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ARPA Founded
The USSR launched Sputnik in 1957, the first artificial earth satellite. In response,the United States forms the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) within the Department of Defense (DoD) to establish US lead in science and technology applicable to the military. -
Creation of ARPANET
ARPA awarded the ARPANET contract to BBN. BBN had selected a Honeywell minicomputer as the base on which they would build the switch. The physical network was constructed in 1969, linking four nodes: University of California at Los Angeles, SRI (in Stanford), University of California at Santa Barbara, and University of Utah. The network was wired together via 50 Kbps circuits. -
First Email Sent
The first e-mail program was created by Ray Tomlinson of BBN. -
Ethernet Is Born
Dr. Robert M. Metcalfe develops Ethernet, which allowed coaxial cable to move data extremely fast. This was a crucial component to the development of LANs. -
Creation of TCP/IP
Development began on the protocol later to be called TCP/IP, it was developed by a group headed by Vinton Cerf from Stanford and Bob Kahn from DARPA. This new protocol was to allow diverse computer networks to interconnect and communicate with each other. -
Term "Internet" Coined
First Use of term "Internet" by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn in paper on Transmission Control Protocol. -
Usenet Is Born
USENET (the decentralized news group network) was created by Steve Bellovin, a graduate student at University of North Carolina, and programmers Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis. It was based on UUCP. -
ARPANET Transitions to TCP/IP
On January 1st, every machine connected to ARPANET had to use TCP/IP. TCP/IP became the core Internet protocol and replaced NCP entirely. -
ARPANET Divided
The ARPANET was divided into two networks: MILNET and ARPANET. MILNET was to serve the needs of the military and ARPANET to support the advanced research component, Department of Defense continued to support both networks. -
NSFNET is Founded
Upgrade to CSNET was contracted to MCI. New circuits would be T1 lines,1.5 Mbps which is twenty-five times faster than the old 56 Kbps lines. IBM would provide advanced routers and Merit would manage the network. New network was to be called NSFNET (National Science Foundation Network), and old lines were to remain called CSNET. -
DoD Disbands ARPANET
While the T3 lines were being constructed, the Department of Defense disbanded the ARPANET and it was replaced by the NSFNET backbone. The original 50Kbs lines of ARPANET were taken out of service. -
First Hypertext System Created
Tim Berners-Lee and CERN in Geneva implements a hypertext system to provide efficient information access to the members of the international high-energy physics community. -
World Wide Web Released
World-Wide Web released by CERN. -
Internet Grows
No major changes were made to the physical network. The most significant thing that happened was the growth. Many new networks were added to the NSF backbone.Hundreds of thousands of new hosts were added to the INTERNET during this time period. -
Businesses Appear On Web
Pizza Hut offers pizza ordering on its Web page. First Virtual, the first cyberbank, opens. -
Backbone Contracts Sold
The National Science Foundation announced that as of April 30, 1995 it would no longer allow direct access to the NSF backbone. The National Science Foundation contracted with four companies that would be providers of access to the NSF backbone (Merit). These companies would then sell connections to groups, organizations, and companies. -
Browser Wars Ensue
The WWW browser war, fought primarily between Netscape and Microsoft, has rushed in a new age in software development, whereby new releases are made quarterly with the help of Internet users eager to test upcoming (beta) versions. -
DNS Privatized
US Depart of Commerce outlines proposal to privatize DNS. ICANN created by Jon Postel to oversee privatization. Jon Postel dies. -
Browser Wars End
AOL buys Netscape; Andreesen steps down as full-time employee. Browsers wars declared over; Netscape and Microsoft share almost 100% of browser market. -
Dot-Com Bubble Bursts
The Dot-Com Bubble bursts. A majority of the dot-coms ceased trading after burning through their venture capital, often without ever making a net profit. -
YouTube.com Launches
YouTube.com launches. -
Google Buys YouTube
here are an estimated 92 million Web sites online (some stats say over 100 million) Google Inc. acquires YouTube for $1.65 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction. -
Google Surpasses Microsoft
Search engine giant Google surpasses Microsoft as "the most valuable global brand," and also is the most visited Web site.
