Timeline

1835

Samuel Morse demonstrated first device to send signals over wires.

1858/1866

First transatlantic cable laid in 1858 but only lasted a few days. Subsequent cables laid in 1866 were successful and remained in use for almost 100 years.

1876

Alexander Graham Bell receives the patent for his "electrical speech machine."

1957

Sputnik launched by USSR – The space race begins between the USSR and the USA

1958

Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) created by Department of Defense (DoD) in the USA.
ARPA researched the ways that computer technology could be used by the military to Command and Control.

1961-68

Packet switching networks developed

1969

ARPANET
Four computers are set up at four Universities in the USA they are networked together via telephone lines.

1970

ARPAnet began using the a new Internet protocol system called NCP (Network Control Protocol).

1971

Ray Tomlinson invents an email program to send messages across a wide area network (WAN).

1972

First public demonstration of ARPANET between 40 computers.

1973

The first international ARPAnet locations were set at London's University College and Norway's Royal Radar Establishment.

File Transfer protocol introduced which agreed how computers send and receive data between themselves.

1974

Transmission Control Program (TCP) introduced.
Telenet, a commercial version of ARPANET launched.  

1976

The Queen sends an e-mail

1977

The first e-mail specifications are agreed

1981

BITNET, A network linking Yale University and the City University of New York introduced. BITNET users can send and receive Internet mail.

1982

ARPA establish the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP), (TCP/IP), for ARPANET.

1983

The first domain name servers (DNS) are built to store the locations of other computers on the network.
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) replaces NCP.

1984

The number of computers connected to the internet breaks the 1,000 mark.

1986

NSFNET created with a main connection (backbone) speed of 56Kbps).

1987

The number of computers connected to the internet breaks the 10,000 mark.

1988

Internet worm attacks computers on the internet, affecting 10% of the 60,000 computers connected to the Internet.
CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) formed to prevent future attacks.

NSFNET backbone upgraded to T1 (1.544Mbps)

1989

The number of computers connected to the internet breaks the 100,000 mark.

1991

NSFNET backbone upgraded to T3 (44.736Mbps)
NSFNET traffic exceeds 1 trillion bytes/month and 10 billion packets/month

1992

The number of computers connected to the internet breaks the 1,000,000 mark. The term "Surfing the Internet" is introduced by Jean Armour Polly

1994

ARPANET/Internet celebrates 25th anniversary
NSFNET traffic passes 10 trillion bytes/month
WWW edges out telnet to become 2nd most popular service on the Net (behind ftp-data) based on % of packets and bytes traffic distribution on NSFNET

1995

Main Internet traffic now routed through interconnected network providers.
RealAudio introduced lets users of the Net hear in near real-time audio across the internet.
Online dial-up systems begin to provide Internet access to the general public.

1999

The Internet is 30 years old!

2001

Worms and viruses increasingly become danger, slowing down internet access.

2003

The recording Industry Association of America sues 261 people for alleged illegal distribution of copyrighted music files over the internet.

2004

Online spending continues to climb and reaches a record high of 117 billion, a 26% increase over 2003.

2005

In January, the free online encyclopaedia Wikipedia ( www. Wikipedia.com) reaches the mark of 900,000 articles.  

2006

 Phone communication over the Internet become increasingly popular with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)