brief history of the Internet

By sims03
  • Period: to

    Internet history

  • Arpanet

    first real network to run on packet switching technology (new at the time).

  • Unix

    another milestone

  • Arpanet

    The History of the Internet in a NutshellArpanet-first real network to work on package switching technology. Computers at Stanford and UCL made the first connection.

  • Arpanet Network

    was established between harvard, MIT, and BBN.

  • Email

    first developed

  • Project Gutenberg and ebooks

    most impressive developments. was the start of Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg, for those unfamiliar with the site, is a global effort to make books and documents in the public domain available electronically–for free–in a variety of eBook and electronic formats.

  • CYCLADES

    France began its own Arpanet-like project in 1972, called CYCLADES. While Cyclades was eventually shut down, it did pioneer a key idea: the host computer should be responsible for data transmission rather than the network itself.

  • The first trans-Atlantic connection and the popularity of emailing

    Arpanet made its first trans-Atlantic connection in 1973, with the University College of London. During the same year, email accounted for 75% of all Arpanet network activity.

  • The beginning of TCP/IP

    1974 was a breakthrough year. A proposal was published to link Arpa-like networks together into a so-called "inter-network", which would have no central control and would work around a transmission control protocol (which eventually became TCP/IP).

  • The email client

    With the popularity of emailing, the first modern email program was developed by John Vittal, a programmer at the University of Southern California in 1975. The biggest technological advance this program (called MSG) made was the addition of "Reply" and "Forward" functionality

  • The PC modem

    1977 was a big year for the development of the Internet as we know it today. It’s the year the first PC modem, developed by Dennis Hayes and Dale Heatherington, was introduced and initially sold to computer hobbyists.

  • The Bulletin Board System (BBS)

    The first bulletin board system (BBS) was developed during a blizzard in Chicago in 1978.

  • Spam is born

    1978 is also the year that brought the first unsolicited commercial email message (later known as spam), sent out to 600 California Arpanet users by Gary Thuerk.

  • Usenet

    1979 also ushered into the scene: Usenet, created by two graduate students. Usenet was an internet-based discussion system, allowing people from around the globe to converse about the same topics by posting public messages categorized by newsgroups.

  • MUD – The earliest form of multiplayer games

    The precursor to World of Warcraft and Second Life was developed in 1979, and was called MUD (short for MultiUser Dungeon). MUDs were entirely text-based virtual worlds, combining elements of role-playing games, interactive, fiction, and online chat.

  • the internet was started

    the border between France and Switzerland, publicized the new World Wide Web.