Internet & Networking Timeline Outline

The Problem of the Konigsberg Bridges: The Birth of Network Science
(1736)

Faster than a Messenger on Horseback
(March 2, 1791)

The Chappe Telegraph
(1794)

The First Publically Subscribed Passenger Railroad
(September 27, 1825)

Morse Transmits the First Message by Morse Code
(May 24, 1844)

The Railroad also Becomes an Information Distribution Network
(November 1, 1848)

Using a Fleet of 45 Carrier Pigeons to Deliver News
(1850)

Speeding Communication between Paris and London
(1852)

Reuters Expands, Following Telegraph Lines
(1858)

The Pony Express
(April 3, 1860 – October 26, 1861)

The Origins of Network Neutrality
(June 16, 1860)

New York and San Francisco are Connected by Telegraph
(October 24, 1861)

The Atlantic Cable Snaps after 1200 Miles
(July 1865)

The Third and Successful Atlantic Cable
(July 27, 1866)

The Earliest Fictional Account of a Universal Library, Foreshadowing the Virtual Library on the Internet
(1901)

An Early Sci-Fi View of the Internet and Virtual Reality
(November 1909)

The First Transcontinental Telephone Call
(January 25, 1915)

Using 64,000 Human Computers to Predict the Weather
(1922)

Invention of the Sociogram: Some of the Earliest Graphic Depictions of Social Networks
(April 3, 1933 – 1934)

H. G. Wells and the "World Brain"
(November 20, 1936 – 1938)

Borges' Universe as a Library, or Universal Library or Archive
(1941)

"As We May Think"
(July 1945)

The Hamming Codes
(1950)

The First Transatlantic Telephone Cable is Operational
(1955 – September 25, 1956)

Precursor of Word Processing and Email
(1961)

"Dial F for Frankenstein"
(1961)

First Paper on Data Networking Theory
(May 31, 1961)

The First Digitally Multiplexed Transmission of Voice Signals
(1962)

Packet Switching
(April 1962)

"Online Man-Computer Communication"
(Circa June 1962)

Licklider at the Information Processing Techniques Office, Begins Funding Research that Leads to the ARPANET
(October 1, 1962)

Foundation of Engelbart's Augmentation Research Center
(1963)

The "Intergalactic Computer Network"
(April 25, 1963)

Mathematical Theory of Data Communications
(1964)

On Distributed Communications
(1964)

The First Online Reservation System
(1964)

A Meeting Between Licklider and Lawrence G. Roberts Leads to the Original Planning for What Would Eventually Become ARPANET
(November 1964)

Email Begins
(1965)

Coining the Terms Hypertext, Hypermedia, and Hyperlink
(1965)

Optical Fibers Proposed as a Medium for Communication
(1965)

The First "Actual Network Experiment"
(October 1965)

Describing Networking Research at MIT
(October 1966)

Roberts Begins the Design of the ARPANET
(December 1966)

An Experiment in Packet Switching
(1967)

The First Hypertext Editing System
(1967)

Interface Message Processors
(April 1967)

Protecting Security in a Networked Environment
(Circa May – September 1967)

Introduction of the Term "Packet"
(October 1967)

The First Paper on the Design of the ARPANET
(October 1967)

Features of the Future ARPANET
(April 1968)

UNIX is Developed, Making Open Systems Possible
(1969)

The First Commercial Online Service
(1969)

Peer to Peer Architecture
(April 7, 1969)

The First ARPANET Node
(August 30, 1969)

The First Message Sent Over the ARPANET
(October 29, 1969)

The First Four Nodes on the ARPANET
(December 5, 1969)

Xerox PARC is Founded
(1970)

The First Packet-Switched Wireless Data Network
(1970)

Optical Fibers for the Internet Backbone
(1970)

ARPANET Spans the U.S.
(March 1970)

The Arpanet has 15 Nodes
(1971)

The @ in Email
(March 1971)

The First Email Management Program
(July 1971)

Probably the World's First Online Community
(1973)

The First Public Computerized Bulletin Board System
(1973)

The First International Connections to ARPANET
(1973)

Invention of the Word "Internet"
(Circa 1973)

2000 People Use the ARPANET
(March 1973)

Systems Network Architecture
(1974)

SGML is Invented
(1974)

TCP
(May 1974)

Invention of Ethernet
(1975)

The First Demonstrations of TCP/IP
(1975 – November 1977)

The Warez Scene
(Circa 1975)

First Detailed Description of Ethernet
(July 1976)

The First Intentional Spam
(May 1, 1977)

The Network Nation
(1978)

The Minitel
(1978 – June 30, 2012)

Compuserve
(1979)

Robert Metcalf Founds 3Com
(1979)

USENET: One of the First Computer Network Communications Systems
(1980)

There are 213 Hosts on the Arpanet
(1981)

CSNET
(1981)

TCP/IP as the Basis for ARPANET
(1982)

ARPANET Splits into ARPANET and MILNET
(1983)

"Dial-a-Game": the Earliest Origins of America Online (AOL)
(1983)

ARPANET Requires TCP/IP
(January 1, 1983)

Domain Name System
(November 1983)

Coining the Term Computer Virus
(November 10, 1983)

Moderated Newsgroups
(1984)

There are Over 1000 Hosts on the Internet
(1984)

Breakup of AT&T
(January 1, 1984)

Cisco Systems is Founded
(December 1984)

The First Registered Internet Domain
(March 15, 1985)

One of the First Online Communities
(April 1, 1985)

Quantum Computer Services, Precursor of AOL, Launches an Online Bulletin-Board Service
(May 1, 1985)

There are Over 5000 Hosts on ARPANET
(1986)

The Internet Backbone is Funded
(1986)

NSFNET Connects Five Supercomputer Centers
(1986)

Electronic Tax Filing
(1986)

First PC Virus Epidemic
(January 1986)

SGML Standard is Accepted
(October 1986)

There are Over 10,000 Hosts on the Internet
(1987)

Foundation of the First Commercial ISP
(May 12, 1987)

"Toward a National Research Telecommunications Network"
(November 1987)

The First Commercial Network-Based Groupware Program
(1988)

International Standard for Computer-to-Computer Information Retrieval
(1988)

The Unicode Universal Character Set
(August 29, 1988)

The First Computer Worm to Attract Wide Attention
(November 2, 1988)

There are over 100,000 Hosts on the Internet
(1989)

The First Gateways Between Private E-Mail Carriers and the Internet
(1989)

Invention of "Buffered Media," the Basis for Webcasting
(1989)

An Internet-Based Hypertext System
(March 1989)

The First "Search Engine" but Not a "Web Search Engine"
(1990)

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is Founded
(1990)

Coalition for Networked Information
(1990)

ARPANET Folds into the Internet
(1990)

TED: Technology, Entertainment and Design
(1990)

Berners-Lee Plans the World Wide Web
(November 12, 1990)

The First Web Page
(November 13, 1990)

The First Web Browser and Web Server
(December 25, 1990)

"Clearing the Way for Electronic Commerce"
(1991)

The First Webcam
(1991)

The WAIS System for Searching Text is Introduced
(1991)

First Release of the First Web Browser
(March 1991)

Berners-Lee Makes Web Server and Web Browser Software Available at No Cost
(August 6, 1991)

The Gopher Protocol
(September 1991)

One of the First U.S. Cases in Cyberspace Law
(October 29, 1991)

The First Web Server in North America
(December 12, 1991)

The First Image Posted to the Web
(1992)

The Internet Society
(1992)

Pioneering Collaboration of Electronic Librarianship, Journalism and Telecommunications
(1992)

There are 50 Web Servers on the Internet
(1992)

Visions of a Metaverse
(June 1992)

341,634 Percent Growth Rate on the Internet
(1993)

First Library of Digital Images on the Internet
(1993)

Perhaps the First Law Review Symposium Dedicated to Cyberspace
(1993)

Only About 2000 People in China Use the Internet
(1993)

W3C
(1993)

The First Successful Telepresence Company
(1993)

Estimate of Total Internet Traffic in 1993
(1993)

There are 250 Web Servers on the Internet
(1993)

The Mosaic Web Browser
(March 4, 1993)

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)
(April 1, 1993)

The First Graphics-Based Web Browser
(April 22, 1993)

CERN Releases Rights to World Wide Web Software
(April 30, 1993)

The First Commercial Website with the First Online Advertising
(May 1993)

The First Web Search Engine?
(June 1993)

The Beginning of Video Webcasting over the Internet
(June 1993)

The Size and Growth Rate of the Internet in 1993
(November 3, 1993)

The First Web Search Engine?
(November 30, 1993)

There are 2500 Web Servers and 10,000 Websites
(1994)

World Wide Web Worm
(1994)

Internet Traffic Passes 10 Trilliam Bytes per Month
(1994)

HTTP Packets Surpass FTP Traffic
(1994)

NSFNET Reverts to a Research Network
(1994)

Wireless Internet Access
(1994)

From Webspace to Cyberspace
(1994)

One of the Earliest Guided Tours of the Web
(January 1994)

Selling Wine without Bottles
(March 1994)

The First Internet Cafe
(March 12 – March 13, 1994)

Yahoo! Founded
(April 1994 – January 18, 1995)

The First Company to Exploit the Economic Potential of the Web
(April 4, 1994)

Commercial Spaming Starts with the "Green Card Spam"
(April 12, 1994)

The First Full Text Web Search Engine
(April 20, 1994)

First Internet Radio Broadcast
(May 3 – May 5, 1994)

The First International Conference on the World Wide Web
(May 25 – May 27, 1994)

HTTP Cookies
(June 1994)

The First Commercially Available Web Browser
(October 13, 1994)

The Rolling Stones Present the First "Cyberspace Multicast Concert"
(November 1994)

The First Traditional Radio Station to Initiate Internet Broadcasts
(November 7, 1994)

The First Internet Only Broadcast of a Live Band
(November 10, 1994)

The First Web Page Tagging System
(1995)

There are Approximately 73,500 Servers; WWW is Generally Equated with the Internet
(1995)

Free Online Classified Advertisements
(March 1995)

The First Wiki
(March 25, 1995)

Apache HTTP Server is Released
(April 1995)

The Beginning of the "Dot-Com Bubble"
(August 9, 1995)

The First Television Show Broadcast over the Internet
(November 23, 1995)

Brewster Kahle Founds the Internet Archive
(1996)

More Email is Sent than Paper Mail
(1996)

There are 100,000 Websites
(1996)

A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace
(1996)

The First Access to the Mobile Web
(1996)

A Search Engine Initially Called "BackRub"
(January 1996)

First Recorded Use of the Term, Phishing
(January 2, 1996)

The Internet2 Consortium
(1997)

How Much Information is There?
(1997)

The First Web Analyzer with Drill-Down and Ad-Hoc Analysis
(1997)

The FBI Implements Carnivore
(1997 – 2002)

There are 1,000,000 Websites
(April 1997)

WAP
(June 1997)

The Internet is Entitled to the Full Protection Given to Printed Material
(June 26, 1997)

DNS is Corrupted Through Human Error
(July 1997)

W3C Releases XML
(1998)

Voice Over Internet Protocol
(1998)

The Cluetrain Manifesto
(1998)

The First Long Distance Transmission of One Terabit per Second
(1998)

The First Continuous Live Webcasts
(January 1998)

ICANN is Founded
(September 30, 1998)

Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Promulgated
(December 1998)

Domain Names are Property
(1999)

Bluetooth
(1999)

The First Full Internet Service on Cell Phones
(1999)

"The Internet of Things"
(1999)

Napster is Founded
(June 1, 1999)

comScore is Founded
(August 1999)

Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act
(November 29, 1999)

The Size of the Internet in 2000
(2000)

The Journal of Interactive Advertising
(2000)

Over 10,000,000 Domain Names Have Been Registered
(February 2000)

Climax of the Dot-Com Bubble
(March 10, 2000)

There are 20,000,000 Websites on the Internet.
(September 2000)

Safeguarding Internet Security in China
(December 28, 2000)

The BitTorrent Peer-to-Peer File-Sharing Protocol
(July 2, 2001)

Beneath the Surface of the Ocean of Data: "The Deep Web"
(August 2001)

The First 3G Cellular Network
(October 1, 2001)

Size of the Internet in 2002
(2002)

Origins of Cyberspace
(2002)

Collecting and Preserving the World Wide Web
(February 23, 2003)

Apple Opens the iTunes Store
(April 28, 2003)

Netpreserve.org
(July 2003)

Skype is Founded
(August 2003)

Metroblogging
(November 2003)

800,000,000 People are Using the Internet
(2004)

There are 50,000,000 Websites on the Internet
(May 2004)

BitTorrent is Commercialized
(September 22, 2004)

Web 2.0
(October 5 – October 7, 2004)

8,000,000 U.S. Blogs
(November 2004)

Use of Internet in China
(2005)

40,000,000,000 Web Pages Archived
(2005)

"From Gutenberg to the Internet"
(2005)

NarusInsight Supercomputer Network Monitoring Software
(2005)

"Broadcast Yourself"
(February 2005)

Development and State Control of the Chinese Internet
(April 14, 2005)

Connectomes
(September 30, 2005)

It Could Take 300 Years to Index All the World's Information
(October 8, 2005)

The Amazon Mechanical Turk
(November 2, 2005)

Massively Distributed Collaboration
(November 9, 2005)

The Wayback Machine
(2006)

The Highest Price Paid for a Domain Name
(January 16, 2006)

A Research Library Based on Historical Collections of the Internet Archive
(February 2006)

The "Cyber Storm" War Game
(February 6 – February 10, 2006)

World Wide Web History Center
(March 2006)

"The entire works of humankind, from the beginning of recorded history, in all languages" would amount to 50 petabytes of data.
(May 14, 2006)

Like Teleporting in Star Trek
(June 2006)

Google Apps are Introduced
(August 2006)

Web-Footed?
(September 2006)

More than 100,000,000 Websites
(November 1, 2006)

Information is Expanding 10X Faster than Any Product on this Planet
(February 2007)

In 2007 There Were 12,000,000 U.S. Blogs
(February 2007)

Apple Introduces the iPhone
(June 29, 2007)

The World Wide Telecom Web for Illiterate Populations
(August 2007)

Cyber Storm II
(March 10 – March 14, 2008)

21.9% of the World's People Use the Internet
(June 30, 2008)

181,277,835 Active Websites
(September 2008)

The Leading Classified Advertising Service
(September 2008)

The First Android Phone is Introduced
(September 23, 2008)

Authors, Publishers and Google Reach "Landmark Settlement"
(October 28, 2008)

An Election Reported Interactively in Real Time
(November 4, 2008)

Change.gov is Founded
(November 5, 2008)

Over 5,000,000 Articles Posted on the HighWire Press e-Publishing Platform.
(December 2, 2008)

China Becomes the Top User of the Internet
(January 14, 2009)

BitTorrent was Responsible for 27-55% of All Internet Traffic
(February 2009)

"Computers vs. Brains"
(April 1, 2009)

Australia to Build National Fiber Optic 100 Megabit Network
(April 7, 2009)

"Green Dam Youth Escort"
(May 19, 2009)

Reinventing Email and Internet Communication
(May 28, 2009)

The WARC Format as an International File Preservation Standard
(June 1, 2009)

Piracy of Internet Filtering Software?
(June 13, 2009)

1.7 Billion Internet Users
(September 30, 2009)

The Largest Study of Global Internet Traffic Since the Beginning of the Commercial Internet
(October 19, 2009)

Google Represents 6% of All Internet Traffic
(October 19, 2009)

ICANN Will Allow Web Addresses in Non-Latin Alphabets
(October 30, 2009)

Google's Computers in China Come Under Attack, Initiating a Review of the Company's Operations in China
(December 2009 – January 12, 2010)

Google Announces Real-Time Search
(December 2009)

Exploit Code for Attacks on Google Released on the Internet
(January 15, 2010)

Facebook has 400,000,000 Users
(February 4, 2010)

Google Pulls its Search Engine Out of Mainland China
(March 22, 2010)

The Library of Congress to Preserve All "Tweets"
(April 14, 2010)

Google Acknowledges that it Collected Wi-Fi Information Along with Cartographic and Imaging Information
(April 27 – June 10, 2010)

The First Internet Addresses in Non-Latin Characters
(May 6, 2010)

Cell Phones Are Now Used More for Data than Speech
(May 13, 2010)

Spam Declines from 90% of Email Traffic to Only 72.9%
(July 2010 – June 2011)

Data on Mobile Networks is Doubling Each Year
(August 1, 2010)

"Every Two Days We Create as Much Information as We Did up to 2003"
(August 4, 2010)

Facebook is the Most Searched for and Most Visited Website in America
(December 29, 2010)

4.3 Billion IP Addresses Have Been Allocated
(February 3, 2011)

Two Billion People Now Use the Internet Regularly
(February 17, 2011)

The U. S. National Broadband Map
(February 17, 2011)

Four Phases of Government Internet Surveillance and Censorship to Date
(February 25, 2011)

An Interactive Map of the Internet Later Produced as an iPhone App
(March 2011 – March 2013)

Google Processes 1,000,000,000 Search Queries Per Day
(March 5, 2011)

Microsoft Acquires Skype for $8.5 Billion
(May 2011)

In May 2011 Netflix was the Largest Source of Internet Traffic in North America
(May 2011)

McKinsey Report on the Impact of the Internet on Growth, Jobs, and Prosperity
(May 2011)

The Expanding Digital Universe: Surpassing 1.8 Zetabytes
(June 2011)

FaceBook Serves a Trillion Page Views in June 2011
(June 2011)

"Physical Archiving is Still an Important Function in the Digital Era."The Internet Archive Builds an Archive of Physical Books
(June 6, 2011)

Digital Democracy is Not So Democratic
(June 10, 2011)

"Distant Reading" Versus "Close Reading"
(June 24, 2011)

Google Agrees to Acquire Smart-Phone Maker Motorola Mobility
(August 15, 2011)

Free Online Artificial Intelligence Course Attracts 58,000 Students
(August 15, 2011)

Major Websites Go Dark to Protest Web Censorship Legislation
(January 17, 2012)

Facebook has 845,000,000 Users
(February 1, 2012)

Online Advertising is Expected to Surpass Print Advertising
(October 2012)

2.5 Quintillion Bytes of Data Each Day
(October 23, 2012)

$2.6 Billion Spent on Ads on Phones and Tablets in 2012
(October 29, 2012)

Google Has 67% of the U.S. Search Market and Collects 75% of U.S. Search Ad Dollars
(November 4, 2012)

The First Teleportation from One Macroscopic Object to Another
(November 8, 2012)

Coursera Enrolls Nearly Two Million Students from 196 Countries in Online Courses within its First Year
(November 20, 2012)

"Anonymous" Plans to Shut Down Syrian Government Websites in Response to Countrywide Internet Blackout
(November 29 – December 1, 2012)

100% of U.S. Public Libraries Now Offer Public Access to the Internet
(December 2012)

After Cell Phones With Cameras, Android Cameras- Without Cellphones- are Introduced
(December 19, 2012)

"Libraries Have Shifted from Warehouses of Books & Materials to Become Participatory Sites of Culture and Learning"
(December 28, 2012)

"Information Technology Dividends Outpace All Others"
(January 11, 2013)

On the Twentieth Anniversary CERN Restores the First Website
(April 30, 2013)