Internet turns 40; AP Lists Key Milestones
Believe it or not, the Internet actually turns 40 this year; more specifically, its actual birthday points to Wednesday, as the first connection between two UCLA computers--pioneered by Len Kleinrock and his team of engineers--took place on that date back in 1969. Originally named Arpanet, the network was an experimental project for the U.S. Department of Defense, initially exchanging meaningless data.
However, it wasn't until the following month--October 29 in fact--that a network connection was established between two geographical locations: UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California. The network grew to include UC Santa Barbara and the University of Utah, and thus, as they say, was history.
The Associated Press posted an awesome timeline of the Internet, listing the global network's milestones. In 1972, Ray Tomlinson brought e-mail to the network, introducing the "@" symbol to specify addresses from other systems. In 1973, two international nodes were established in England and Norway. In 1983, a domain name system was proposed, offering ".com" and ".gov," with ".edu" following years later.
In 1988, one of the first Internet worms appeared and crippled thousands of computers. The first commercial Web browser, Netscape, was released back 1994, and Amazon loaded its online retail shelves a year later. Napster changed the music industry in 1999, and the dot-com crash of 2000 changed the way Internet websites generated revenue.
To read the full timeline, read the AP list here. To learn more about Internet pioneer Len Kleinrock, head here.
- Toyota Creating Anti-Drunk Driving Device
- Palm Pre Canada Ad: Questionable Stereotypes
- New PS3 Ads Make Things Funny Again
- Grand Theft Auto is Coming to iPhone
- Apple Announces 'Rock and Roll' Event for Sept. 9
- Disney Purchasing Marvel for $4 Billion
- Wikipedia to Highlight Edits from New Users
- PS3 Slim Slower and Faster Than Old, Fat PS3
- Xbox 360 "Super" Elite 250 GB Spied in Ads
- Trojan Targeting Skype, VoIP Clients
- PS3 Slim More Power Efficient Than Advertised
- PlayStation 3 Firmware 3.0 Now Available
- New DSi Colors En Route: White, Pink
- eBay Announces Skype Sale
- U.S. Getting Black Wii Controllers, Not Console
- Spotted: iRiver's eReader Offering, The Story
- Woman Fired for Using ALL CAPS in Email
- NFL: No Tweeting for Players, Media, Officials
- PS3-Compatible Phone Coming October
Wow, I didn't know Al Gore went to UCLA.
As a regular reader, I must protest to the HORRIBLE POPUP! Not to mention that it's Bing...but I can't even close the damn thing to read the article. Shame on you Toms...thought you had more class than this.
and soon the "internets" will become self-aware and .... dun dun dun!
Congratulations INTERNET! Wishing you lot´s of yottabytes of transfers!!!!
so let me get this strait.. they went to the moon AND started the internet in the SAME year? God the world was awesome back then. we are soo lame now, clearly we need another cold war or something...
"Originally named Arpanet, the network was an experimental project for the U.S. Department of Defense, initially exchanging meaningless data."
Some things haven't changed...
happy early bday internet
, I'll be sure to send you a link to a cake 
so let me get this strait.. they went to the moon AND started the internet in the SAME year? God the world was awesome back then. we are soo lame now, clearly we need another cold war or something...
Necessity is the mother of invention.
As a mid aged person who saw internet since AOL 2.0 with dialup to this new thing called "high speed" I'm glad the internet is here. Everything from chatting, email, IM, message boards, Youtubes, filesharing, jpgs, webpages, web2.0 mobile computing, google.
The internet truly has opened up my world
Though it was DARPANET, or was just a DARPA project.
happy early bday internet , I'll be sure to send you a link to a cake
There is no cake, it is a lie.
There is no cake, it is a lie.
First of all, awesome game.
Second, happy early b-day internet! I love you and have enjoyed the days we've spent together, bringing in knowledge and weird facts that I shouldn't know at this age. Your the best
Geez, I wouldn't have though so in 1999, but in 2009, the internet really shows it's roots as a defense project, since those defense/spy/spook types always wanted a way to spy on everybody, all the time, regardless of any wrong-doing. Now we socialize and post all of our personal info on Facebook so that the IRS/FBI/CIA/DIA/DEA/DOJ/SBI can mine through it for whatever purpose they want.
April 1996 - Tom's Hardware was founded.
Wow, I didn't know Al Gore went to UCLA.
For those of you who play it, the part of Civ 4 that always makes me laugh is the fact that Al Gore's mug is on the "Internet" tech research icon.
Happy b-day internet!
I thought internet was orginated in Europe at 1980
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histo [...] d_Wide_Web
I thought internet was orginated in Europe at 1980see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histo [...] d_Wide_Web
I'd say that was the World Wide Web? its different to the Internet. the internet was the useful infrastructure.
the World Wide Web just helped advertising and n00bs go online and destroy it for the rest of us (online shopping's cool tho).
April 1996 - Tom's Hardware was founded.
How could they forget this important date?
Think I started using the net often back in '98.
*sung in a seductive voice*
happy BIRTHday Mr. Internet
*slowly takes off shirt*
happy BIRTH[/b]day Mr. INTERNET
i don't know why i wrote this lol.
1996: Dancing Baby meme appears. Bandwidth wastage rises successively each year. Now approaching the 99.99% wasted per year level.
Bandwidth wastage...See also: Social networking, World of Warcraft, flame wars, 4chan.
No mention of porn? C'mon AP, porn is what makes the internet special!
I thought internet was orginated in Europe at 1980see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histo [...] d_Wide_Web
Read the first paragraph of that article again =P
and soon the "internets" will become self-aware and .... dun dun dun!
the zombie-bot-net-robot holocaust?
"the network was an experimental project for the U.S. Department of Defense, initially exchanging meaningless data."
wow, so in 40 years it hasn't changed?
90% of people online now use it to "exchanging meaningless data".
WOW! Very Interesting timeline!
"the network was an experimental project for the U.S. Department of Defense, initially exchanging meaningless data."wow, so in 40 years it hasn't changed? 90% of people online now use it to "exchanging meaningless data".
Har har har!
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.
And the RIAA/MPAA came and took it all down,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
And US providers implementing bandwidth caps,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
And the pirate bay goes down,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Happy birthday
In 1983, Richard Stallman started the GNU project with the goal of creating a free UNIX-like operating system.[2] As part of this work, he wrote the GNU General Public License (GPL). By the early 1990s there was almost enough available software to create a full operating system. However, the GNU kernel, called Hurd, failed to attract enough attention from developers leaving GNU incomplete.
"Originally named Arpanet, the network was an experimental project for the U.S. Department of Defense, initially exchanging meaningless data."Some things haven't changed...
+1