-
The Invention of the Telegraph
In 1836 Cooke and Wheatstone invented the telegraph machine, but it was Samuel Morse who with his invention of the Morse code (a series of 0's and 1's) brought the telegraph into commercial use. The first message sent using the telegraph was "What hath God wrought?" which was punched out onto paper and translated by an operator. -
The first email is sent
Ray Tomlinson sends the first real email by merging a file transfer program called CPYNET with SNDMSG, a program that could deliver messages to another person on the same computer. -
Jobs and Wonziak design the first Apple computer
Highschool friends and (famously) college dropouts Steve Jobs and Steven Wonziak design the first Apple computer which Steve Jobs insisted they try and sell. -
Timothy Berners-Lee
Computer scientist, Timothy Berners-Lee created the WWW protocol, allowing us to use the internet as we do today which he released to the public at no charge (except for the access provider). -
Gopher is created
The primitive version of a web browser is created by Marc McCahill and a small amount of it's active servers still remain today. -
"Surfing the internet" coined
Master of Library Science coined the phrase "Surfing the internet" in the title of an article she wrote. She was inspired by the mouse pad she was using at the time which pictured a wave. -
First blog is created
Before the term "blog" was even coined, Swarthmore College student, Justin Hall was writing what he called his personal homepage. -
AIM is launched
Pick a cool screen name and wait until you hear the door open sound to see if your crush is online! AOL Instant Messenger allowed people to message each other back and forth in real time -
Six Degrees Launches
SixDegrees.com was the first social media site that used friends and acquaintances to create connections through mutual friends online. The site allowed people to message and post bulletins that could be viewed by first, second, and third degree connections. Six Degrees was active from 1997-2001 before being overrun by other social media sites. -
Google is founded
Google LLC was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 2003. It is most used search engine today. -
Facebook Launches
Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg along with friends first created "Thefacebook" which was at first a private social media site for Harvard students and then other Ivy league students. In September of 2006 it was officially opened for use to anyone age 13 and over. While Facebook has had it's share of controversies concerning user privacy, today it is still one of the most widely used social media sites. -
YouTube Launches
The creation of YouTube allowed users to create and share media to friends and the public and was the first of it's kind. It has remained popular since it's 2005 launch. -
WikiLeaks is born
Julian Assange creates an international nonprofit website that allows users to anonymously leak classified government documents and news to the public. In 2016 presidential candidate had her emails leaked on this site which may have played a part in her losing the election. -
#barcamp is the first hashtag ever used...but certainly not the last!
Chris Messina asks people on twitter how they feel about using the # sign to form groups and it took off from there. The term "hashtag" was coined three days later and has been incredibly popular and powerful ever since. -
President Obama sends 1st Tweet from the White House
"Hello, Twitter! It's Barack. Really! Six years in, they're finally giving me my own account." President Obama makes history by being the 1st US President to tweet from the White House from @POTUS. -
Donald Trump posts his first tweet as President.......
President Trumps tweets since becoming President have been a source of confusion, humor, entertainment, and pure rage, and for some has raised the question "should we limit some individuals access to the internet???" (I'm kidding, please don't give me points off, I couldn't resist)
