Timeline History of Internet

1. 1957
USSR Launches Sputnik
USSR Launches Sputnik
into space and, with it,
global communications.
1958
Bell Labs Invents Modem
Bell Labs researchers
invent the modem
(modulator demodulator), which
converts digital signals to
electrical (analog) signals
and back, enabling
communication between
computers.
1958
U.S. Government
Creates ARPA
The United States
government creates the
Advanced Research
Projects Agency (ARPA) in
response to Sputnik
launch.

2. 1961
1962
ASCII Is Developed
Leonard Kleinrock Pioneers
Packet-Switching
J.C.R. Licklider Conceives
Intergalactic Network
Leonard Kleinrock pioneers the
packet-switching concept in his
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) doctoral
thesis about queueing
theory: Information Flow in
Large Communication Nets.
J.C.R. Licklider writes memos
about his Intergalactic Network
concept of networked
computers and becomes the
first head of the computer
research program at ARPA.
The first universal standard for
computers, ASCII (American
Standard Code for Information
Exchange) is developed by a
joint industry-government
committee. ASCII permits
machines from different
manufacturers to exchange
data.
The United States government
creates the Advanced Research
Projects Agency (ARPA) in
response to Sputnik launch.

3. 1964 — 1967
1965
1965
Paul Baran, Donald Davies
Develop Message Blocks/Packetswitching
ARPA Sponsors Networking Study
Lawrence Roberts & Thomas Marill
Create First Wide-area Network
The Rand Corporation's Paul
Baran develops message blocks in
the U.S., while Donald Watts
Davies, at the National Physical
Laboratory in Britain,
simultaneously creates a similar
technology called packetswitching. The technology
revolutionizes data
communications.
ARPA sponsors study on
"cooperative network of timesharing computers."
Lawrence Roberts (MIT) and
Thomas Marill get an ARPA
contract to create the first widearea network (WAN) connection
via long distant dial-up between a
TX-2 computer in Massachusetts
and a Q-32 computer in California.
The system confirms that packet
switching offers the most
promising model for
communication between
computers.

4. 1964 — 1967
1965
1965
Charles Herzfeld Approves
Funds for Computer
Networking Experiment
Bolt Beranek and Newman
Wins IMP Development
Contract
IMP Network Links First Four
Nodes
As ARPA director, Charles
Herzfeld approves funding to
develop a networking
experiment that would tie
together multiple universities
funded by the agency. The
result would be the ARPAnet,
the first packet network and a
predecessor to today’s
Internet.
Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc.
(BBN) is awarded the ARPA
contract to build the Interface
Message Processors.
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.

5. 1964 — 1967
1972
1973
IMP Network Grows
Ray Tomlinson Invents Email
TCP/IP Protocol Development
Begins
Fifteen nodes (23 hosts)
comprise the IMP network.
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.
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.

6. 1974
Vint Cerf, Robert Kahn Coin
'Internet'
Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn publish
"A Protocol for Packet Network
Interconnection" which specifies
in detail the design of a
Transmission Control Program
(TCP) and coins the term
“Internet” for the first time.
1977
Lawrence Landweber Creates
Computer Science Network
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.
1980 — 1989
Lawrence Landweber Forges First
U.S.- Europe Network Gateways
Lawrence Landweber establishes
the first network gateways
between the U.S. and European
countries. He also establishes the
“Landweber Conferences,” which
are instrumental in showing
scientists from around the world
how to implement national
academic and research networks
in their countries.

7. 1982
1984
1987
Kilnam Chon Connects
Asia to Internet
First Email in Germany
Nancy Hafkin Helps
Develop ICT In Africa
Kilnam Chon, a Professor
at Keio University in
Japan, develops the first
Internet connection in
Asia, called SDN, and his
pioneering work inspires
others to promote the
Internet’s regional
growth.
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.
Nancy Hafkin helps
facilitate the ECA’s
African Information
Society Initiative, which
establishes the first email
connectivity in more than
10 African countries.

8. 1988 — 1989
1989
Van Jacobson Solves Internet
Congestion
Tim Berners-Lee Creates WWW
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
At CERN, the European Physical
Laboratory, Tim Berners-Lee
creates the World Wide Web.
Robert Cailliau is a key
proponent of the project, and
helps Berners-Lee author a
proposal for funding. Later,
Cailliau develops, along with
Nicola Pellow, the first web
browser for the Mac OS
operating system.
1990
Linus Torvalds Creates Linux
Linus Torvalds creates Linux and
becomes a leading supporter of
Open Source software.
Toru Takahashi Promotes
Internet In Japan
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.

9. 1991
1991
Al Gore Creates Bill to Fund
"Information Superhighway"
World Wide Web Opens to Public
Al Gore creates the Highperformance Computing and
Communications Act of 1991 (the
Gore Bill), which allocates $600
million for high performance
computing and helps create the
National Research and Educational
Network. The Gore Bill also
creates the National Information
Infrastructure, known as the
Information Superhighway.
The World Wide Web is made
available to the public for the first
time on the Internet.
George Sadowsky helps create
global Internet training team
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.

10. 1993
1996
1998
NCSA Releases Mosaic Browser
Brewster Kahle Founds
Internet Archive; Email
Surpasses Postal Mail
Blogs First Appear
The National Center
for Supercomputing
Applications (NCSA) releases
the Mosaic browser, which
helps popularize the World
Wide Web among the general
public.
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.
The advent of web publishing
tools available to non-technical
users spurs the rise of blogs.

11. 1999
2000
2000
Mitchell Baker Helps
Found Mozilla Project
Nii Quaynor Brings
Internet to Africa
Aaron Swartz Co-Creates
RSS
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.
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.
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.

12. 2001
2006
2010
Jimmy Wales Launches
Wikipedia
Nancy Hafkin Pens
"Cinderella or Cyberella?"
China Dominates Internet
Usage
Jimmy Wales launches
Wikipedia. There are half a
million Internet users.
Dr. Nancy Hafkin
authors Cinderella or
Cyberella?: Empowering
Women in the Knowledge
Society, a collection of
essays that examines how
information and
communications
technologies empower
women.
By 2010, there are over
450 million
Chinese Internet users.

13. SOURCE:
http://www.internethalloffame.org/internet-history/timeline