The Internet : A Timeline in History

Internet Timeline

1945: • Vannevar Bush proposes MEMEX, a system to store vast amounts of information, with the ability for users to create their own paths and links.

1958: • Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) is formed to ensure US technological leadership.; • SAGE developed by ARPA to receive continuous information through computer memory from telephone lines.

1961: • The first paper on packet-switching theory.; • Berlin Wall constructed.

1962: ARPA forms Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) to conduct research on command and control systems.

1965: • Term *hyper-text* appears in Vassar news article.

1968: • Integrated Electronics Corp (Intel) founded.

1969: • First node of ARPANET is established at UCLA, followed by nodes at Stanford, UCSB, and the University of Utah.

1971: • ARPANET now consists of 15 nodes.; • Project Gutenberg begins at the University of Illinois: the term *replicator technology* is coined to describe self-expanding information distribution.

1972: • First distributed email system is invented.; • Telnet, a commercial version of ARPANET, becomes the first public packet data service.

1973: • First international connections to ARPANET.; • FTP is born.

1974: • Transmission Control Program (TCP), the basis of packet network communication, is specified.

1975: • First ARPANET mailing list MsgGroup is created.

1976: • First supercomputer, the Cray 1, is installed.; • Apple Computer founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wosniak.; • Queen Elizabeth II becomes first head of state to send email.

1980: • ARPANET now includes international satellite links.; • Telnet, a commercial version of ARPANET, becomes the first public packet data service.

1981: • First BITNet (Because It's Time Network) link established at CUNY, connecting to Yale.

1982: • Internet Protocol (IP), in use with TCP, becomes the ARPANET standard. The Internet becomes the name for a set of networks connected using TCP/IP.; • The smiley :-) is born on a Carnagie Mellon BBS 19-Sep-82 11:44

1983: • The Computer is selected as the Time Magazine Man of the Year for 1982 appearing on the Jan 3 cover as the Machine of the Year.

1984: • Domain Name Server (DNS) introduced.; • More than 1000 hosts on the Internet.

1986: • Guide becomes the first popular commercial general-purpose hypertext system.; • NSFNet backbone created at 56kb.

1987: • Hypercard introduced for the Apple Macintosh.; • More than 10,000 Internet hosts.

1988: • MCI Mail is connected to NSFNET through CNRI for "experimental use", providing the first sanctioned commercial use of the Internet.; • Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is born.

1989: • World Wide Web project proposed at CERN.; • CWI GMD and INRIA combine to form ERCIM.; • More than 100,000 Internet hosts.; • Berlin Wall falls in November.

1990: • ARPANET is formally decommissioned and the remaining hardware dismantled.; • Archie (Archive Server) released at McGill.

1991: • National Science Foundation NSFNET lifts commercial restrictions on their T3 network, opening a means for electronic commerce.; • Gopher is released by the University of Minnesota.; • Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS) go online for document search, browse, and publish.; • US High Performance Computing Act creates the National Research and Education Network (NREN), to link research and educational institutions, government, and industry in every State. Requires the Department of Defense (DoD), through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), to support research and development of advanced fiber optics technology, switches, and protocols. Requires the National Science Foundation (NSF) to provide computing and networking infrastructure support for all science and engineering disciplines and support basic research and human resource development in high-performance computing and advanced high-speed computer networking.

1992: • More than 1,000,000 Internet hosts.; • The World Bank goes online.; • Veronica and Jughead follow Archie to briefly compete as popular internet search tools.; • World Wide Web released by CERN.; • 1st International WWW Conference - Geneva Switzerland

1993: • The White House and the UN go online.; • National Information Infrastructure (NII) initiative, also called The Information Superhighway, to define a broadband convergence of telecommunications, information technology, and the entertainment industry, becomes law.; • InterNIC formed by the NSF to provide domain name registration, directory database and information services.; • NCSA Mosaic released.; • 2nd International WWW Conference - Chicago Illinois USA; • Annual growth rate of WWW hits 341,634%.; • Annual growth rate of Gopher drops from over 300,000% to 997%

1994: • MIT/LCS and CERN, with support from DARPA and the European Commission form the W3C.; • NASA Research and Education Network (NREN) becomes an experimental backbone at five NASA science centers.; • YAHOO! founded by two Stanford PhD students.; • 3rd International WWW Conference - Darmstadt Germany

1995: • INRIA (France) becomes the first European W3C host.; • WWW becomes the most popular Internet service.; • Registration of domain names is no longer free.; • Netscape goes public.; • RealAudio (forerunner to RealVideo) is born.; • Java programming language is born.; • Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) first used to deliver interactive 3D objects across the internet.; • 4th International WWW Conference - Boston Massachusetts USA

1996: • Keio University (Japan) becomes the first W3C host in Asia.; • The Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Provision in the Debt Collection Improvement Act (DCIA) open the door for financial institutions to complete financial transactions via the WWW.; • The WWW browser wars are fought primarily between Netscape and Microsoft.; • Internet2 is formed as a consortium led by universities working in partnership with industry and government to develop and deploy advanced internet technologies.; • 5th International WWW Conference - Paris France

1997: • American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) is established to handle admin and registration of IP numbers to the geographical areas formerly handled by Network Solutions (InterNIC).; • The Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML97) revised version of VRML adopted as ISO/IEC standard.; • 6th International WWW Conference - Santa Clara California USA

1998: • US Depart of Commerce (DoC) releases Green Paper then White Paper plan to privatize DNS.; • Netscape opens the source code for the Netscape Navigator browser to the public domain.; • The Great Spam Truce results in adoption of the opt-in email list. Legislation to let consumers sue advertisers is endorsed by all.; • Microsoft buys Hotmail for $400 million.; • US Department of Justice sues Microsoft for anti-trust violations.; • Internet Corp for Assigned Numbers (ICANN) becomes DNS admin.; • US Postal Service allows stamps to be downloaded from the Web.; • Abilene, a high-speed broadband network for Internet2 is announced by Vice President Al Gore at a White House ceremony.; • AT&T buys IBM's data networking business for $5 billion cash.; • Google Inc opens its door in Menlo Park CA. It was a garage door.; • 7th International WWW Conference - Brisbane Australia

1999: • First Internet Bank of Indiana becomes the first full-service bank available only on the Internet.; • US Department of Defense (DoD) requires all US military systems to connect via NIPRNET.; • Abilene becomes operational at 2.5 gbps.; • Wi-Fi Alliance formed to certify interoperability of wireless LAN products based on IEEE 802.11.; • Pyra releases Blogger which popularizes blogging with mainstream internet users.; • 8th International WWW Conference - Toronto Canada

2000: • The Infinite Monkey Protocol Suite to enable distributed collaboration is proposed.; • 9th International WWW Conference - Amsterdam Netherlands

2001: • Wikipedia launched.; • Gigabit Research and Education Network (GÉANT), becomes operational in Europe.; • Firewall Enhancement Protocol (FEP) proposed.; • Extensible 3D Modeling Language (X3D) introduced as an XML encoding of VRML.; • 10th International WWW Conference - Hong Kong China

2002: • America Online, Verizon Online, WorldCom Inc., Earthlink and a handful of other ISP giants form the US Internet Service Provider Association (USISPA).; • Warchalking, drawing a chalk symbol on a wall or pavement to indicate a wi-fi hotspot, is born.; • 11th International WWW Conference - Honolulu Hawaii USA

2003: • ERCIM takes over the role of European W3C Host from INRIA.; • Abilene upgrade to 10 gbps fiber optics completed.; • Skype launched from Estonia to deliver free video chat and voice calls using a hybrid peer-to-peer and client–server system.; • 12th International WWW Conference - Budapest Hungary

2004: • Thefacebook launched by college roommates at Harvard University.; • Microsoft webserver market share falls below 1999 levels.; • Google Inc IPO jumps to $100 a share raising over $2 billion.; • USA - the Induce Act would hold technology companies liable for manufacturing products that encourage people to infringe copyright.; • ICANN Releases 3-Year Strategic Plan for Public Comment.; • 13th International WWW Conference - New York New York USA

2005: • YouTube created by three former PayPal employees.; • Garrett Graff becomes the first blogger to be given press credentials by the White House.; • 14th International WWW Conference - Chiba Japan

2006: • Google buys YouTube for $1.65 billion.; • Twitter launched. Users send and read 140-character messages.; • 15th International WWW Conference - Edinburgh Scotland UK

2007: • All online data lost after Internet crash and restart.; • 16th International WWW Conference - Banff Canada; • National Geographic Skeleton of Giant Internet Photo Hoax.

2008: • 46% of all U.S. adults are using the internet, email, or phone text messaging for political purposes in 2008 presidential election.; • 17th International WWW Conference - Beijing China

2009: • eBay acquires Skype for $2.6 billion.; • 18th International WWW Conference - Madrid Spain

2010: • Internet becomes main news source for ages 18 to 29.; • Rackspace Hosting and NASA jointly launches OpenStack, one of the first open-source cloud-software initiatives.; • Instagram online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service is launched.; • 19th International WWW Conference - Raleigh North Carolina USA

2011: • Microsoft acquires Skype for $8.5 billion.; • Facebook reaches one trillion page views in the month of June.; • 20th International WWW Conference - Hyderabad India

2012: • Facebook acquires Instagram for $1 billion cash and stock.; • 21th International WWW Conference - Lyon France

2013: • Twitter IPO raises $1.8 billion, giving the company a total valuation of roughly $14 billion.; • 22th International WWW Conference - Rio de Janeiro Brazil

2014: • Net Neutrality continues to be a major politial issue. Individuals who support net neutrality include Tim Berners-Lee, Vinton Cerf, Lawrence Lessig, Robert W. McChesney, Steve Wozniak, Susan P. Crawford, Ben Scott, David Reed, and U.S. President Barack Obama. Companies advocating net neutrality include Yahoo!, Vonage, eBay, Amazon, Microsoft. Opposition includes the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Goldwater Institute, Americans for Tax Reform, and the Ayn Rand Institute. Opponents of net neutrality also includes hardware companies and members of the cable and telecom industries, including major providers such as Comcast and AT&T.; • Twitter reports 500 million users, more than 271 million active users.; • 23th International WWW Conference - Seoul Korea

2015: • 24th International WWW Conference - Florence Italy

2016: • 25th International WWW Conference - Montreal Canada

2017: • 26th International WWW Conference - Perth Australia

2018: • 27th International WWW Conference - Lyon France