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The U.S. Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was developed, and it was the seed of the modern Internet. In 1969, the first message was sent over ARPANET. -
The first email was sent by computer engineer Ray Tomlinson, marking the start of early networked communication. His message was a random string of letters, "QWERTYUIOP", and he made the @ symbol the universal electronic locator sign. -
Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn designed Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP) in 1974. TCP/IP is the digital language that sets out the rules of the Internet. These protocols are still used today. -
Maze War was a game that existed before the creation of the Internet, but was adapted into an online version using ARPANET. -
Gary Thuerk, a marketing manager at DEC, sent approximately 400 users on ARPANET an unsolicited advertisement for DEC's new computers. This email was met with much negativity and complaint, making it the first-ever spam email sent. -
ARPANET switches to TCP/IP. This marks the start of the internet as we know it. -
The Domain Name System (DNS) establishes the familiar system for naming websites. This makes things easier to remember than the previous numeric IP addresses by using human-readable names like .edu, .gov, .com, .org, and .net. -
Steve Wichita of Compuserve invented the GIF in 1987. The first GIF image was of an airplane flying through the sky. Wichita insisted that the word is pronounced using a hard J sound. -
The World Wide Web was created by computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee. In his paper, "Information Management: A Proposal," came the blueprint for the Internet. He created the first web browser, web server, and website, which were critical foundations of the internet we use today. -
CERN made web technology available to the
world at no cost. This was a key moment in internet history that made it so that anyone who wants to learn can host a server or create a website. -
The NCSA Mosaic browser was not the first web browser ever created; however, it was the first widely available graphical browser. With its creation, web use exploded and the growth of online content occurred. -
Jeff Bezos, the creator of Amazon, first founded the company in 1994. Originally, it launched as an online bookstore, but in 1995, Amazon went live on the World Wide Web. It has since branched out to become a global company offering a wide range of products and services. -
Sixdegrees.com was the first recognized social media platform. It introduced user profiles, friend groups, and other features for people to communicate with others, foster relationships, and grow their social networks. -
In 1998, Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Its revolutionary founding made search vastly more powerful and accessible. -
Wikipedia, founded by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger in 2001, is a free content online encyclopedia. It is a collaborative, community-driven knowledge base. -
Facebook was initially known as The Facebook. It launched in 2004, was created by Mark Zuckerberg, and was initially made exclusively for Harvard students as a means for them to connect. Facebook then spread, transforming social media and online interaction, allowing users to connect, share content, and interact in ways never seen before. -
Youtube was registered in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. They believed that ordinary people would enjoy sharing their "home videos." Then the site officially launched for video sharing and watching, quickly making online video sharing mainstream. -
Twitter launched in 2006 after Jack Dorsey sent out his first tweet. Since then, real-time microblogging has entered global communication and has now become a key platform in real-time communication and news. -
Apple revolutionized the way phone users access the internet when it released the first iPhone in 2007. It popularized smartphones, and made mobile internet and apps a central part of daily life. -
Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in 2010. Its creation defined a new era of social media and it quickly became popular with its photo and video sharing features. -
Snapchat was launched in 2011 by Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown, and Bobby Murphy. It became widely popular among younger audiences and includes features such as disappearing chats and stories, filters, and Bitmoji. This allowed users to be creative and contributed to new trends in social media.