Welcome to the Internet Hall of Fame's Living History Timeline
The Internet Hall of Fame's Living History Timeline explores the history of the Internet and highlights the inductees who have pioneered Internet technology, contributed to ongoing development and innovation and helped expand the Internet's reach across the globe.
USSR Launches Sputnik
USSR launches Sputnik into space and, with it, global communications.
Bell Labs researchers invent the modem (modulator - demodulator), which converts digital signals to electrical (analog) signals and back, enabling communication between computers.
Leonard Kleinrock pioneers the packet-switching concept in his Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) doctoral thesis about queueing theory: Information Flow in Large Communication Nets.
J.C.R. Licklider writes memos about his Intergalactic Network concept of networked computers and becomes the first head of the computer research program at ARPA.
The first universal standard for computers, ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Exchange) is developed by a joint industry-government committee. ASCII permits machines from different manufacturers to exchange data.
Paul Baran, Donald Davies Develop Message Blocks/Packet-switching
The Rand Corporation's Paul Baran develops message blocks in the U.S., while Donald Watts Davies, at the National Physical Laboratory in Britain, simultaneously creates a similar technology called packet-switching. The technology revolutionizes data communications.
Lawrence Roberts & Thomas Marill Create First Wide-area Network
Lawrence Roberts (MIT) and Thomas Marill get an ARPA contract to create the first wide-area network (WAN) connection via long distant dial-up between a TX-2 computer in Massachusetts and a Q-32 computer in California. The system confirms that packet switching offers the most promising model for communication between computers.
Charles Herzfeld Approves Funds for Computer Networking Experiment
As ARPA director, Charles Herzfeld approves funding to develop a networking experiment that would tie together multiple universities funded by the agency. The result would be the ARPAnet, the first packet network and a predecessor to today’s Internet.
Building on the 1965 “Cooperative Network of Time-sharing Computers” study, MIT’s Lawrence Roberts comes to ARPA to conduct the networking experiment and develop the first ARPAnet plan ("Towards a Cooperative Network of Time-Shared Computers").
Lawrence Roberts leads ARPAnet design discussions and publishes first ARPAnet design paper: "Multiple Computer Networks and Intercomputer Communication." Wesley Clark suggests the network is managed by interconnected ‘Interface Message Processors’ in front of the major computers. Called IMPs, they evolve into today’s routers.
Danny Cohen Develops First Real-time Visual Flight Simulator
Danny Cohen develops the first real-time visual flight simulator on a general purpose computer and the first real-time radar simulator. His flight simulator work leads to the development of the Cohen-Sutherland computer graphics line clipping algorithms, created with Ivan Sutherland.
Steve Crocker heads UCLA Network Working Group under Professor Leonard Kleinrock to develop host level protocols for ARPAnet communication in preparation for becoming the first node. The group, which includes Vint Cerf and Jon Postel, lays the foundation for protocols of the modern Internet.
The physical Interface Message Processor (IMP) network is constructed, linking four nodes: University of California at Los Angeles, SRI (in Stanford), University of California at Santa Barbara, and University of Utah.
The first data packets are sent between networked computers on October 29th by Charley Kline at UCLA, under supervision of Professor Leonard Kleinrock. The first attempt resulted in the system crashing as the letter G of “Login” was entered. The second attempt was successful.
Ray Tomlinson of BBN invents the email program to send messages across a distributed network. The "@" sign is chosen from the punctuation keys on Tomlinson's Model 33 Teletype to separate local from global emails, making "user@host" the email standard.
Robert Kahn demonstrates the ARPAnet to the public for the first time by connecting 20 different computers at the International Computer Communication Conference, and in doing so, imparts the importance of packet-switching technology.
Jon Postel Helps Create First Internet Address Registry
While at the Information Science Institute, Jon Postel helps create the first Internet address registry, which later becomes Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). This administers IP addresses and other critical Internet functions.
Faced with the "good fortune to be the first person in the world to be given the problem of connecting a roomful of computers," Bob Metcalfe co-invented the Ethernet at Xerox Parc.
Development begins on what will eventually be called TCP/IP protocol by a group headed by Vint Cerf (Stanford) and Robert Kahn (DARPA). The new protocol will allow diverse computer networks to interconnect and communicate with each other.
Danny Cohen was the first to implement “packet video” and “packet voice” (Network Voice Protocol) when he adapted the visual flight simulator to run over the ARPANET in 1973. It was the first application of packet switching to real-time applications. See Danny's presentation here.
Elizabeth “Jake” Feinler begins to help lead SRI International’s Network Information Center (NIC), where her group eventually develops the first Internet “yellow-” and “white-page” servers, the first query-based network host name and address (WHOIS) server, and the Host Naming Registry for the Internet. As a part of this effort she and her group develop the top-level domain naming schemes of .com, .edu, .gov, .mil, .org, and .net.
Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn publish "A Protocol for Packet Network Interconnection" which specifies in detail the design of a Transmission Control Program (TCP) and coins the term “Internet” for the first time.
Lawrence Landweber Creates Computer Science Network
Lawrence Landweber creates CSNET (Computer Science Network), a network for all US university and industrial computer research groups. By 1984, over 180 university, industrial, and government computer science departments are participating in CSNET.
Mike Jensen Begins Pioneering Early Networks in Developing Countries
Mike Jensen begins building some of the earliest networks to connect the nonprofit sector, playing a key role in establishing network connectivity for developing countries.
Jaap Akkerhuis Helps Connect the Netherlands and Europe
Jaap Akkerhuis becomes instrumental in the development of the Internet in the Netherlands and Europe, and plays a key role as a global connector in the technical community.
Radia Perlman designs IS-S (Intermediate System to Intermediate System) protocol for routing IP, which continues to flourish today, and the Spanning Tree algorithm, which allows the Ethernet to handle large clouds of data.
As a DARPA manager, Dr. Barry Leiner helps establish the Internet Activities Board (later the Internet Architecture Board), which leads the effort to set early Internet technical standards.
Lawrence Landweber Forges First U.S.- Europe Network Gateways
Lawrence Landweber establishes the first network gateways between the U.S. and European countries. He also establishes the “Landweber Conferences,” which are instrumental in showing scientists from around the world how to implement national academic and research networks in their countries.
Ira Fuchs co-founds BITNET, a precursor to the Internet that offers many of the Internet’s core services years before the Internet’s commercialization.
Danny Cohen adapts the visual simulator to run over the ARPAnet, the first application of packet- switching networks to real-time applications. See demonstration here.
Teus Hagen initiates the European Unix Network (EUnet) as the EUUG dial-up service, which becomes the first public wide area network in Europe, serving four initial “backbones.”
Kilnam Chon develops the first Internet connection in Asia, called SDN, and his pioneering work inspires others to promote the Internet’s regional growth.
The ARPAnet changes its core networking protocols from Network Control Programs to the more flexible and powerful TCP/IP protocol suite, marking the start of the modern Internet.
Paul Mockapetris expands the Internet beyond its academic origins by inventing the Domain Name System (DNS). John Klensin helps facilitate early procedural and definitional work for DNS administration and top-level domain definitions.
In 1984, Yvonne Marie Andrés creates the nonprofit Global SchoolNet, an international organization that facilitates collaborative educational projects.
Dr. Jun Murai, known as the ‘father of the Internet in Japan,’ develops the Japanese University UNIX Network (JUNET), the first inter-university network in that nation.
The first email arrives in Germany from the U.S. on August 3, 1984. "Willkommen CSNET," it says. Werner Zorn plays a critical role in this event and establishing the German Internet.
In January 1986, in San Diego, California, 21 people attend a historic meeting now known as IETF 1. It's the first meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force, an open, global community of network designers, operators, vendors and researchers who help guide Internet architecture and standards.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Internet is Published
Responding to a lack knowledge in the academic community about Internet use, Ed Krol writes The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Internet, published in 1987 as one of the earliest non-technical Internet guides. It was later adopted as the Internet Engineering Task Force’s RFC-1118.
Srinivasan Ramani plays a key role in India’s Education and Research Network (ERNET) and leads the effort to set up ERNET’s international gateway, starting with a link to Amsterdam.
While serving as executive director at SANGONeT, an Internet service provider and training institution for civil society, labour and community organizations, Esterhuysen, with many others, helps establish email and Internet connectivity in Southern Africa.
Nancy Hafkin helps facilitate the ECA’s African Information Society Initiative, which establishes the first email connectivity in more than 10 African countries.
Tracy LaQuey Parker Pens Early Bestseller about the Internet
Tracy LaQuey Parker writes one of the earliest, best-selling books about the Internet: The User's Directory of Computer Networks, which becomes a historic record of the NSFNET.
Dr. Glenn Ricart sets up the first Internet Exchange point, connecting the original federal TCP/IP networks and first U.S. commercial and non-commercial Internet networks.
Francois Flückiger convenes the founding meeting that leads to the creation of Réseaux IP Européens (RIPE), the nonprofit organization that conducts technical coordination of the European Internet infrastructure.
Five of the RIPE pioneers at the 20th anniversary celebrations in May. From left to right: François Fluckiger, Daniel Karrenberg, Enzo Valente, Olivier Martin and Rob Blokzijl.
Daniel Karrenberg Helps Build First Pan-European ISP
Daniel Karrenberg helps build EUnet, the first pan-European Internet Service Provider. By 1989, Karrenberg helps found Reseaux IP Europeens (RIPE), the key collaborative forum for Internet coordination in Europe. He also leads the formation of the world’s first Regional Internet Registry, the RIPE Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC).
Van Jacobson develops algorithms for the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) that help solve the problem of congestion and are still used in over 90% of Internet hosts today.
Tadao Takahashi Lays Brazilian Internet Foundation
Tadao Takahashi starts one of the earliest academic networks in Brazil and becomes a driving force in the effort to build a backbone that would become the foundation of the Brazilian Internet.
Alan Emtage Begins Development of First Internet Search Engine
Alan Emtage conceives of and begins developing the world’s first Internet search engine, called Archie, pioneering many techniques used by search engines today.
Dr. Stephen Goldstein plays a key role in evaluating and funding development of Internet initiatives around the world, helping connect about 25 countries to the NSFNET.
Geoff Huston leads the effort to bring the Internet from the academic and research sector to the Australian public. Through his work with Australian communications service provider, Telstra, he helps facilitate the large-scale deployment of the Internet across Australia and as a transit service provider in the Asia Pacific region.
At CERN, the European Physical Laboratory, Tim Berners-Lee creates the World Wide Web. Robert Cailliau is a key proponent of the project, and helps Berners-Lee author a proposal for funding. Later, Cailliau develops, along with Nicola Pellow, the first web browser for the Mac OS operating system.
Brewster Kahle Invents First Internet Publishing System
Brewster Kahle invents the Internet’s first publishing system, WAIS (Wide Area Information Server) and founds WAIS, Inc. A precursor to today’s search engines, WAIS is one of the first programs to index large amounts of data and make it searchable across large networks.
Association for Progressive Communications Founded
Karen Banks, co-founds APC, an international network and non-profit dedicated to creating and sustaining a free and open Internet that serves the needs of the global civil society.
John Perry Barlow co-founds the Electronic Frontier Foundation to provide legal aid to defend individuals and new technologies from “misdirected legal threats” related to technology.
Toru Takahashi helps bring the Internet to Japan and promotes it throughout Asia in the 1990s. He is key to the early commercial development of the Internet in the region.
Philip Zimmermann creates Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), an email encryption software package that's published for free. Originally designed as a human rights tool, PGP becomes one of the most widely used email encryption softwares in the world.
Al Gore Creates Bill to Fund "Information Superhighway"
Al Gore creates the High-performance Computing and Communications Act of 1991 (the Gore Bill), which allocates $600 million for high performance computing and helps create the National Research and Educational Network. The Gore Bill also creates the National Information Infrastructure, known as the Information Superhighway.
George Sadowsky Helps Create Global Internet Training Team
George Sadowsky helps create the team that would train over 1,500 instructors from over 100 nations on Internet technologies, operation, management and governance. This initiative was crucial to the Internet’s global expansion.
Randy Bush, John Klensin Found Network Startup Resource Center
Randy Bush and John Klensin found the non-profit Network Startup Resource Center to develop and deploy Internet networking technology to dozens of countries throughout the world.
The Internet Companion, written by Tracy LaQuey Parker, is published as the first layman's guide to the Internet. Translated into eight languages, it becomes an international bestseller.
Mark Andreessen and Eric Bina create the Mosaic browser at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), which helps popularize the World Wide Web among the general public.
Jianping Wuleads the design, development and evolution of CERNET, the first Internet backbone in China, helping it become the largest national academic network in the country.
Erik Huizer authors the first Request for Comments to document not only the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards process but also the procedures for its Working Groups.
Madam Qiheng Hu leads a delegation to the US for discussions with the National Science Foundation, which facilitates the setting up the first direct TCP/IP connection in mainland China.
Brewster Kahle Founds Internet Archive; Email Surpasses Postal Mail
There is more email than postal mail in the U.S., and Brewster Kahle founds the Internet Archive, a free digital library with a mission to provide “universal access to all knowledge.” Chronicling over 85 billion pieces of deep Web geology, Kahle creates a history of the Internet’s formation.
Tan Tin Wee founds the multilingual Internet domain name system and is instrumental in its internationalization. In the 1990s, under his leadership, Singapore hosts the first Chinese and Tamil websites. He is widely recognized for his award-winning technological efforts in the Tamil-speaking community and guides the development of the Tamil Internet.
Anne-Marie Eklund Lowinder helps the .SE board understand the importance of DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions), the Internet protocol guards that enable users to be sure they are visiting a secure site.
Mitchell Baker gets involved in the Mozilla Project and becomes a founding chairperson of the Mozilla Foundation. She helps legitimize Open Source Internet application clients.
Craig Newmark founds Craigslist, which is to become one of the most widely used websites on the Internet. He changes the way people used classifieds, transforming it into a largely Internet-based industry.
Professor Nii Quaynor, known as Africa’s ‘Father of the Internet,’ convenes the first training workshop for the African Network Operators’ Group. His efforts have a profound impact on the continent’s Internet growth.
Aaron Swartz co-creates RSS, a program that collects news from various web pages and puts them in one place for readers, with the goal of making information freely available to everyone.
Under the leadership of Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig, Aaron Swartz helped build the open architecture for Creative Commons, which works to minimize the barriers to sharing and reusing research and educational materials.
Mahabir Pun, with the help of volunteers from the US and Europe, connects the first village in Nepal to the Internet using long range wireless links built from homemade antennas. This is the beginning of the Nepal Wireless Network, which has since connected 175 villages to the Internet.
Dorcas Muthoni founds OPENWORLD LTD, a software company which has been involved in the delivery of some of the most widely used Web and cloud applications in Africa.
Dr. Nancy Hafkin authors Cinderella or Cyberella?: Empowering Women in the Knowledge Society, a collection of essays that examines how information and communications technologies empower women.
Royal Wedding Is Biggest Internet Event; UCLA Opens Internet History Center
Live streaming of Will and Kate’s wedding is the biggest event ever watched on the Internet, and UCLA, where the first ARPAnet node was built, opens its Internet History Center.
