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The birth of what would later become the Internet occured in 1965. It all began as a Cold War experiment, to develop a communication network that could withstand a nuclear attack. The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the US sponsored the study. As a result, three computers were linked to form "The Experimental Network", laying the groundwork for the next four decades.
Here are some of the notable highlights that followed:
1967 Design discussions over an ARPA network, to be called ARPANET, are begun.
1970 AT&T installs the first cross-country computer link at 56kbps between the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and consulting company Bolt, Beranek, and Newman (BBN).
1971 Ray Tomlinson of BBN invents an email program.
1973 Bob Kahn (ARPA) starts an internetting research program. In a San Francisco hotel lobby, Vinton Cerf sketches plans on the back of an envelope.
1976 The first royal email is sent. Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom, sends out an email from the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment (RSRE) in Malvern.
1979 An ARPANET user invents emoticons when he suggests adding some emotion back into the dry text medium of email, such as -) for indicating a sentence was tongue-in-cheek.
1984 William Gibson writes "Neuromancer", and coins the word 'cyberspace'. Canada begins a successful one-year effort to network its universities.
1985 Symbolics.com becomes the first registered domain. Other firsts included berkeley.edu, ucla.edu, mit.edu and think.com.
1986 Five super-computing centers are established to provide high-computing power for all. This allows an explosion of connections, especially from universities.
1990 ARPANET ceases to exist. The World comes on-line (world.std.com), becoming the first commercial provider of Internet dial-up access.
1991 The NSF lifts restrictions on the commercial use of the Internet. The Internet as we know it is born.
1992 The term "surfing the Internet" is coined by Jean Armour Polly. Zen and the Art of the Internet is published by Brendan Kehoe.
1993 The US White House comes on-line (http://www.whitehouse.gov/). President Bill Clinton's email address is published: president@whitehouse.gov. Businesses and media begin taking notice of the Internet.
1994 Shopping malls arrive online. An Arizona law firm, advertising green card lottery services, sends out the first spam. The Pizza Hut offers online ordering. The first banner ads, appearing on hotwired.com, are for Zima and AT&T.
1995 A number of Net related companies go public, with Netscape leading the pack with the 3rd largest ever NASDAQ IPO share value. Registration of domain names is no longer free. Operation Home Front connects soldiers in the field with their families back home via the Internet.
1996 The controversial US Communications Decency Act (CDA) becomes law in the US in order to prohibit distribution of indecent materials over the Net. A few months later it is overturned. Domain name tv.com sold to CNET for US$15,000.
1998 Network Solutions registers its 2 millionth domain. Compaq pays US$3.3million for altavista.com. ABCNews.com accidentally posts test US election returns one day early.
1999 The US State Court rules that domain names are property that may be garnished. The Web becomes the focal point of British politics as a list of MI6 agents is released on a UK Web site. Free computers are all the rage (as long as you sign a long term contract for Net service). business.com is sold for US$7.5million.
2000 The US timekeeper (USNO) and a few other time services around the world report the new year as 19100 on 1 Jan. Love Letter is the virus of the year; Napster is the lawsuit of the year.
2001 Forwarding email in Australia becomes illegal with the passing of the Digital Agenda Act. Radio stations broadcasting online go silent over royalty disputes. The European Council finalizes an international cybercrime treaty. Afghanistan's Taliban bans Internet access country-wide, including from government offices, in an attempt to control content.
2002…. In progress. From its humble beginnings, the Internet has now become an integral part of our daily lives.
Source: Hobbes' Internet Timeline
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