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The History of the Internet

  • Packet Switching

    Packet Switching
    SourceSourceLeonard Kleinrock at MIT writes his first paper about packet switching, which is a way that computers are able to communicate in a network.
  • The "Galactic Network" Sparks an Idea

    The "Galactic Network" Sparks an Idea
    Source J.C.R. Licklider of MIT wrote the preliminary idea for what would become the Internet in a series of memos. He wrote about a global social networking of computers, which was ideally very much like the Internet of today, and called it the "Galactic Network." **This date is approximate.
  • Licklider at DARPA

    Licklider at DARPA
    Source
    While the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) had been around since 1958 (it was only called ARPA then), in 1962 Licklider joined the crew. Licklider instilled his ideas about global computer networking to the rest of the DARPA crew.
  • BASIC created at Dartmouth

    BASIC created at Dartmouth
    source BASIC was created by a professor at Dartmouth to make programing more accesible to non math/science majors.
  • First Small Wide Area Network (WAN)

    First Small Wide Area Network (WAN)
    SourceScientists hook up a computer in Massachusetts to one in California through a low speed dial up telephone connection. This is the first small computer network. However, packet switching computer communication isn't perfected yet.
  • Draft idea for the first world wide web

    Draft idea for the first world wide web
    Leonard Kleinrock of MIT drafts first paper on ARPA net, which was a networking of government computers.
  • ARPANET takes off

    ARPANET takes off
    source
    ARPANET takes off for the first time!
  • ARPANET at the ICCC

    ARPANET at the ICCC
    ARPANET is presented to the International Computer Communication Conference. Bonus: This same year the first email software is created!
  • Altair 8800 First Personal Computer

    Altair 8800 First Personal Computer
    source One of the first computer's to be affordable to civilians. This was the computer that got future Microsoft giants Bill Gates and Paul Allen playing around with programming in BASIC code.
  • IBM realeases Personal Computer

    IBM realeases Personal Computer
    source IBM releases the first PC that resembles our modern day computer system. This year the computer won "man of the year."