1958: Defense Department creates ARPA, forerunner of the Internet.
1960: Americans and British simultaneously develop packet switching
transmission.
1965: Hypertext is created. It will one day build the Internet’s links.
1966: SABRE airline reservation system is an early data communication
network.
1969: Department of Defense commissions ARPANET to do research
into networking.
1969: UCLA computer sends data to Stanford computer, foreshadowing
Internet.
1970: Alohanet, first wireless computer networking system, University
of Hawaii.
1970: AP sends news by computer.
1971: Early version of email.
1971: ARPANET has 22 university, government connections.
1972: Public demonstration of ARPANET.
1973: Xerox sets up a LAN (local area network) called Ethernet.
1973: Computer in England, another in Norway connect to ARPANET.
1973: AP, UPI start to install computer terminals in all U.S. bureaus.
1974: Telnet offers commercial packet data service.
1974: The word “Internet” enters the lexicon.
1976: Queen Elizabeth II is the first head of state to send an
email message.
1976: Ethernet speeds data over coaxial cable.
1976: Trials begin on TCP/IP protocol for Internet.
1977: An electronic mail system is developed at the University
of Wisconsin.
1978: BBS (Bulletin Board Software) lets computers communicate
via phone modems.
1979: News groups arrive on the Internet.
1979: Game players discover the Internet, especially multi-user
potential.
1979: From England, a text-only Multi-User Dungeon (MUD) game.
1979: USENET begins.
1980: Internet users send and receive at 300 baud
1981: BITNET connects university mainframe computers worldwide.
1981: In France the Minitel system, an national online information
hookup.
1983: Internet domains get names instead of hard-to-remember numbers.
1983: TCP/IP becomes standard for Internet communication between
computers.
1983: MILNET, for military sites, splits off ARPANET.
1984: Several large U.S. newspapers offer online text versions.
1985: Typical modem speed now 2400 bits/second.
1985: 50 newspapers now offer online access to news texts.
1986: The LISTSERV mailing list program.
1986: Congress passes Electronic Communications Privacy Act.
1987: Bill Atkinson’s hypercard brings Vannevar Bush’s hyperlink
vision to reality.
1987: More than 10,000 Internet hosts.
1987: Global teleconference on hunger links 50,000 people in 79
cities.
1987: National Science Foundation starts NSFNET; it will replace
ARPANET.
1988: “Hacker” and “Worm” enter the Internet lexicon.
First data crime reported.
1988: Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore proposes U.S. research and education
network.
1988: Internet T1 backbone completed; soon proves inadequate for
traffic surge.
1989: With 5 million Minitels, France is the world’s most wired nation.
1989: Researchers try to index the exploding Internet; can’t keep
up.
1990: Planners talk about hypertext and browsers.
1991: Internet available for commercial use.
1991: Collapse of Soviet anti-Gorbachev plot aided by the Internet.
1991: Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) written; helps create the
World Wide Web.
1991: The Web gets “servers”.
1991: User-friendly Gopher offers point-and-click navigation of
Internet files.
1992: The Michelangelo virus, originating in Europe, disables computers
worldwide.
1992: The Internet Society is formed to coordinate Internet activities.
1992: Text-based browser opens World Wide Web for general usage.
1992: New Web terms: HTTP and URL.
1992: Delphi offers dial-up service to the Internet.
1993: “Spiders” search the Internet looking for key words.
1993: Graphical user interface, Mosaic, is developed for the World
Wide Web.
1993: 1 in 3 Americans does some work at home instead of driving
to work.
1994: Radio HK, a 24-hour Internet-only radio station.
1994: After 25 years, U.S. government privatizes Internet management.
1994: WWW growth mushrooms. Pizza Hut starts taking orders on the
Web.
1994: 200 workstations worldwide get Rolling Stones concert on
Internet “MBone.”
1994: The Netscape Navigator replaces Mosaic as a World Wide Web
browser.
1994: Yahoo search engine is started by two Stanford graduate engineering
students.
1994: M.I.T. student charged with wire fraud for file swapping
system.
1994: Internet mass marketing brings “spamming” into the lexicon.
1994: Prodigy bulletin board fields 12,000 messages after L.A.
quake.
1994: Banner ads appear on Internet websites.
1994: Real Audio allows audio listening in near real time.
1995: Amazon.com starts selling books online, will become Web’s hottest
retailer.
1995: “Internet addiction” is identified.
1995: Web-TV formed to combine television and the Internet.
1995: The Java programming language for websites.
1995: Major U.S. dailies create national online newspaper network.
1995: Lamar Alexander chooses the Internet to announce presidential
candidacy.
1995: Audio of live events can be heard on the Internet.
1996: The stripped-down Net computer arrives.
1996: More than 100,000 World Wide Web sites, and growing fast.
1996: 45 million Internet users, including 30 million in U.S.
1996: Web-TV tunes television sets to the Internet via the TV set-top
box.
1996: Typical modem is 14.4K bits/sec., but new sales are for 28.8K.
1996: Microsoft releases Explorer 3.0 Web browser.
1996: America Online has 5,000,000 subscribers.
1996: Dell’s “e-tailing” sells assemble-to-order computers
on the Internet.
1996: World Exposition is a world’s fair held on the Internet.
1996: From Netscape: the cookie.
1996: 28% of U.S. public libraries offer Internet access.
1997: Exploding growth: more than 4,000 ISPs in the U.S. and Canada
alone.
1997: ARIN, the American Registry for Internet Numbers.
1997: More than 50 million Americans, Canadians use the Internet.
1997: Nearly 8 of 10 U.S. public schools have Internet access.
1997: Streaming audio and video are available on the Web.
1997: AOL boasts 10 million subscribers.
1997: 2,600 U.S. newspapers have Internet sites or dial-up connections.
1998: Sony’s Everquest multiplayer online game attracts thousands
worldwide.
1998: 3,250 newspapers, 1,280 TV stations now have online websites.
1998: Estimated number of World Wide Web pages: 300 million.
1998: Estimated number of Web pages added each day: 1.5 million.
1998: Plans laid by universities, industry, government for Internet2.
1998: 150 million Internet users estimated at year’s end, half in
the U.S.
1998: Music industry angry as fans download MP3 sound files for
free.
1998: Net users are judges of a TV sports event: world champion
ice skating.
1998: Traffic on the Internet, network of networks, is doubling
every 100 days.
1998: 1 of 3 Americans now use the Internet.
1998: Britain abandons telegrams in favor of email.
1999: Internet users can access more than 800 million web pages.
1999: Virus after virus attack computers. Melissa is the worst
yet.
1999: Teenager Shawn Fanning creates Napster for downloading music.
1999: Ten million Web servers throughout the world.
1999: World worries about Y2K bug; great sums spent to solve the
problem.
2000: Court limits Napster’s Internet file-sharing of music.
2000: Y2K bug tamed, but it was expensive.
2000: British “newscaster” Ananova joins other virtual performers
on TV, the Net.
2000: Stephen King’s novel Riding the Bullet is best seller via Net
downloads only.
2000: Online Journalism Awards to be given in international competition
annually.
2000: The dot.com industry crashes.
2000: 5.1 billion emails are sent in the U.S.; 8.2 billion worldwide.
2000: Seven new Web domain names approved, including .info, .pro,
.biz.
2000: Love Bug virus infects 45 million computers worldwide.
2000: Feature film Quantum Project is produced for Internet distribution,
not theaters.
2000: Bluetooth lets computers converse via low power radio signals.
2000: Congress passes the Children’s Internet Protection Act.
2000: Singles spend $7 million for online dating services.
2001: In U.S., FBI arrests Russian who cracked eBook encryption.
2001: Patriot Act allows examination of library, Internet use.
2001: Instant messaging grows in popularity.
2001: Lexis and Nexis offer 2.8 billion searchable documents from
30,000 sources.
2001: More than half of all Americans now use the Internet.
2002: On the Web, creators of online journals, or “web logs,” now “blog
on.”
2002: In Britain, workers spend more time with email than with
their children.
2002: Estimated 100 million computer users have file sharing software.
2002: Pop-ups and pop-unders clutter computer screens.
2003: Internet becomes integral part of political campaigning.
2003: Flash mobs, organized on the Net, start in New York, spread
worldwide.
2003: Some U.S. states tax Internet bandwidth.
2003: Zip-Codes.com offers Zip-code information online.
2003: Popularity of blogs increases sharply.
2003: Amazon.com scans texts of 120,000 books for Internet users.
2003: Estimated 5 trillion unwanted messages sent on the Internet.
2003: World Summit on the Information Society meets in Switzerland.
2003: European Union requires Internet companies to tax downloads.
2004: Google gets 138,000 requests a minute in 90 languages.
2004: 1 in 5 people under 30 say Internet is main information source.
2004: $21 billion spent on online ads in U.S. alone.
2004: More U.S. information services are outsourced to India, elsewhere.
2004: Survey: U.S. women spend more online game time than men,
teens.
2004: 95% of U.S. public libraries offer Internet access.
2004: Supreme Court rejects Internet porn ban as free speech violation.
2004: Con artists use “phishing” to trick people to reveal personal
data.
2004: Sony’s PSP connects game players worldwide.
2004: Web 2.0 conference explores revision of the Internet.
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