1969

In December, ARPANET goes online

connecting four major universities.
Designed for research, education,
and government organizations, it
provides a communications network
linking the country in the event that
a
military
attack
destroys
conventional
communications
systems.

Queen Elizabeth sends her first

email. She's the first state leader to
do so.

Electronic mail is introduced by

Ray Tomlinson, a Cambridge,
Mass., computer scientist. He
uses the @ to distinguish
between the sender's name and
network name in the email
address.

1989

Domain Name System (DNS) is established,

with network addresses identified by
extensions such as .com, .org, and .edu.

The World
(world.std.com) debuts
as the first provider of
dial-up Internet access
for consumers..

Writer William Gibson coins the term

cyberspace.

1993
Mosaic is developed by Marc
Andreeson at the National Center for
Supercomputing
Applications
(NCSA). It becomes the dominant
navigating system for the World
Wide Web, which at this time
accounts for merely 1% of all

Approximately 45
million
people
are using
the
Internet.
43.2
million
(44%)
U.S. households
own a personal
computer, and 14
million of them
are online.

1982

1988

1991

1994

1997

The word Internet is used

for the first time.

A virus called the Internet

Worm
temporarily
shuts
down about 10% of the
world's Internet servers.

Gopher, which provides pointand-click navigation, is created

at the University of Minnesota
and named after the school
mascot. Gopher becomes the
most popular interface for
several years.

The White House

launches its website,
www.whitehouse.gov
.

On July 8, 1997, Internet

traffic records are broken as
the
NASA
website
broadcasts images taken by
Pathfinder on Mars. The
broadcast generates 46
million hits in one day.

2003

1999
College student Shawn Fanning
invents Napster, a computer
application that allows users to
swap music over the Internet.

Google opens its

E-commerce becomes the new
first
in
buzzword office,
as Internet shopping
rapidly
spreads.
California.

1996

1984

1976

Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter

and running mate Walter Mondale
use email to plan campaign events.

1972

The number of Internet users

worldwide reaches 150 million
by the beginning of 1999. More
than 50%
are from the United
1998
States.

Hist
ory
of
Inte
Hist
rnet
ory
of
Inte
rnet

2000
2001

Viruses like Love Bug and

Wikipedia
Stages
affected millions of
computer
was online through the
use of email.

created.

In December, President
Bush
signs
the
Controlling the Assault
of
Non-Solicited
Pornography
and
Marketing Act of 2003
(CAN-SPAM Act), which
is intended to help
individuals
and
businesses 2002
control the
amount of unsolicited
email Internet
they
receive.
is

being used by

million
Apple 544.2 Computer
introduces
Apple iTunes
people
Music worldwide.
Store,
which

The term weblog is

coined. Its later shortened
to blog.

2008

2004
2005
Internet
Worm,
called
MyDoom
or
Novarg,
spreadsis launched.
through Internet
Youtube
servers. About 1 in 12 email

2007
2006

The online game, World of

Warcraft, hits a milestone
92
million
websites
when it surpasses 9 million
were
registered
online.
subscribers worldwide
in
July.

NASA successfully tests

the
first
deep
space
communications network
modeled on the Internet.
Using
software
called
Disruption-Tolerant
2009-2010
Networking,
or
DTN,
dozens of space images
Internet for mobile phones
are transmitted to and
was widely used. The
from a NASA science
boom of social networks.
spacecraft located about

2013-present
Social
network,
online
businesses
and
media
2011-2012
streaming
dominates the
web.
Online
petitions
were
made
pass for
a bill
for
Selling tosingles
music
anti-piracy.
overtakes the selling of