuation keys on Tomlinson's Model 33 Teletype to separate local from global emails, making "user@host" the email standard.

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.

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.

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.

The first international connection to the ARPAnet is made by University College of London (England) via NORSAR (Norway).

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.

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.

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.

Mike Jensen begins building some of the earliest networks to connect the nonprofit sector, playing a key role in establishing network connectivity for developing countries.

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.

Danny Cohen adapts the visual simulator to run over the ARPAnet, the first application of packet- switching networks to real-time applications

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.

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.

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.

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.

In January 1986, in San Diego, California, 21 people attend a historic meeting now known as IETF 1. It's the first meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force, an open, global community of network designers, operators, vendors and researchers who help guide Internet architecture and standards.

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.

Brewster Kahle invents the Internet’s first publishing system, WAIS (Wide Area Information Server) and founds WAIS, Inc. A precursor to today’s search engines, WAIS is one of the first programs to index large amounts of data and make it searchable across large networks.

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.

Karen Banks, co-founds APC, an international network and non-profit dedicated to creating and sustaining a free and open Internet that serves the needs of the global civil society.

Ida Holz helps lead a group of computing pioneers whose efforts resulted in the development of the first Latin American networks.

Linus Torvalds creates Linux and becomes a leading supporter of Open Source software.

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.

Philip Zimmermann creates Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), an email encryption software package that's published for free. Originally designed as a human rights tool, PGP becomes one of the most widely used email encryption softwares in the world.

The World Wide Web is made available to the public for the first time on the Internet.

George Sadowsky helps create the team that would train over 1,500 instructors from over 100 nations on Internet technologies, operation, management and governance. This initiative was crucial to the Internet’s global expansion.

The Internet Companion, written by Tracy LaQuey Parker, is published as the first layman's guide to the Internet. Translated into eight languages, it becomes an international bestseller.

Nabil Bukhalid leads the team at the American University of Beirut that brings the Internet to Lebanon and establishes the Lebanese Domain Registry.

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.

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.

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.

Karlheinz Brandenburg and his team settle on a file extension for the audio format, shortening MPEG1, Layer 3 to MP3.

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.

Dr. Henning Schulzrinne co-develops key protocols that enable Voice over the Internet protocol (VoIP).

Shigeki Goto helps found Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) in 1997, which is instrumental in the expansion of the Internet across Asia-Pacific.

The advent of web publishing tools available to non-technical users spurs the rise of blogs.

Paul Vixie creates the first anti-spam company MAPS (Mail Abuse Prevention System).

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.

Craig 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.

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.

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.

Aaron 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.

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.

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.

Jimmy Wales launches Wikipedia. There are half a million Internet users.

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.

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.

Ermanno Pietrosemoli secures the world record for the longest WiFi connection at 382 km.

By 2010, there are over 450 million Chinese Internet users.

Facebook reaches 400 million active users

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.

President Barack Obama's administration announces its opposition to major parts of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act, which would have enacted broad new rules requiring internet service providers to police copyrighted content. The successful push to stop the bill, involving technology companies such as Google and nonprofit organizations including Wikipedia and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is considered a victory for sites such as YouTube that depend on user-generated content, as well as "fair use" on the Internet.

The photo-sharing site, reaches 400 million users, outpacing Twitter, which would go on to reach 316 million users by the middle of the same year.

Google unveils Google Assistant, a voice-activated personal assistant program, marking the entry of the Internet giant into the "smart" computerized assistant marketplace. Google joins Amazon's Alexa, Siri from Apple, and Cortana from Microsoft.