Timeline of the Internet

1962

J.C.R. Licklider of MIT proposed the development of a global network of computers. He was brought on board by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop the project he proposed.

1965

Using a simple dial up connection, Lawrence Roberts of MIT connected the Lincoln Labs TX2/ANS/Q-32 computer in Massachusetts to Marill's SDC's Q32 computer in California to create the world's first digital network communications.

1969

A prototype of the Internet, known as ARPANET, was brought online. The ARPANET consisted of four computers located at UCAL, Stanford Research Institutes, University of California at Santa Barbara, and University of Utah.

1972

Ray Tomlinson of Raytheon BBN Technologies adapted email for ARPANET. He selected the @ symbol to separate the users from the host in the email address, and that structure still remains today.

1973

The ftp protocol, enabling file transfer between Internet locations was developed.

1974

The term "Internet" first came to reference the global network of computers. The global network was differentiated from smaller internets by the capital letter "I" in its name.

1979

Usenet, an early version of the message board, was created and CompuServe became the first to offer electronic email service, an early version of email.

1980

Bob Kahn with Raytheon BBN Technologies proposed the TCP/IP architecture.

1983

TCP/IP was universally adopted as the standard method of communication among computers on the Internet.

Tim Burners-Lee proposes the TCP/IP protocol and invents the HTML formatting language.

1989

America online offers email service to the public and becomes the largest Internet Service Provider. Development on Mosaic, the first graphical browser, begins.

1993

Tim Burners-Lee organize the World Wide Web Consortium to define standards for web development

1994

Microsoft releases Windows 98, the first operating system with an integrated web browser.

1998