1958

President Eisenhower requests funds to create ARPA. Approved as a line item in Air Force appropriations bill.

1961

Len Kleinrock, Professor of Computer Science at UCLA, writes first paper on packet switching, "Information Flow in Large Communications Nets." Paper published in RLE Quarterly Progress Report.

1962

•J.C.R. Licklider & W. Clark write first paper on Internet Concept, "On-Line Man Computer Communications."
• Len Kleinrock writes Communication Nets, which describes design for packet switching network; used for ARPAnet

1964

Paul Baran writes, "On Distributed Communications Networks," first paper on using message blocks to send info across a decentralized network topology (Nodes and Links)

Oct. 1965

First Network Experiment: Directed by Larry Roberts at MIT Lincoln Lab, two computers talked to each other using packet-switching technology.

Dec. 1966

ARPA project begins. Larry Roberts is chief scientist.

Dec. 1968

ARPAnet contract given to Bolt, Beranek & Newman (BBN) in Cambridge, Mass.

Sept. 1, 1969

First ARPAnet node installed at UCLA Network Measurement Center. Kleinrock hooked up the Interface Message Processor to a Sigma 7 Computer.

Oct. 1, 1969

Second node installed at Stanford Research Institute; connected to a SDS 940 computer. The first ARPAnet message sent: "lo." Trying to spell login, but the system crashed!

Nov. 1, 1969

Third node installed at University of California, Santa Barbara. Connected to an IBM 360/75.

Dec. 1, 1969

Fourth node installed at University of Utah. Connected to a DEC PDP-10.

March 1970

Fifth node installed at BBN, across the country in Cambridge, Mass.

July 1970

Alohanet, first packet radio network, operational at University of Hawaii.

March 1972

First basic e-mail programs written by Ray Tomlinson at BBN for ARPANET: SNDMSG and READMAIL. "@" Sign chosen for its "at" meaning.

March 1973

First ARPANET international connections to University College of London (England) and NORSAR (Norway).

1974

•Intel releases the 8080 processor.
• Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn publish "A Protocol for Packet Network Interconnection," which details the design of TCP.

1976

•Apple Computer founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
•Queen Elizabeth II sends out e-mail.
•Vint Cerf joins ARPA as program manager.

1978

TCP split into TCP and IP.

1979

Bob Metcalfe and others found 3Com (Computer Communication Compatibility).

1980

Tim Berners-Lee writes program called "Enquire Within," predecessor to the World Wide Web.

1981

IBM announces its first Personal Computer. Microsoft creates DOS.

1983

Cisco Systems founded.

Nov. 1983

Domain Name System (DNS) designed by Jon Postel, Paul Mockapetris, and Craig Partridge. . Edu, .gov, .com, .mil, .org, .net, and .int created.

1984

•William Gibson writes "Neuromancer." Coins the term "cyberspace".
•Apple Computer introduces the Macintosh on January 24th.

March 15, 1985

Symbolic.com becomes the first registered domain.

1986

5000 hosts on ARPAnet/Internet.

1987

• 10,000 hosts on the Internet.
• First Cisco router shipped.
• 25 million PCs sold in US.

1989

• 100,000 hosts on Internet.
• McAfee Associates founded; anti-virus software available for free. Quantum becomes America Online.

1990

ARPAnet ends. Tim Berners-Lee creates the World Wide Web.

1992

Jean Armour Polly coins “Surfing the Internet”.

1993

•Mosaic Web browser developed by Marc Andreesen at University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.
•Inter NIC created.
• Web grows by 341,000 percent in a year.

April 1994

•Netscape Communications founded.
• Jeff Bezos writes the business plan for Amazon.com.
•Java's first public demonstration.

Dec. 1994

Microsoft licenses technology from Spyglass to create Web browser for Windows 95.

May 23, 1995

Sun Microsystems releases Java.

August 24, 1995

Windows 95 released.

1996

Domain name tv.com sold to CNET for $15,000. Browser wars begin. Netscape and Microsoft two biggest players.

1997

Business.com sold for $150,000.

1998

US Depart of Commerce outlines proposal to privatize DNS. ICANN created by Jon Postel to oversee privatization. Jon Postel dies.

1999

•AOL buys Netscape; Andreesen steps down as full-time employee.
• Browsers wars declared over; Netscape and Microsoft share almost 100% of browser market.
• Microsoft declared a monopoly by US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson.
•Shawn Fanning creates Napster, opening the possibilities of peer-to-peer file sharing and igniting a copyright war in the music industry.

January 10, 2000

•AOL Merges with Time-Warner. AOL shareholders take 55% stake in newly formed company.

February 2000

A large-scale denial of service attack is launched against some major Web sites like Yahoo! And eBay, alerting Web sites to the need for tighter security measures.

October 2000

IPLinks Network Solutions Inc. was created.

July 2001

A federal judge rules that Napster must remain off-line until it can prevent copyrighted material from being shared by its users.