Download Early Computing Machines and Inventors

Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
Early Computing Machines and Inventors
The abacus was the first computing device. It was invented
about 5000 years ago in Asia. It is still used today. The
device allowed users to use it as a calculator using beads on
a rack. A long time ago, merchants used the abacus to keep
transactions. The abacus became unimportant as the use of
pencil and paper became widespread. The next significant
advance in computer technology took place nearly 12
centuries later. In 1642, Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) invented
what he called the numerical wheel calculator. He was the
18-year-old son of a French tax collector. The numerical
wheel calculator, also known as the Pascaline, used eight
movable dials to add up sums of up to 8 digits long. As on
dial moved one complete revolution, or ten notches, it moved
the next dial - which represented the tens column – one
place. When the ten’s dial moved 10 notches, the hundred’s
dial moved one notch, and so on. In 1694, Gottfried Wilhem
von Leibniz improved the Pascaline by creating a machine
that could also multiply. Von Leibniz was a German
mathematician and philosopher. Like the Pascaline,
Leibniz’s device was a mechanical multiplier worked by a
system of gears and dials. Leibniz was able to refine his
machine by reading Pascal’s original notes and drawings.
The centerpiece of the machine was a stepped-drum gear
design, therefore offering a longer version of the simple flat
gear. However, mechanical calculations didn’t gain use until
1820. Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar invented a
machine that could perform the four basic arithmetic
functions. He was a Frenchman. Colmar’s mechanical
calculator was called the arithometer. The machine
presented a more practical approach calculating because it
could add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Since the
arithometer had enhanced versatility, it was widely used until
World War I. Later inventors refined Colmar's calculator, but
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
he and his fellow inventors Pascal and Leibniz helped define
the age of mechanical computation. Charles Babbage (17911871), an English mathematics professor, brought on the
real beginnings of computers as we know them now.
Frustrated at the many errors he found while examining
calculations for the Royal Astronomical Society, Babbage
declared, "I wish to God these calculations had been
performed by steam!" With those words, the automation of
computers had begun. By 1812 Babbage had noticed a
natural harmony between machines and mathematics:
machines were best at performing tasks repeatedly without
mistake; while mathematics, particularly the production of
mathematic tables, often required the simple repetition of
steps. Applying the ability of machines to the needs of
mathematics was the problem. In 1822, Babbage made his
first attempt at solving the problems with his proposal of a
machine to perform differential equations called a Difference
Engine. The machine was as large as a locomotive and was
powered by steam. The machine would have a stored
program and could perform calculations and print the results
automatically. Babbage worked on the Difference Engine for
10 years. After that, Babbage was suddenly inspired and
begun work o a general-purpose computer. He called it the
Analytical Engine. Babbage had an assistant. His assistant,
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1842) and
daughter of English poet Lord Byron, was instrumental in the
machine's design. She was one of the few people who
understood the Engine’s design. She helped revise plans,
secure funding from the British government, and was sort of
public relations representative. She talked to the public
about the Analytical Engine. Also, Lady Lovelace's fine
understanding of the machine allowed her to create the
instruction routines to be fed into the computer, making her
the first female computer programmer. In the 1980's, the
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
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U.S. Defense Department named a programming language,
ADA, in her honor.
Babbage's steam-powered Engine, although ultimately never
constructed, may seem primitive by today's standards.
However, it outlined the basic elements of a modern generalpurpose computer and was a breakthrough concept. The
Engine consisted of over 50,000 parts. The basic design of
the Engine included perforated cards containing operating
instructions and a memory of 1,000 numbers of up to 50
decimal digits long. They acted as input cards.
Timeline
3000 BC: Dust abacus is invented, probably in Babylonia.
1800 BC: Babylonian mathematician develops algorithms to
resolve numerical problems.
500 BC: Bead and wire abacus originates in Egypt.
200 AD: Saun-pan computing tray is used in China; soroban
computing tray used in Japan.
1000: Gerbert of Aurillac or Pope Sylvester II devises a more
efficient abacus.
1617: Scottish inventor John Napier uses bones to
demonstrate division by subtraction and multiplication by
addition.
1622: William Oughtred develops the slide rule in England.
1624: Wilhelm Schickard builds first four-function calculatorclock at the University of Heidelberg.
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
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3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
1642: Blaise Pascal builds the first numerical calculating
machine in Paris.
1673: Gottfried Leibniz builds a mechanical calculating
machine that multiplies, divides, adds and subtracts.
1780: American Benjamin Franklin discovers electricity.
1805: Joseph-Marie Jacquard invents perforated card for
use on his loom.
1822: In England Charles Babbage designs a Difference
Engine to calculate logarithms, but the machine is never
built.
1833: Charles Babbage designs the Analytical Machine that
follows instructions from punched-cards. It is the first
general-purpose computer.
1842: Lady Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace and daughter
of Lord Byron, the poet, documents Babbage's work and
writes programs for Babbage.
1854: Irishman George Boole publishes The Mathematical
Analysis of Logic using the binary system now known as
Boolean algebra.
1855: George and Edvard Scheutz of Stockholm build the
first practical mechanical computer based on Babbages
work.
1876: Alexander Graham Bell invents Telephone.
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1884: Herman Hollerith applies for patents for automatic
punch-card tabulating machine.
1884: Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEE) is founded.
1886: William Burroughs develops the first commercially
successful mechanical adding machine.
1889: Patent is issued for Hollerith tabulating machine.
1890: Dr. Herman Hollerith constructs an electromechanical
machine using perforated cards for use in the U.S. census.
1896: Hollerith founds the Tabulating Machine Co. and
constructs a sorting machine.
1903: Nikola Tesla, a Yugoslavian who worked for Thomas
Edison, patents electrical logic circuits called gates or
switches.
1911: Computer-Tabulating-Recording Company is formed
through a merger of the Tabulating Company (founded by
Hollerith), the Computing Scale Company, and the
International Time Recording Company.
1912: Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) is formed.
1914: Thomas J. Watson becomes President of ComputingTabulating-Recording Company.
1921: Czech word robot is used to describe mechanical
workers in the play R.U.R. by Karel Capek.
1924: Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes
its name to International Business Machines.
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1925: Vannevar Bush, builds a large scale analog calculator,
the differential analyzer, at MIT.
1927: First public demonstration of television. Radiotelephone becomes operational between London and New
York.
1927: Powers Accounting Machine Company becomes the
Tabulating Machines Division of Remington-Rand Corp.
1928: A Russian immigrant, Vladimir Zworykin, invents the
cathode ray tube (CRT).
1931: Konrad Zuse builds First calculator, the Z1, in
Germany.
1933: Dudley, who follows in 1939 with the Vocoder (Voice
coder), builds first electronic talking machine, the Voder.
1936: Englishman Alan M. Turing while at Princeton
University formalizes the notion of calculableness and
adapts the notion of algorithm to the computation of
functions. Turing's machine is defined to be capable of
computing any calculable function.
1936: Konrad Zuse invents the Z1 Computer, the first freely
programmable computer.
1937: George Stibitz builds the first binary calculator at Bell
Telephone Laboratories.
1938: Hewlett-Packard Co. is founded to make electronic
equipment.
1939: First Radio Shack catalog is published.
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1939: John J. Atanasoff designs a prototype for the ABC
(Atanasoff-Berry Computer) with the help of graduate
student Clifford Berry at Iowa State College. In 1973 a judge
ruled it the first automatic digital computer.
1940: At Bell Labs, George Stibitz demonstrates the
Complex Number Calculator, which may be the first digital
computer.
1940: First color TV broadcast.
1940: Remote processing experiments, conducted by Bell
Laboratories, create the first terminal.
1941: Colossus computer is designed by Alan M. Turing and
built by M.H.A. Neuman at the University of Manchester,
England.
1941: Konrad Zuse builds the Z3 computer in Germany, the
first calculating machine with automatic control of its
operations.
1944: Colossus Mark II is built in England.
1944: Mark I (IBM ASCC) is completed, based on the work
of Professor Howard H. Aiken at Harvard and IBM. It is a
relay-based computer.
1944: Grace Murray Hopper starts a distinguished career in
the computer industry by being the first programmer for the
Mark I.
1945: John von Neumann paper describes stored-program
concept for EDVAC.
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1946: Binac (Binary Automatic Computer), the first computer
to operate in real time, is started by Eckert and Mauchly; it is
completed in 1949.
1946: ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and
Computer), with 18,000 vacuum tubes, is dedicated at the
University of Pennsylvania. It was 8 by 100 feet and weighed
80 tons. It could do 5,000 additions and 360 multiplications
per second.
1946: Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation is formed as
the Electronic Control Co. to design a Universal Automatic
Computer (Univac).
1946: Term bit for binary digit is used for first time by John
Tukey.
1947: Alan M. Turing publishes an article on Intelligent
Machinery, which launches artificial intelligence.
1947: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is
formed.
1948: EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic
Calculator) is developed at the University of Cambridge by
Maurice V. Wilkes.
1948: IBM introduces the 604 electronic calculator.
1948: IBM builds the Selective Sequence Electronic
Calculator (SSEC), a computer with 12,000 tubes.
1948: William Bradford Shockley invents the transistor with
John Bardeen and Walter H. Brattain. No, a transistor is not
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a computer, but this invention greatly affected the history of
computers.
1949: EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic
Computer) supports the first tests of magnetic disks.
1949: Jay Forrester uses iron cores as main memory in
Whirlwind. Forrester patent is issued in 1956.
1949: Claude Shannon of MIT builds the first chess-playing
machine.
1950: Maurice V. Wilkes at Cambridge University uses
assembler (symbolic assembly language) on EDSAC.
1950: Remington-Rand acquires Eckert-Mauchly Computer
Corp.
1950: SEAC (Standards Eastern Automatic Computer) is
delivered to the National Bureau of Standards.
1950: USSR launches Sputnik, first artificial earth satellite.
In response, US forms the Advanced Research Projects
Agency (ARPA), the following year, within the
Department of Defense (DoD) to establish US lead in
science and technology applicable to the military.
1951: First Joint Computer Conference is held.
1951: Maurice V. Wilkes introduces the concept of
microprogramming.
1951: IEEE Computer Society is formed.
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1951: UNIVAC I is installed at the Bureau of Census using a
magnetic tape unit as a buffer memory.
1951: An Wang in Boston founds Wang Laboratories, Inc.
1951: Whirlwind computer becomes operational at MIT. It
was the first real-time computer and was designed by Jay
Forrester and Ken Olsen.
1952: Fred Gruenberger writes First computer manual.
1952: IBM introduces the 701, its first electronic storedprogram computer.
1952: Nixdorf Computer is founded in Germany.
1952: Remington-Rand acquires Engineering Research
Associates (ERA).
1952: RCA develops Bizmac with iron-core memory and a
magnetic drum supporting the first database.
1952: UNIVAC I predicts an Eisenhower landslide with 7% of
the votes, just one hour after the polls close.
1952: U.S. Department of Justice sues IBM for monopolizing
the punched-card accounting machine industry.
1953: Burroughs Corp. installs the Universal Digital
Electronic Computer (UDEC) at Wayne State University.
1953: Remington-Rand develops First high-speed printer for
use on the Univac.
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
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1953: First magnetic tape device, the IBM 726, is introduced
with 100 character-per-inch density and 75 inches-persecond speed.
1953: IBM ships its first stored-program computer, the 701. It
is a vacuum tube, or first generation, computer.
1954: John Backus at IBM creates FORTRAN. Harlan
Herrick runs the first successful FORTRAN program.
1954: Gene Amdahl develops the first operating system,
used on IBM 704.
1955: First SHARE users group meeting is held.
1955: Remington-Rand merges with Sperry Gyroscope to
form Sperry-Rand.
1956: D.T. ROSS develops APT (Automatic Programmed
Tool).
1956: Burroughs acquires Electrodata and the Datatron
computer, which becomes the Burroughs 205.
1956: Government antitrust suit against IBM is settled;
consent decree requires IBM to sell as well as lease
machines.
1956: A. Newell, D. Shaw and F. Simon invent IPL
(Information Processing Language.)
1956: RCA ships the Bizmac.
1956: T.J. Watson, Jr. assumes presidency of IBM.
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1956: John McCarthy coins the acronym artificial
intelligence.
1957: William C. Norris and a group of engineers from
Sperry-Rand form Control Data Corporation.
1957: Ken Olsen founds Digital Equipment Corporation.
1957: First issue of Datamation is released.
1957: Honeywell joins with Raytheon to ship the Datamatic
1000.
1958: ALGOL, first called IAL (International Algebraic
Language), is presented in Zurich.
1958: Feranti installs First virtual memory machine, Atlas, in
England. R.M. Kilburn developed it at the University of
Manchester.
1958: First electronic computers are built in Japan by NEC:
the NEC-1101 and -1102.
1958: Frank Rosenblatt builds the Perceptron Mark I using a
CRT as an output device.
1958: LISP is developed on the IBM 704 at MIT under John
McCarthy.
1958: Seymour Cray builds the first fully transistorized
supercomputer for Control Data Corp., the CDC 1604.
1958: Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments makes the first
integrated circuit, otherwise known as, “The Chip.”
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Period 3
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1959: COBOL is defined by the Conference on Data System
Languages (Codasyl), based on Grace Hoppers Flow-Matic.
1959: Computer Science Corporation sells First packaged
program.
1959: IBM introduces the 1401. Over 10,000 units will be
delivered during its lifetime.
1959: IBM ships its first transistorized, or second generation,
computers, the 1620 and 1790.
1959: Jack S. Kilby at Texas Instruments files a patent for
the first integrated circuit.
1959: Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor develops the
monolithic idea for integrated circuits.
1960: Benjamin Curley develops the first minicomputer, the
PDP-1, at Digital Equipment Corporation.
1960: COBOL runs on UNIVAC II and RCA 501.
1960: Control Data Corporation delivers its first product, a
large scientific computer named the CDC 1604.
1960: DEC ships the first small computer, the PDP-1.
1960: First electronic switching central office becomes
operational in Chicago.
1960: Removable disks first appear.
1961: AFIPS (American Federation of Information
Processing Societies) forms.
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1961: Multiprogramming runs on Stretch computer. Timesharing runs at MIT on IBM 709 and 7090 computers by F.
Corbato.
1961: IBM delivers the Stretch computer to Los Alamos. This
transistorized computer with 64-bit data paths is the first to
use eight-bit bytes; it remains operational until l971.
1961: Leonard Kleinrock, MIT: "Information Flow in
Large Communication Nets" (May 31)
* First paper on packet-switching (PS) theory
1962: APL (A Programming Language) is developed by Ken
Iverson, Harvard University and IBM.
1962: First general-purpose simulation languages are
proposed: (1) SIMSCRIPT by the Rand Corporation, and (2)
GPSS by IBM.
1962: IBM markets 1311 using removable disks.
1962: IBM's U.S.-based annual revenue from computer
products reaches $1 billion and for the first time surpasses
its other revenue.
1962: H. Ross Perot founds EDS (Electronic Data Systems)
in Dallas, TX.
1962: Steve Russell and MIT create the Spacewar, the first
computer game.
1962: J.C.R. Licklider & W. Clark, MIT: "On-Line Man
Computer Communication" (August)
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* Galactic Network concept encompassing distributed
social interactions
1963: Control Data acquires Bendix Corp. computer division.
1963: Conversational graphics consoles are developed by
General Motors (DAC-1) and MIT Lincoln Laboratories
(Sketchpad), resulting in computer-aided design (CAD).
Sketchpad uses the first light pen, developed by Ivan
Sutherland.
1963: DEC ships the first PDP-5 minicomputer.
1963: Tandy acquires Radio Shack (9 stores).
1964: IBM announces the System 360, the first family of
compatible computers.
1964: Control Data Corporation introduces the CDC 6000,
which uses 60-bit words and parallel processing. CDC ships
the 6600, the most powerful computer for several years.
Seymour Cray designed it.
1964: BASIC Tom Kurtz and John Kemeny of Dartmouth
create (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction
Language). First time-sharing BASIC program runs.
1964: M.R. Davis and T.D. Ellis at Rand Corporation develop
Graphic tablet.
1964: Honeywell introduces the H-200 attacking IBM's
installed base of 1400 systems.
1964: NCR introduces the 315/100.
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1964: Douglas Engelbart invents the computer mouse.
Nicknamed “mouse” because it has a tail coming out of the
end.
1964: Paul Baran, RAND: "On Distributed
Communications Networks"
* Packet-switching networks; no single outage point.
1965: CDC founds the Control Data Institute to provide
computer-related education.
1965: Digital Equipment ships the first PDP-8 minicomputer.
1965: First computer science Ph.D. is granted to Richard L.
Wexelblat at the University of Pennsylvania.
1965: IBM ships the first System 360, its first integrated
circuit-based, or third generation, computer.
1965: ARPA sponsors study on "cooperative network of
time-sharing computers"
* TX-2 at MIT Lincoln Lab and AN/FSQ-32 at System
Development Corporation (Santa Monica, CA) are directly
linked (without packet switches) via a dedicated 1200bps
phone line; Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)
computer at ARPA later added to form "The Experimental
Network."
1966: Honeywell acquires Computer Control Company, a
minicomputer manufacturer.
1966: Scientific Data Systems (SDS) introduces Sigma 7.
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Period 3
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1966: Texas Instruments offers the first solid-state hand-held
calculator.
1966: Lawrence G. Roberts, MIT: "Towards a Cooperative
Network of Time-Shared Computers" (October)

First ARPANET plan
1967: DEC introduces the PDP-10 computer.
1967: A.H. Bobeck at Bell Laboratories develops bubble
memory.
1967: Burroughs ships the B3200.
1967: First issue of Computerworld is published.
1967: ARPANET design discussions held by Larry Roberts
at ARPA IPTO PI meeting in Ann Arbor, Michigan (April)
ACM Symposium on Operating System Principles in
Gatlinburg, Tennessee (October)
* First design paper on ARPANET published by Larry
Roberts: "Multiple Computer Networks and Intercomputer
Communication

First meeting of the three independent packet network
teams (RAND, NPL, ARPA)
1967: National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Middlesex,
England develops NPL Data Network under Donald Watts
Davies who coins the term packet. The NPL network, an
experiment in packet-switching, used 768kbps lines.
1968: Joshua Lederberg creates Dendral, the first medical
diagnostic medical program, at Stanford University.
Bogen, Matthew
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1968: Univac introduces the 9400 computer.
1968: Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce found Integrated
Electronics (Intel) Corp.
1968: PS-network presented to the Advanced Research
Projects Agency (ARPA)
1968: Request for proposals for ARPANET sent out in
August; responses received in September
1968: University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)
awarded Network Measurement Center contract in October
Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc. (BBN) awarded Packet
Switch contract to build Interface Message Processors
(IMPs)
1968: US Senator Edward Kennedy sends a congratulatory
telegram to BBN for its million-dollar ARPA contract to
build the "Interfaith" Message Processor, and thanking
them for their ecumenical efforts
1968: Network Working Group (NWG), headed by Steve
Crocker, loosely organized to develop host level protocols
for communication over the ARPANET.
Tymnet built as part of Tymshare service
1969: Edson deCastro leaves DEC to start Data General
Corp. and introduces the Nova, the first 16-bit minicomputer.
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1969: First International Joint Conference on Artificial
Intelligence is held.
1969: IBM unbundles hardware and software; introduces a
minicomputer line, System/3.
1969: Lockheed Electronics ships the MAC-16.
1969: PASCAL compiler is written by Nicklaus Wirth and
installed on the CDC 6400.
1969: ARPANET, the original Internet, is invented.
1969: ARPANET commissioned by DoD for research into
networking
Nodes are stood up as BBN builds each IMP [Honeywell
DDP-516 mini computer with 12K of memory]; AT&T
provides 50kbps lines
ARPANET Node 1: UCLA (30 August, hooked up 2
September)
* Function: Network Measurement Center
* System, OS: SDS SIGMA 7, SEX
* Diagram of the first host to IMP connection
1969: ARPANET Node 2: Stanford Research Institute (SRI)
(1 October)
* Network Information Center (NIC)
* SDS940/Genie

Doug Engelbart's project on "Augmentation of Human
Intellect"
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1969: ARPANET Node 3: University of California Santa
Barbara (UCSB) (1 November)
* Culler-Fried Interactive Mathematics
* IBM 360/75, OS/MVT
1969: ARPANET Node 4: University of Utah (December)
*

Graphics
DEC PDP-10, Tenex
1969: First packets sent by Charley Kline at UCLA as he
tried logging into SRI. The first attempt resulted in the
system crashing as the letter G of LOGIN was entered.
(October 29)
1969: Univ. of Michigan, Michigan State and Wayne State
Univ. establish X.25-based Merit network for students,
faculty, and alumni.
1970: Computer Logic Systems ships SLS-18.
1970: DEC ships its first 16-bit minicomputer, the PDP11/20.
1970: Data General ships SuperNova.
1970: First ACM Computer Chess tournament is held.
1970: Honeywell acquires General Electric's computer
operations. 1970: IBM ships its first System 370, a fourth
generation, computer.
1970: Xerox Data Systems introduces the CF-16A.
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1970: The Intel 1103 Computer Memory is invented. It is the
world’s first available dynamic RAM chip.
1970: First publication of the original ARPANET Host-
Host protocol: C.S. Carr, S. Crocker, V.G. Cerf, "HOSTHOST Communication Protocol in the ARPA Network," in
AFIPS Proceedings of SJCC
1970: First report on ARPANET at AFIPS: "Computer
Network Development to Achieve Resource Sharing"
(March)
1970: ALOHAnet, the first packet radio network,
developed by Norman Abramson, Univ of Hawaii,
becomes operational (July)
* connected to the ARPANET in 1972
1970: ARPANET hosts start using Network Control
Protocol (NCP), first host-to-host protocol
First cross-country link installed by AT&T between UCLA
and BBN at 56kbps. This line is later replaced by another
between BBN and RAND. A second line is added between
MIT and Utah
1971: Computer Automation introduces the Alpha-16.
1971: IBM introduces the 370/135 and 370/195 mainframe
computers.
1971: Floppy disks are introduced to load the IBM 370
microcode, invented by Alan Shugar and IBM. Nicknamed
“Floppy” for its flexibility.
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1971: Intel Corporation announces the first microprocessor,
the Intel 4004, developed by a team headed by Marcian E.
Hoff.
1971: John Blankenbaker builds the first personal computer,
the Kenbak I.
1971: NCR introduces the Century 50.
1971: Sperry-Rand takes over the RCA computer product
line.
1971: 15 nodes (23 hosts): UCLA, SRI, UCSB, Univ of
Utah, BBN, MIT, RAND, SDC, Harvard, Lincoln Lab,
Stanford, UIU(C), CWRU, CMU, NASA/Ames
BBN starts building IMPs using the cheaper Honeywell
316. IMPs however are limited to 4 host connections, and
so BBN develops a terminal IMP (TIP) that supports up to
64 terminals (September)
1971: Ray Tomlinson of BBN invents email program to
send messages across a distributed network. The original
program was derived from two others: an intra-machine
email program (SENDMSG) and an experimental file
transfer program (CPYNET)
1972: Cray Research is founded.
1972: Jack Kilby, Jerry Merryman, and Jim VanTassel of
Texas Instruments develop First electronic pocket calculator.
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1972: Gary Kildall at Naval Postgraduate School writes PL/1,
the first programming language for the Intel 4004
microprocessor.
1972: Intel introduces the 8008, an 8 bit microprocessor.
1972: Prime Computer is founded.
1972: Ray Tomlinson (BBN) modifies email program for
ARPANET where it becomes a quick hit. The @ sign was
chosen from the punctuation keys on Tomlinson's Model
33 Teletype for its "at" meaning (March)
1972: Larry Roberts writes first email management
program (RD) to list, selectively read, file, forward, and
respond to messages (July)
1972: International Conference on Computer
Communications (ICCC) at the Washington D.C. Hilton
with demonstration of ARPANET between 40 machines
and the Terminal Interface Processor (TIP) organized by
Bob Kahn. (October)
1972: First computer-to-computer chat takes place at
UCLA, and is repeated during ICCC, as psychotic PARRY
(at Stanford) discusses its problems with the Doctor (at
BBN).
1972: International Network Working Group (INWG)
formed in October as a result of a meeting at ICCC
identifying the need for a combined effort in advancing
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networking technologies. Vint Cerf appointed first Chair.
By 1974, INWG became IFIP WG 6.1
1972: Louis Pouzin leads the French effort to build its own
ARPANET - CYCLADES
RFC 318: Telnet specification
1973: First National Computer Conference (NCC) is held in
New York City.
1973: IBM settles a lawsuit by Control Data, selling Service
Bureau Corporation (SBC) to Control Data.
1973: Alain Comerauer develops PROLOG language at the
University of Marseilles-Luminy, France.
1973: R2E markets the MICRAL, the first microcomputer in
France.
1973: Winchester disk drives are first introduced by IBM,
who uses the term as a code name for its Model 3340 directaccess storage device.
1973: Robert Metcalfe and Xerox invent ethernet computer
networking.
1973: First international connections to the ARPANET:
University College of London (England) via NORSAR
(Norway)
1973: Bob Metcalfe's Harvard PhD Thesis outlines idea for
Ethernet. The concept was tested on Xerox PARC's Alto
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computers, and the first Ethernet network called the Alto
Aloha System (May)
1973: Bob Kahn poses Internet problem, starts internetting
research program at ARPA. Vinton Cerf sketches gateway
architecture in March on back of envelope in a San
Francisco hotel lobby
1973: Cerf and Kahn present basic Internet ideas at INWG
in September at Univ of Sussex, Brighton, UK
1973: RFC 454: File Transfer specification
Network Voice Protocol (NVP) specification (RFC 741)
and implementation enabling conference calls over
ARPAnet.
1973: SRI (NIC) begins publishing ARPANET News in
March; number of ARPANET users estimated at 2,000
ARPA study shows email composing 75% of all
ARPANET traffic
1973: Christmas Day Lockup - Harvard IMP hardware
problem leads it to broadcast zero-length hops to any
ARPANET destination, causing all other IMPs to send their
traffic to Harvard (25 December)
1974: Digital Equipment enters the Fortune 500 ranking of
the largest industrial companies.
1974: Intel introduces the 8080, an 8 bit microprocessor that
will be used in numerous personal computers.
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1974: Zilog is formed.
1974: Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn publish "A Protocol for
Packet Network Interconnection" which specified in detail
the design of a Transmission Control Program (TCP).
[IEEE Trans Comm]
1974: BBN opens Telenet, the first public packet data
service (a commercial version of ARPANET)
1975: Cray-1 supercomputer is introduced.
1975: Homebrew Computer Club, considered the first
personal computer users group, is formed.
1975: MITS introduces the Altair personal computer, named
after a Star Trek episode, A Voyage to Altair. The kit cost
$397 for a 256 byte computer. The I/O consisted of switches
and lights. Ed Roberts and Bill Yates designed it.
1975: Microsoft is founded after Bill Gates and Paul Allen
adapt and sell BASIC to MITS for the Altair PC.
1975: The first computer store opens in Santa Monica, CA.
1975: Xerox withdraws from the mainframe computer
industry.
1975: Operational management of Internet transferred to
DCA (now DISA)
1975: First ARPANET mailing list, MsgGroup, is created
by Steve Walker. Einar Stefferud soon took over as
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moderator as the list was not automated at first. A science
fiction list, SF-Lovers, was to become the most popular
unofficial list in the early days
1975: John Vittal develops MSG, the first all-inclusive
email program providing replying, forwarding, and filing
capabilities.
Satellite links cross two oceans (to Hawaii and UK) as the
first TCP tests are run over them by Stanford, BBN, and
UCL
1975: "Jargon File", by Raphael Finkel at SAIL, first
released
1975: Shockwave Rider by John Brunner
1976: First fault-tolerant computer, the T/16, is introduced by
Tandem.
1976: MYCIN, an expert system to diagnose and treat
infectious blood diseases, is developed at Stanford
University by E. Shortliffe.
1976: NEC System 800 and 900 general-purpose
mainframes are introduced.
1976: Seymour Cray engineers and delivers Cray 1 with
200,000 freon-cooled ICs and 100 million floating point
operations per second (MFLOP) performance.
1976: Perkin-Elmer and Gould SEL introduce
Superminicomputers.
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1976: Zilog Z-80 chip is introduced.
1976: Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom sends out
an email on 26 March from the Royal Signals and Radar
Establishment (RSRE) in Malvern
UUCP (Unix-to-Unix CoPy) developed at AT&T Bell Labs
and distributed with UNIX one year later.
1976: Multiprocessing Pluribus IMPs are deployed
1976/1977: Apple I, II & TRS-80 & Commodore Pet
Computers put out.
1977: Apple Computer is founded and introduces the Apple
II personal computer.
1977: Apple, Commodore, and Tandy begin selling personal
computers.
1977: DEC introduces its first 32-bit superminicomputer, the
VAX-11/780.
1977: Datapoint introduces ARC system, the first local area
network.
1977: First ComputerLand franchise store opens in
Morristown, NJ under the name Computer Shack.
1978: SPRINT business service is inaugurated.
1977: THEORYNET created by Larry Landweber at Univ
of Wisconsin providing electronic mail to over 100
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researchers in computer science (using a locally developed
email system over TELENET)
RFC 733: Mail specification
1977: Tymshare spins out Tymnet under pressure from
TELENET. Both go on to develop X.25 protocol standard
for virtual circuit style packet switching
1977: First demonstration of ARPANET/SF Bay Packet
Radio Net/Atlantic SATNET operation of Internet
protocols with BBN-supplied gateways in July
1978: Texas Instruments introduces the Speak-and-Spell
educational toy featuring digital speech synthesis.
1978: Total computers in use in the U.S. exceed a half
million units.
1978: The first COMDEX trade show is held.
1979: Ada language is developed by a team at CIIHoneywell Bull (France) directed by Jean Ichbiah.
1978: Dan Bricklin & Bob Frankston invent VisiCalc
Spreadsheet software.
1978: TCP split into TCP and IP (March)
RFC 748: TELNET RANDOMLY-LOSE Option
1979: The Source and CompuServe Information Services go
on-line.
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1979: VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet software, is
shown at the West Coast Computer Faire.
1979: Wordstar, one of the best-selling word processing
programs for PCs, is released by Micropro (now called
Wordstar International).
1979: Meeting between Univ of Wisconsin, DARPA,
National Science Foundation (NSF), and computer
scientists from many universities to establish a Computer
Science Department research computer network (organized
by Larry Landweber).
1979: USENET established using UUCP between Duke
and UNC by Tom Truscott, Jim Ellis, and Steve Bellovin.
All original groups were under net.* hierarchy.
1979: First MUD, MUD1, by Richard Bartle and Roy
Trubshaw at U of Essex
1979: ARPA establishes the Internet Configuration Control
Board (ICCB)
1979: Packet Radio Network (PRNET) experiment starts
with DARPA funding. Most communications take place
between mobile vans. ARPANET connection via SRI.
1979: On April 12, Kevin MacKenzie emails the
MsgGroup a suggestion of adding some emotion back into
the dry text medium of email, such as -) for indicating a
sentence was tongue-in-cheek. Though flamed by many at
the time, emoticons became widely used
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1980: Control Data Corporation introduces the Cyber 205
supercomputer.
1980: First issue of InfoWorld is published.
1980: Microsoft licenses UNIX operating system from Bell
Laboratories and introduces its XENIX adaptation.
1980: Total computers in use in the U.S. exceed one million
units.
1980: ARPANET grinds to a complete halt on 27 October
because of an accidentally-propagated status-message virus
First C/30-based IMP at BBN
1981: Commodore introduces the VIC-20 home computer,
which sells over one million units.
1981: IBM enters the personal computer market, creating a
de facto standard.
1981: Osborne Computer introduces the Osborne 1, the first
portable computer.
1981: BITNET, the "Because It's Time NETwork"
* Started as a cooperative network at the City University
of New York, with the first connection to Yale (:feg:)
* Original acronym stood for 'There' instead of 'Time' in
reference to the free NJE protocols provided with the IBM
systems
* Provides electronic mail and listserv servers to
distribute information, as well as file transfers
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1981: CSNET (Computer Science NETwork) built by a
collaboration of computer scientists and Univ of Delaware,
Purdue Univ, Univ of Wisconsin, RAND Corporation and
BBN through seed money granted by NSF to provide
networking services (especially email) to university
scientists with no access to ARPANET. CSNET later
becomes known as the Computer and Science Network.
1981: C/30 IMPs predominate the network; first C/30 TIP
at SAC
Minitel (Teletel) is deployed across France by France
Telecom.
True Names by Vernor Vinge
RFC 801: NCP/TCP Transition Plan
1982: AT&T agrees to give up 22 Bell System companies in
settling a 13-year-old lawsuit brought by the Justice
Department.
1982: Compaq Computer incorporates.
1982: Sun Microsystems is founded.
1982: Microsoft licenses MS-DOS to 50 microcomputer
manufacturers in the first 16 months of availability.
1982: Time Magazine names the computer its Man of the
Year.
1982: U.S. drops IBM antitrust suit begun in 1969.
1982: Norway leaves network to become an Internet
connection via TCP/IP over SATNET; UCL does the same
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DCA and ARPA establish the Transmission Control
Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP), as the protocol
suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, for ARPANET.
* This leads to one of the first definitions of an
"internet" as a connected set of networks, specifically those
using TCP/IP, and "Internet" as connected TCP/IP
internets.

DoD declares TCP/IP suite to be standard for DoD
1982: EUnet (European UNIX Network) is created by
EUUG to provide email and USENET services. (:glg:)

original connections between the Netherlands,
Denmark, Sweden, and UK
1982: Exterior Gateway Protocol (RFC 827) specification.
EGP is used for gateways between networks.
1983: Compaq ships its first computer in January and sells
$111M, the greatest first-year sales in the history of
American business.
1983: Cray 2 computer introduced with one billion FLOPs
(floating point operations per second) performance rating.
1983: Lotus 1-2-3 replaces VisiCalc as the spreadsheet
software of choice for microcomputers.
1983: NEC announces the SX-1 and SX-2 supercomputers.
1983: Total computers in use in the U.S. exceed ten million
units.
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1983: Apple introduces the Lisa Computer, the first computer
with a GUI (graphical user interface).
1983: Name server developed at Univ of Wisconsin, no
longer requiring users to know the exact path to other
systems
1983: Cutover from NCP to TCP/IP (1 January)
1983: No more Honeywell or Pluribus IMPs; TIPs replaced
by TACs (terminal access controller)
1983: Stuttgart and Korea get connected
1983: Movement Information Net (MINET) started early in
the year in Europe, connected to Internet in Sept
1983: CSNET / ARPANET gateway put in place
1983:
ARPANET split into ARPANET and MILNET; the latter
became integrated with the Defense Data Network created
the previous year. 68 of the 113 existing nodes went to
MILNET
1983: Desktop workstations come into being, many with
Berkeley UNIX (4.2 BSD) which includes IP networking
software
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1983: Networking needs switch from having a single, large
time sharing computer connected to the Internet at each
site, to instead connecting entire local networks
1983:
Internet Activities Board (IAB) established, replacing
ICCB
1983: EARN (European Academic and Research Network)
established. Very similar to the way BITNET works with a
gateway funded by IBM
1983: FidoNet developed by Tom Jennings
1984: Apple introduces the Macintosh computer, a more
affordable home computer with a GUI.
1984: IBM introduces the PC AT (Advanced Technology).
IBM merges with Rolm Corp., which becomes a
telecommunications subsidiary.
1984: The Tandy 1000 personal computer becomes the #1
selling IBM PC-compatible in its first year.
1984: Domain Name System (DNS) introduced
1984: Number of hosts breaks 1,000
1984: JUNET (Japan Unix Network) established using
UUCP
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1984: JANET (Joint Academic Network) established in the
UK using the Coloured Book protocols; previously
SERCnet
1984: Moderated newsgroups introduced on USENET
1984: Neuromancer by William Gibson
1984: Canada begins a one-year effort to network its
universities.
1984: The NetNorth Network is connected to BITNET in
Ithaca from Toronto
1984: Kremvax message announcing USSR connectivity to
USENET
1985: IBM delivers the new 3090 Sierra systems.
1985: Aldus introduces PageMaker for the Macintosh and
starts the desktop publishing era.
1985: Microsoft Windows is introduced, Microsoft begins the
friendly war with Apple.
1985: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (WELL) started
1985: Information Sciences Institute (ISI) at USC is given
responsibility for DNS root management by DCA, and SRI
for DNS NIC registrations
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1985: Symbolics.com is assigned on 15 March to become
the first registered domain. Other firsts: cmu.edu,
purdue.edu, rice.edu, berkeley.edu, ucla.edu, rutgers.edu,
bbn.com (24 Apr); mit.edu (23 May); think.com (24 may);
css.gov (June); mitre.org, .uk (July)
1985: 100 years to the day of the last spike being driven on
the cross-Canada railroad, the last Canadian university is
connected to NetNorth in a one year effort to have coast-tocoast connectivity.
1986: Burroughs merges with Sperry to form Unisys
Corporation, second only to IBM in computer revenues.
1986: Compaq makes the Fortune 500 list. Introduces its
first Intel 80386-based PC.
1986: Computerworld publishes its 1,000th issue on
November 3.
1986: HP introduces its Spectrum line of reduced instruction
set computers (RISC).
1986: Tandy has over 7300 retail outlets including more than
4800 company-owned Radio Shack stores in the U.S.
1986: The number of computers in the U.S. exceeds 30
million.
1986: NSFNET created (backbone speed of 56Kbps)
* NSF establishes 5 super-computing centers to provide
high-computing power for all (JVNC@Princeton,
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PSC@Pittsburgh, SDSC@UCSD, NCSA@UIUC, Theory
Center@Cornell).

This allows an explosion of connections, especially
from universities.
1986: NSF-funded SDSCNET, JVNCNET, SURANET,
and NYSERNET operational
1986: Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and Internet
Research Task Force (IRTF) comes into existence under
the IAB. First IETF meeting held in January at Linkabit in
San Diego
1986: The first Freenet (Cleveland) comes on-line 16 July
under the auspices of the Society for Public Access
Computing (SoPAC). Later Freenet program management
assumed by the National Public Telecomputing Network
(NPTN) in 1989
1986: Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) designed
to enhance Usenet news performance over TCP/IP.
1986: Mail Exchanger (MX) records developed by Craig
Partridge allow non-IP network hosts to have domain
addresses.
1986:
The great USENET name change; moderated newsgroups
changed in 1987.
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1986: BARRNET (Bay Area Regional Research Network)
established using high speed links. Operational in 1987.
1986: New England gets cut off from the Net as AT&T
suffers a fiber optics cable break between Newark/NJ and
White Plains/NY. Yes, all seven New England ARPANET
trunk lines were in the one severed cable. Outage took
place between 1:11 and 12:11 EST on 12 December
1987: IBM introduces its PS/2 family and ships over 1 million
units by year-end.
1987: Cray Research introduces the Cray 2S, which is 40%
faster than the Cray 2.
1987: ETA Systems introduces its ETA-10 family of
supercomputers.
1987: Sun Microsystems introduces its first workstation
based on a RISC microprocessor.
1987: Apple introduces the Macintosh II and Macintosh SE
and HyperCard.
1987: IBM introduces its Systems Applications Architecture
(SAA).
1987: DEC introduces Vaxstation 2000 workstation
computer, and the MicroVAX 3500 and 3600.
1987: Aldus introduces PageMaker for the IBM PC and
compatible computers.
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1987: Compaq reaches a billion dollar in sales in its fifth year
of operation.
1987: Conner Peripherals beats Compaq's first year sales
record: $113M vs $111M.
1987: Computer Associates acquires UCCEL in the largest
ever software acquisition ($780M).
1987: IBM invests in Steve Chens Supercomputer Systems,
Inc.
1987: Apple spins off its application software business as a
separate company and names it Claris.
1987: Texas Instruments introduces the first AI
microprocessor chip.
1987: NSF signs a cooperative agreement to manage the
NSFNET backbone with Merit Network, Inc. (IBM and
MCI involvement was through an agreement with Merit).
Merit, IBM, and MCI later founded ANS.
1987: UUNET is founded with Usenix funds to provide
commercial UUCP and Usenet access. Originally an
experiment by Rick Adams and Mike O'Dell
1987: First TCP/IP Interoperability Conference (March),
name changed in 1988 to INTEROP
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1987: Email link established between Germany and China
using CSNET protocols, with the first message from China
sent on 20 September.
1987: The concept and plan for a national US research and
education network is proposed by Gordon Bell et al in a
report to the Office of Science and Technology, written in
response to a congressional request by Al Gore. (Nov) It
would take four years until the establishment of this
network by Congress
1000th RFC: "Request For Comments reference guide"
1987: Number of hosts breaks 10,000
1987: Number of BITNET hosts breaks 1,000
1988: DEC introduces VAXstation 8000.
1988: Cray Research introduces the Cray Y-MP, a $20M
supercomputer.
1988: IBM introduces a new mainframe computer operating
system called MVS/ESA.
1988: IBM announces its long awaited Silverlake mid-range
computers called AS/400.
1988: Motorola announces the 88000, a RISC
microprocessor.
1988: Apollo, Ardent and Stellar announce the first graphics
supercomputers. These computers are aimed at 3D graphics
applications.
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1988: Tandy, Dell Computer and others announce the first
PS/2-compatible computers.
1988: Unisys introduces the 2200/400 family to replace its
mid-range 1100 series.
1988: AT&T announces plan to acquire 20% of Sun
Microsystems, and that Sun will help AT&T develop the next
version of UNIX.
1988: In response to the AT&T-Sun cooperation, IBM, DEC,
HP, Apollo and several other major computer companies
form the Open Software Foundation to set a UNIX
counterstandard.
1988: Sun Microsystems surpasses the $1 billion sales
mark, and introduces 80386-based workstations.
1988: IBM and Sears joint videotex venture starts operation
under the PRODIGY name.
1988: Sematech picks Austin, TX as its headquarters and
Robert Noyce will head the consortium.
1988: A consortium of PC companies led by Compaq
introduces the EISA counter standard to IBM's PS/2
MicroChannel bus.
1988: IBM introduces the ES/3090 S series mainframe
computer.
1988: IBM wins a $3.6B contract to build the next generation
air traffic control system.
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1988: Unisys acquires Convergent Technologies for $350M.
1988: Computer Associates acquires Applied Data Research
for $170M from Ameritech.
1988: Next unveils its innovative workstation computer,
which is the first computer using erasable optical disks as
the primary mass storage device. IBM license Next's
graphics user interface.
1988: A nondestructive worm spreads via the Internet
network and brings several thousand computers to their
knees.
1988: 2 November - Internet worm burrows through the
Net, affecting ~6,000 of the 60,000 hosts on the Internet
1988: CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team)
formed by DARPA in response to the needs exhibited
during the Morris worm incident. The worm is the only
advisory issued this year.
1988: DoD chooses to adopt OSI and sees use of TCP/IP as
an interim. US Government OSI Profile (GOSIP) defines
the set of protocols to be supported by Government
purchased products
1988: Los Nettos network created with no federal funding,
instead supported by regional members (founding: Caltech,
TIS, UCLA, USC, ISI).
1988: NSFNET backbone upgraded to T1 (1.544Mbps)
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CERFnet (California Education and Research Federation
network) founded by Susan Estrada.
1988: Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
established in December with Jon Postel as its Director.
Postel was also the RFC Editor and US Domain registrar
for many years.
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) developed by Jarkko Oikarinen
1988: First Canadian regionals join NSFNET: ONet via
Cornell, RISQ via Princeton, BCnet via Univ of
Washington
1988: FidoNet gets connected to the Net, enabling the
exchange of email and news
1988: The first multicast tunnel is established between
Stanford and BBN in the Summer of 1988.
1988: Countries connecting to NSFNET: Canada (CA),
Denmark (DK), Finland (FI), France (FR), Iceland (IS),
Norway (NO), Sweden (SE)
1989: Solbourne Computer introduces the first Sun 4compatible computer.
1989: DEC announces a workstation using Mips Computer's
RISC microprocessor.
1989: Microsoft buys a 20% stake in Santa Cruz Operation,
a major UNIX software developer.
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1989: Intel announces the 80486 microprocessor and the
I860 RISC/coprocessor chip. Both chips have over one
million transistors.
1989: Hewlett-Packard acquires Apollo for $476M.
1989: Sun Microsystems introduces its SPARCstation, a
low-end RISC workstation with an entry price of only $9,000.
1989: Control Data discontinues its ETA supercomputer
subsidiary.
1989: IBM announces the Officevision software using the
SAA protocol, which runs on PS/2s, PS/2 LANs, AS/400 and
mainframe computers.
1989: Cray restructures itself into two companies: Cray
Research which continues with its current business and Cray
Computer Corp. headed by Seymour Cray, which will
develop a gallium arsenide-based supercomputer.
1989: Next sells a 16.6% share to Canon for $100M.
1989: Seagate buys Control Data's Imprimis disk drive
subsidiary for $450M.
1989: Computer Associates acquires Cullinet for $333M.
1989: Prime Computer agrees to be bought by a J.H.
Whitney-formed company, ending a long and acrimonious
takeover battle by MAI Basic.
1989: Apple introduces its long awaited portable Macintosh.
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1989: The worldwide number of computers in use surpasses
100M units.
1989: Poqet announces the first pocket sized MS-DOS
compatible computer.
1989: Grid introduces a laptop computer with a touch
sensitive pad that recognizes handwriting--the GridPad.
1989: The number of computers in the U.S. exceeds 50M
units.
1989: The battery-powered notebook computer becomes a
full function computer including hard and floppy disk with the
arrival of Compaq's LTE and LTE/286.
1989: Digital Equipment extends the VAX-family into the
mainframe arena with the VAX 9000.
1989: The first EISA-based personal computers arrive.
1989: The first 80486-based computers are introduced.
1989: Dun & Bradstreet acquires MSA in a major software
acquisition worth $333M.
1989: Number of hosts breaks 100,000
1989: RIPE (Reseaux IP Europeens) formed (by European
service providers) to ensure the necessary administrative
and technical coordination to allow the operation of the
pan-European IP Network.
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1989:
First relays between a commercial electronic mail carrier
and the Internet: MCI Mail through the Corporation for the
National Research Initiative (CNRI), and CompuServe
through Ohio State Univ.
1989: Corporation for Research and Education Networking
(CREN) is formed by merging CSNET into BITNET
(August)
1989: AARNET - Australian Academic Research Network
- set up by AVCC and CSIRO; introduced into service the
following year
1989: First link between Australia and NSFNET via Hawaii
on 23 June
1989: Cuckoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll tells the real-life tale
of a German cracker group who infiltrated numerous US
facilities
1989: UCLA sponsors the Act One symposium to celebrate
ARPANET's 20th anniversary and its decommissioning
(August)
1989:
Countries connecting to NSFNET: Australia (AU),
Germany (DE), Israel (IL), Italy (IT), Japan (JP), Mexico
(MX), Netherlands (NL), New Zealand (NZ), Puerto Rico
(PR), United Kingdom (UK)
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1990: Motorola introduces the 68040 microprocessor.
1990: IBM announces its RISC Station 6000 family of high
performance workstations.
1990: Digital Equipment introduces a fault-tolerant VAX
computer.
1990: Cray Research unveils an entry-level supercomputer,
the Y-MP2E, with a starting price of $2.2M.
1990: Microsoft introduces Windows 3.0.
1990: Lotus wins its look and feel suit against Paperback
Software's spreadsheet program.
1990: IBM ships the PS/1, a computer for consumers and
home offices.
1990: IBM announces the System 390 (code name Summit),
its mainframe computer for the 1990s.
1990: Microsoft's fiscal year revenue ending 6/30/90
exceeds $1B.
1990: NCR abandons its proprietary mainframes in favor of
systems based on single or multiple Intel 486 and successor
microprocessors.
1990: Apple introduces its low-end Macintoshes: The
Classic, LC and IISI.
1990: Intel launches a parallel supercomputer using over
500 860 RISC microprocessors.
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1990: Sun Microsystems brings out the SPARCstation 2.
1990: Microsoft along with IBM, Tandy, AT&T and others
announced hardware and software specifications for
multimedia platforms.
1990: The first SPARC compatible workstations are
introduced.
1990: ARPANET ceases to exist
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is founded by Mitch
Kapor
1990:
Archie released by Peter Deutsch, Alan Emtage, and Bill
Heelan at McGill
1990:
Archie released by Peter Deutsch, Alan Emtage, and Bill
Heelan at McGill
1990: Hytelnet released by Peter Scott (Univ. of
Saskatchewan)
The World comes on-line (world.std.com), becoming the
first commercial provider of Internet dial-up access
1990: ISO Development Environment (ISODE) developed
to provide an approach for OSI migration for the DoD.
1990: ISODE software allows OSI application to operate
over TCP/IP
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1990: CA*net formed by 10 regional networks as national
Canadian backbone with direct connection to NSFNET
1990: The first remotely operated machine to be hooked up
to the Internet, the Internet Toaster by John Romkey,
(controlled via SNMP) makes its debut at Interop.
1990: Countries connecting to NSFNET: Argentina (AR),
Austria (AT), Belgium (BE), Brazil (BR), Chile (CL),
Greece (GR), India (IN), Ireland (IE), Korea (KR), Spain
(ES), Switzerland (CH)
1991: Go Corp. releases PenPoint, an operating system for
pen-based computers.
1991: Advanced Micro Devices announces its AMD 386
microprocessor to compete with Intel's 386 chips.
1991: Notebook PCs are introduced by most PC vendors.
1991: HP unveils its RISC-based 9000 Series 700
workstations with exceptional price-performance.
1991: Compaq leads a group of 21 companies to launch the
Advanced Computing Environment (ACE) to establish a new
standard for high-end PCs and workstations.
1991: The Federal Trade Commission launches an
investigation into Microsoft's business practices.
1991: Intel introduces the 486SX, a lower priced 486 chip.
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1991: NCR agrees to be acquired by AT&T in a deal valued
at $7.4B.
1991: Apple releases the System 7.0 operating system for
Macintosh.
1991: Wang will resell IBM's PS/2, RS/6000 and
minicomputers. IBM will invest $100M in Wang.
1991: Microsoft rolls out DOS 5.0 with great success.
1991: Major changes among PC dealers as ComputerLand
acquires Nynex's computer stores, CompuCom acquires
Computer Factory, ValCom and Inacomp merge, JWP buys
Businessland and Intelligent Electronics acquires BizMart.
1991: Borland buys Ashton-Tate for $440M.
1991: SunSoft, a Sun Microsystems subsidiary, announces
Solaris which is a UNIX operating system for SPARC
workstations and 386/486 PCs.
1991: - The Bell companies receive permission to enter the
on-line information services market.
1991: Apple and IBM sign a historic deal--including two joint
ventures: Kaleida will develop multimedia products, Taligent
will develop object-oriented operating software.
1991: Apple rolls out its PowerBook notebook and Quadra
Macintosh PCs.
1991: Wavetracer introduces its Zephyr massively parallel
computer system with up to 8192 processors.
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
1991: IBM reorganizes itself into more autonomous business
units and several divisions become wholly-owned
subsidiaries.
1991: AT&T/NCR agrees to acquire Teradata for $520M.
1991: Many major computer companies have quarterly or
full-year loses including Compaq, DEC, IBM, Lotus and
Unisys, primarily due to work force reduction costs.
1991: The first general-purpose pen-based notebook
computers are introduced.
1991: IBM has its first revenue decline in 45 years.
1991: First connection takes place between Brazil, by
Fapesp, and the Internet at 9600 baud.
1991: Commercial Internet eXchange (CIX) Association,
Inc. formed by General Atomics (CERFnet), Performance
Systems International, Inc. (PSInet), and UUNET
Technologies, Inc. (AlterNet), after NSF lifts restrictions on
the commercial use of the Net (March)
1991: Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS), invented by
Brewster Kahle, released by Thinking Machines
Corporation
1991: Gopher released by Paul Lindner and Mark P.
McCahill from the Univ of Minnesota
1991: World-Wide Web (WWW) released by CERN; Tim
Berners-Lee developer
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
1991: PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) released by Philip
Zimmerman
1991: US High Performance Computing Act (Gore 1)
establishes the National Research and Education Network
(NREN)
1991: NSFNET backbone upgraded to T3 (44.736Mbps)
1991: NSFNET traffic passes 1 trillion bytes/month and 10
billion packets/month
1991: Defense Data Network NIC contract awarded by
DISA to Government Systems Inc. who takes over from
SRI in May
Start of JANET IP Service (JIPS) which signaled the
changeover from Coloured Book software to TCP/IP within
the UK academic network. IP was initially 'tunneled' within
X.25.
1991: Countries connecting to NSFNET: Croatia (HR),
Czech Republic (CZ), Hong Kong (HK), Hungary (HU),
Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Singapore (SG), South Africa
(ZA), Taiwan (TW), Tunisia (TN)
1992: IBM invests $100M in Groupe Bull.
1992: Silicon Graphics buys Mips Computer in a $400M
stock swap.
1992: IBM releases OS/2 Version 2.0 and ships over 1M
units.
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
1992: Microsoft introduces Windows 3.1 and ships nearly
10M units.
1992: The core of Apple's lawsuit versus Microsoft Windows
is dismissed.
1992: Sun Microsystems launches a new generation of
SPARC computers--the SPARCstation 10 family.
1992: Compaq announces several new lines of PCs and
becomes a price trendsetter. Its low-price strategy is very
successful.
1992: Ken Olsen resigns from Digital Equipment after 25
years at the helm.
1992: Sears and IBM form a new venture, named Advantis,
to compete in the value added network service market.
1992: Wang Laboratories files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection.
1992: IBM makes the IBM PC Co. a subsidiary.
1992: IBM follows Compaq's strategy and introduces
aggressively priced PCs--also with good success.
1992: Compaq enters the Japanese market with
aggressively priced PCs--as much as 50% lower than
Japanese PC prices.
1992: Digital Equipment announces its next generation
computer architecture--the RISC-based Alpha.
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
1992: Microsoft introduces Windows for Workgroup.
1992: Intel says its next microprocessor will be called
Pentium instead of 586.
1992: Hewlett-Packard ships the LaserJet 4, a 600 by 600
dots per inch resolution laser printer.
1992: Novell to acquire UNIX Systems Laboratory, including
Univel, from AT&T for $350M.
1992: Internet Society (ISOC) is chartered (January)
IAB reconstituted as the Internet Architecture Board and
becomes part of the Internet Society
1992: Number of hosts breaks 1,000,000
1992: First MBONE audio multicast (March) and video
multicast (November)
1992: RIPE Network Coordination Center (NCC) created
in April to provide address registration and coordination
services to the European Internet community
1992: Veronica, a gopherspace search tool, is released by
Univ of Nevada
1992: World Bank comes on-line
1992: The term "surfing the Internet" is coined by Jean
Armour Polly
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
1992: Zen and the Art of the Internet is published by
Brendan Kehoe
1992: Countries connecting to NSFNET: Antarctica (AQ),
Cameroon (CM), Cyprus (CY), Ecuador (EC), Estonia
(EE), Kuwait (KW), Latvia (LV), Luxembourg (LU),
Malaysia (MY), Slovakia (SK), Slovenia (SI), Thailand
(TH), Venezuela (VE)
1993: IBM reports its worst year in history with a loss of
$4.97B on revenues of $64.5B.
1993: IBM chairman John Akers resigns and after the most
executive search publicity ever, Louis Gerstner becomes the
new chairman & CEO.
1993: General Magic, an Apple spin-off, debuts Telescripts,
a communications-intensive operating system for PDAs.
1993: Next sells its hardware business to Canon and will
concentrate its effort on the Nextstep software business.
1993: Novell unveils NetWare 4.0.
1993: IBM introduces the F series of the AS/400.
1993: Lotus announces Notes 3.0.
1993: Motorola start shipping the first PowerPC
microprocessor.
1993: IBM's storage division, Adstar, becomes a subsidiary.
1993: - Microsoft unveils Windows NT.
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
1993: Pentium-based systems start shipping.
1993: EPA's Energy Star Initiative is unveiled and most PC
vendors support the program with announcements of energy
efficient PCs.
1993: Apple ships the Newton MessagePad--its first
Personal Digital Assistant.
1993: AT&T announces it will acquire McCaw Cellular for
$12.6B.
1993: Compaq introduces the Presario, a PC family targeted
for the home market.
1993: FTC ends its probe of Microsoft without any actions,
but the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice will
launch its investigation.
1993: Microsoft outlines the Plug and Play and Microsoft at
Work (MAW) initiatives.
1993: IBM debuts its first workstations based on the
PowerPC chip.
1993: Novell transfer the UNIX trademark to X/Open and
X/Open will certify that an operating system is UNIX
compliant.
1993: IBM announces OS/2 for Windows, which upgrades
the Windows environment to OS/2.
1993: Sun Microsystems license NextStep and makes a
$10M investment in Next.
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
1993: IBM says it will sell its Federal Systems division
($2.2B in yearly revenue) to Loral for $1.6B.
1993: InterNIC created by NSF to provide specific Internet
services: (:sc1:)
* directory and database services (AT&T)
* registration services (Network Solutions Inc.)
* information services (General Atomics/CERFnet)
1993: US White House comes on-line
(http://www.whitehouse.gov/):
* President Bill Clinton: [email protected]
* Vice-President Al Gore: [email protected]
1993: Worms of a new kind find their way around the Net -
WWW Worms (W4), joined by Spiders, Wanderers,
Crawlers, and Snakes ...
1993: Internet Talk Radio begins broadcasting
1993: United Nations (UN) comes on-line
1993:
US National Information Infrastructure Act
Businesses and media begin taking notice of the Internet
1993:
InterCon International KK (IIKK) provides Japan's first
commercial Internet connection in September. TWICS,
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
though an IIKK leased line, begins offering dial-up
accounts the following month
1993: Countries connecting to NSFNET: Bulgaria (BG),
Costa Rica (CR), Egypt (EG), Fiji (FJ), Ghana (GH), Guam
(GU), Indonesia (ID), Kazakhstan (KZ), Kenya (KE),
Liechtenstein (LI), Peru (PE), Romania (RO), Russian
Federation (RU), Turkey (TR), Ukraine (UA), UAE (AE),
US Virgin Islands (VI)
1994: Apple enters the on-line service market by announcing
eWorld.
1994: HP becomes a Taligent partner and buys 15% from
Apple and IBM.
1994: MCI invests $1.3B in Nextel Communications, a
wireless service provider.
1994: Macintoshes using the PowerPC start shipping.
1994: Intel introduces the 486DX4 clock-tripling
microprocessor
1994: Aldus and Adobe agree to merge in a transaction
worth $525M and will form a $0.5 B+ software company.
1994: Novell says it will acquire WordPerfect for $1.14B and
will buy Borland's Quattro Pro for $145M.
1994: John Sculley leaves Apple after 10 years at the helm.
1994: ARPANET/Internet celebrates 25th anniversary
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
1994: Communities begin to be wired up directly to the
Internet (Lexington and Cambridge, Mass., USA)
1994: US Senate and House provide information servers
1994: Shopping malls arrive on the Internet
1994: First cyberstation, RT-FM, broadcasts from Interop
in Las Vegas
1994: The National Institute for Standards and Technology
(NIST) suggests that GOSIP should incorporate TCP/IP
and drop the "OSI-only" requirement
1994: Arizona law firm of Canter & Siegel "spams" the
Internet with email advertising green card lottery services;
Net citizens flame back
1994: NSFNET traffic passes 10 trillion bytes/month
1994: Yes, it's true - you can now order pizza from the Hut
online
1994: WWW edges out telnet to become 2nd most popular
service on the Net (behind ftp-data) based on % of packets
and bytes traffic distribution on NSFNET
1994: Japanese Prime Minister on-line
(http://www.kantei.go.jp/)
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
1994: UK's HM Treasury on-line (http://www.hm-
treasury.gov.uk/)
1994: New Zealand's Info Tech Prime Minister on-line
(http://www.govt.nz/)
1994: First Virtual, the first cyberbank, open up for
business
1994: Radio stations start rockin' (rebroadcasting) round
the clock
1994: on the Net: WXYC at Univ. of NC, KJHK at Univ.
of KS-Lawrence, KUGS at Western WA Univ.
1994: IPng recommended by IETF at its Toronto meeting
(July) and approved by IESG in November.
1994: The first banner ads appear on hotwired.com in
October. They were for Zima (a beverage) and AT&T
1994: Trans-European Research and Education Network
Association (TERENA) is formed by the merger of RARE
and EARN, with representatives from 38 countries as well
as CERN and ECMWF. TERENA's aim is to "promote and
participate in the development of a high quality
international information and telecommunications
infrastructure for the benefit of research and education"
(October)
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
1994: After noticing that many network software vendors
used domain.com in their documentation examples, Bill
Woodcock and Jon Postel register the domain. Sure
enough, after looking at the domain access logs, it was
evident that many users were using the example domain in
configuring their applications.
1994: Countries connecting to NSFNET: Algeria (DZ),
Armenia (AM), Bermuda (BM), Burkina Faso (BF), China
(CN), Colombia (CO), Jamaica (JM), Jordan (JO), Lebanon
(LB), Lithuania (LT), Macao (MO), Morocco (MA), New
Caledonia (NC), Nicaragua (NI), Niger (NE), Panama
(PA), Philippines (PH), Senegal (SN), Sri Lanka (LK),
Swaziland (SZ), Uruguay (UY), Uzbekistan (UZ)
1994: Top 10 Domains by Host #: com, edu, uk, gov, de,
ca, mil, au, org, net
1995: NSFNET reverts back to a research network. Main
US backbone traffic now routed through interconnected
network providers
1995: The new NSFNET is born as NSF establishes the
very high speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS)
linking super-computing centers: NCAR, NCSA, SDSC,
CTC, PSC
1995: Neda Rayaneh Institute (NRI), Iran's first
commercial provider, comes online, connecting via satellite
to Cadvision, a Canadian provider
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
1995: Hong Kong police disconnect all but one of the
colony's Internet providers for failure to obtain a license;
thousands of users are left without service
1995: Sun launches JAVA on May 23
RealAudio, an audio streaming technology, lets the Net
hear in near real-time
1995: Radio HK, the first commercial 24 hr., Internet-only
radio station starts broadcasting
1995: WWW surpasses ftp-data in March as the service
with greatest traffic on NSFNet based on packet count, and
in April based on byte count
1995: Traditional online dial-up systems (CompuServe,
America Online, Prodigy) begin to provide Internet access
1995: Thousands in Minneapolis-St. Paul (USA) lose Net
access after transients start a bonfire under a bridge at the
Univ. of MN causing fiber-optic cables to melt (30 July)
1995: A number of Net related companies go public, with
Netscape leading the pack with the 3rd largest ever
NASDAQ IPO share value (9 August)
1995: Registration of domain names is no longer free.
Beginning 14 September, a $50 annual fee has been
imposed, which up until now was subsidized by NSF. NSF
continues to pay for .edu registration, and on an interim
basis for .gov
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
1995: The Vatican comes on-line (http://www.vatican.va/)
1995: The Canadian Government comes on-line
(http://canada.gc.ca/)
1995: The first official Internet wiretap was successful in
helping the Secret Service and Drug Enforcement Agency
(DEA) apprehend three individuals who were illegally
manufacturing and selling cell phone cloning equipment
and electronic devices
1995: Operation Home Front connects, for the first time,
soldiers in the field with their families back home via the
Internet.
1995: Richard White becomes the first person to be
declared a munition, under the USA's arms export control
laws, because of an RSA file security encryption program
tattooed on his arm
1995: Country domains registered: Ethiopia (ET), Cote
d'Ivoire (CI), Cook Islands (CK) Cayman Islands (KY),
Anguilla (AI), Gibraltar (GI), Vatican (VA), Kiribati (KI),
Kyrgyzstan (KG), Madagascar (MG), Mauritius (MU),
Micronesia (FM), Monaco (MC), Mongolia (MN), Nepal
(NP), Nigeria (NG), Western Samoa (WS), San Marino
(SM), Tanzania (TZ), Tonga (TO), Uganda (UG), Vanuatu
(VU)
1995: Technologies of the Year: WWW, Search engines
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
1995: Emerging Technologies: Mobile code (JAVA,
JAVAscript), Virtual environments (VRML), Collaborative
tools
1995: Hacks of the Year: The Spot (Jun 12), Hackers
Movie Page (12 Aug)
1996: Internet phones catch the attention of US
telecommunication companies who ask the US Congress to
ban the technology (which has been around for years)
1996: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, PLO
Leader Yasser Arafat, and Phillipine President Fidel Ramos
meet for ten minutes in an online interactive chat session on
17 January.
1996: The controversial US Communications Decency Act
(CDA) becomes law in the US in order to prohibit
distribution of indecent materials over the Net. A few
months later a three-judge panel imposes an injunction
against its enforcement. Supreme Court unanimously rules
most of it unconstitutional in 1997.
1996: 9,272 organizations find themselves unlisted after the
InterNIC drops their name service as a result of not having
paid their domain name fee
1996: Various ISPs suffer extended service outages,
bringing into question whether they will be able to handle
the growing number of users. AOL (19 hours), Netcom (13
hours), AT&T WorldNet (28 hours - email only)
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
1996: Domain name tv.com sold to CNET for US$15,000
1996: New York's Public Access Networks Corp (PANIX)
is shut down after repeated SYN attacks by a cracker using
methods outlined in a hacker magazine (2600)
1996: MCI upgrades Internet backbone adding ~13,000
ports, bringing the effective speed from 155Mbps to
622Mbps.
1996: The Internet Ad Hoc Committee announces plans to
add 7 new generic Top Level Domains (gTLD): .firm,
.store, .web, .arts, .rec, .info, .nom. The IAHC plan also
calls for a competing group of domain registrars
worldwide.
1996: A malicious cancelbot is released on USENET
wiping out more than 25,000 messages
1996: The WWW browser war, fought primarily between
Netscape and Microsoft, has rushed in a new age in
software development, whereby new releases are made
quarterly with the help of Internet users eager to test
upcoming (beta) versions.
1996: Restrictions on Internet use around the world:
* China: requires users and ISPs to register with the
police
* Germany: cuts off access to some newsgroups carried
on CompuServe
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
* Saudi Arabia: confines Internet access to universities
and hospitals
* Singapore: requires political and religious content
providers to register with the state
* New Zealand: classifies computer disks as
"publications" that can be censored and seized

source: Human Rights Watch
1996: Country domains registered: Qatar (QA), Central
frican Republic (CF), Oman (OM), Norfolk Island (NF),
Tuvalu (TV), French Polynesia (PF), Syria (SY), Aruba
(AW), Cambodia (KH), French Guiana (GF), Eritrea (ER),
Cape Verde (CV), Burundi (BI), Benin (BJ) BosniaHerzegovina (BA), Andorra (AD), Guadeloupe (GP),
Guernsey (GG), Isle of Man (IM), Jersey (JE), Lao (LA),
Maldives (MV), Marshall Islands (MH), Mauritania (MR),
Northern Mariana Islands (MP), Rwanda (RW), Togo
(TG), Yemen (YE), Zaire (ZR)
1996: Hacks of the Year: US Dept of Justice (17 Aug), CIA
(19 Sep), Air Force (29 Dec), UK Labour Party (6 Dec),
NASA DDCSOL - USAFE - US Air Force (30 Dec)
1996: Technologies of the Year: Search engines, JAVA,
Internet Phone
1996: Emerging Technologies: Virtual environments
(VRML), Collaborative tools, Internet appliance (Network
Computer)
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
1997: 71,618 mailing lists registered at Liszt, a mailing list
directory
1997: The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)
is established to handle administration and registration of
IP numbers to the geographical areas currently handled by
Network Solutions (InterNIC), starting March 1998.
1997: CA*net II launched in June to provide Canada's next
generation Internet using ATM/SONET
1997: In protest of the DNS monopoly, AlterNIC's owner,
Eugene Kashpureff, hacks DNS so users going to
www.internic.net end up at www.alternic.net
1997: Domain name business.com sold for US$150,000
Early in the morning of 17 July, human error at Network
Solutions causes the DNS table for .com and .net domains
to become corrupted, making millions of systems
unreachable.
1997: Longest hostname registered with InterNIC:
CHALLENGER.MED.SYNAPSE.UAH.UALBERTA.CA
101,803 Name Servers in whois database
1997: Country domains registered: Falkland Islands (FK),
East Timor (TP), R of Congo (CG), Christmas Island (CX),
Gambia (GM), Guinea-Bissau (GW), Haiti (HT), Iraq (IQ),
Libya (LY), Malawi (MW), Martinique (MQ), Montserrat
(MS), Myanmar (MM), French Reunion Island (RE),
Seychelles (SC), Sierra Leone (SL), Somalia (SO), Sudan
(SD), Tajikistan (TJ), Turkmenistan (TM), Turks and
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
Caicos Islands (TC), British Virgin Islands (VG), Heard
and McDonald Islands (HM), French Southern Territories
(TF), British Indian Ocean Territory (IO), Svalbard and Jan
Mayen Islands (SJ), St Pierre and Miquelon (PM), St
Helena (SH), South Georgia/Sandwich Islands (GS), Sao
Tome and Principe (ST), Ascension Island (AC), US Minor
Outlying Islands (UM), Mayotte (YT), Wallis and Futuna
Islands (WF), Tokelau Islands (TK), Chad Republic (TD),
Afghanistan (AF), Cocos Island (CC), Bouvet Island (BV),
Liberia (LR), American Samoa (AS), Niue (NU),
Equatorial New Guinea (GQ), Bhutan (BT), Pitcairn Island
(PN), Palau (PW), DR of Congo (CD)
1997: Hacks of the Year: Indonesian Govt. (19 Jan, 10 Feb,
24 Apr, 30 Jun, 22 Nov), NASA (5 Mar), UK Conservative
Party (27 Apr), Spice Girls (14 Nov)
1998: US Depart of Commerce (DoC) releases the Green
Paper outlining its plan to privatize DNS on 30 January.
This is followed up by a White Paper on June 5
1998: The world-wide internet festival, La Fête de
l'Internet, is held 20-21 March
1998: Web size estimates range between 275 (Digital) and
320 (NEC) million pages for 1Q
1998: Companies flock to the Turkmenistan NIC in order
to register their name under the .tm domain, the English
abbreviation for trademark
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
1998: Internet users get to be judges in a performance by
12 world champion ice skaters on 27 March, marking the
first time a television sport show's outcome is determined
by its viewers.
1998: Network Solutions registers its 2 millionth domain
on 4 May
1998: Electronic postal stamps become a reality, with the
US Postal Service allowing stamps to be purchased and
downloaded for printing from the Web.
1998: Canada kicks off CA*net 3, the first national optical
Internet
1998: Compaq pays US$3.3million for altavista.com
1998: CDA II and a ban on Net taxes are signed into US
law (21 October)
1998: ABCNews.com accidentally posts test US election
returns one day early (2 November)
1998: Indian ISP market is deregulated in November
causing a rush for ISP operation licenses
1998: US DoC enters into an agreement with the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Numbers (ICANN) to establish a
process for transitioning DNS from US Government
management to industry (25 November)
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
1998: San Francisco sites without off-city mirrors go
offline as the city blacks out on 8 December
1998: Chinese government puts Lin Hai on trial for
"inciting the overthrow of state power" for providing
30,000 email addresses to a US Internet magazine
(December) [ He is later sentenced to two years in jail ]
1998: French Internet users give up their access on 13
December to boycott France Telecom's local phone charges
(which are in addition to the ISP charge)
1998: Open source software comes of age
1998: Country domains registered: Nauru (NR), Comoros
(KM)
1998: Hacks of the Year: US Dept of Commerce (20 Feb),
New York Times (13 Sep), China Society for Human
Rights Studies (26 Oct), UNICEF (7 Jan)
1998: Technologies of the Year: E-Commerce, E-Auctions,
Portals
1998: Emerging Technologies: E-Trade, XML, Intrusion
Detection
1999: Internet access becomes available to the Saudi
Arabian (.sa) public in January
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
1999: vBNS sets up an OC48 link between CalREN South
and North using Juniper M40 routers
1999: First Internet Bank of Indiana, the first full-service
bank available only on the Net, opens for business on 22
February
1999: IBM becomes the first Corporate partner to be
approved for Internet2 access
1999: European Parliament proposes banning the caching
of Web pages by ISPs
1999: The Internet Fiesta kicks off in March across Europe,
building on the success of La Fête de l'Internet held in 1998
1999: US State Court rules that domain names are
property that may be garnished
1999: MCI/Worldcom, the vBNS provider for NSF, begins
upgrading the US backbone to 2.5GBps
1999: A forged Web page made to look like a Bloomberg
financial news story raised shares of a small technology
company by 31% on 7 April.
1999: ICANN announces the five testbed registrars for the
competitive Shared Registry System on 21 April: AOL,
CORE, France Telecom/Oléane, Melbourne IT,
Register.com. 29 additional post-testbed registrars are also
selected on 21 April, followed by 8 on 25 May, 15 on 6
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
July, and so on for a total of 98 by year's end. The testbed,
originally scheduled to last until 24 June, is extended until
10 September, and then 30 November. The first registrar to
come online is Register.com on 7 June
1999: First large-scale Cyberwar takes place
simultaneously with the war in Serbia/Kosovo
1999: Abilene, the Internet2 network, reaches across the
Atlantic and connects to NORDUnet and SURFnet
1999: The Web becomes the focal point of British politics
as a list of MI6 agents is released on a UK Web site.
Though forced to remove the list from the site, it was too
late as the list had already been replicated across the Net.
(15 May)
1999: Activists Net-wide target the world's financial
centers on 18 June, timed to coincide with the G8 Summit.
Little actual impact is reported.
1999: MCI/Worldcom launches vBNS+, a commercialized
version of vBNS targeted at smaller educational and
research institutions
1999: Somalia gets its first ISP - Olympic Computer (Sep)
ISOC approves the formation of the Internet Societal Task
Force (ISTF). Vint Cerf serves as first chair
Free computers are all the rage (as long as you sign a long
term contract for Net service)
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
1999: .ps is registered to Palestine (11 Oct)
1999: vBNS reaches 101 connections
1999: business.com is sold for US$7.5 million (it was
purchased in 1997 for US $150,000 (30 Nov)
1999: Hacks of the Year: Star Wars (8 Jan), .tp (Jan), USIA
(23 Jan), E-Bay (13 Mar), US Senate (27 May), NSI (2
Jul), Paraguay Gov't (20 Jul), AntiOnline (5 Aug),
Microsoft (26 Oct), UK Railtrack (31 Dec)
1999: Technologies of the Year: E-Trade, Online Banking,
MP3
1999: Emerging Technologies: Net-Cell Phones, Thin
Computing, Embedded Computing
1999: Viruses of the Year: Melissa (March), ExploreZip
(June)
2000: The US timekeeper (USNO) and a few other time
services around the world report the new year as 19100 on
1 Jan
2000: A massive denial of service attack is launched
against major web sites, including Yahoo, Amazon, and
eBay in early February
2000: Web size estimates by NEC-RI and Inktomi surpass
1 billion indexable pages
Bogen, Matthew
Period 3
12/9/02
3-02
3-02 Web Site Notes
2000: ICANN redelegates the .pn domain, returning it to
the Pitcairn Island community (February)
2000: Internet2 backbone network deploys IPv6 (16 May)
2000: Various domain name hijackings took place in late
May and early June, including internet.com, bali.com, and
web.net
2000: A testbed allowing the registration of domain names
in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean begins operation on 9
November. This testbed, created by VeriSign without IETF
authorization, only allows the second-level domain to be
non-English, still forcing use of .com, .net, .org. The
Chinese government blocks internal registrations, stating
that registrations in Chinese are its sovereignty right
ICANN selects new TLDs: .aero, .biz, .coop, .info,
.museum, .name, .pro (16 Nov)
2000: Mexico's connection to Internet2 becomes fully
operational as the California research network (CalREN-2)
is connected with Mexico's Corporación Universitaria para
el Desarrollo de Internet (CUDI) network. Though
connected in November, the link's inauguration by
California's Governor and Mexico's President was not until
March of 2001.
2000: After months of legal proceedings, the French court
rules Yahoo! must block French users from accessing hate
memorabilia in its auction site (Nov). Given its inability to
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provide such a block on the Internet, Yahoo! removes those
auctions entirely (Jan 2001).
2000: The European Commission contracts with a
consortium of 30 national research networks for the
development of Géant, Europe's new gigabit research
network meant to enhance the current capability provided
by TEN-155 (6 Nov)
2000: Australian government endorses the transfer of
authority for the .au domain to auDA (18 Dec). ICANN
signs over control to auDA on 26 Oct 2001.
2000: Hacks of the Year: RSA Security (Feb), Apache
(May), Western Union (Sep), Microsoft (Oct)
2000: Technologies of the Year: ASP, Napster
2000: Emerging Technologies: Wireless devices, IPv6
2000: Viruses of the Year: Love Letter (May)
2000: Lawsuits of the Year: Napster, DeCSS
2001: The first live distributed musical -- The Technophobe
& The Madman -- over Internet2 networks debuts on 20
Feb
2001: VeriSign extends its multilingual domain testbed to
encompass various European languages (26 Feb), and later
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the full Unicode character set (5 Apr) opening up most of
the world's languages
2001: Forwarding email in Australia becomes illegal with
the passing of the Digital Agenda Act, as it is seen as a
technical infringement of personal copyright (4 Mar)
2001: Radio stations broadcasting over the Web go silent
over royalty disputes (10 Apr)
2001: High schools in five states (Michigan, Missouri,
Oregon, Virginia, and Washington) become the first to gain
Internet2 access
2001: US Dept of Commerce issues a notice of intent on 6
April to turn over management for the .edu domain from
VeriSign to Educase. Award agreement is reached on 29
October. Community colleges are finally be able to register
under .edu
2001: Napster keeps finding itself embroiled in litigation
and is eventually forced to suspend service; it comes back
later in the year as a subscription service
2001: European Council finalizes an international
cybercrime treaty on 22 June and adopts it on 9 November.
This is the first treaty addressing criminal offenses
committed over the Internet.
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2001: .biz and .info are added to the root server on 27 June
with registrations beginning in July. .biz domain go live on
7 Nov.
2001: Afghanistan's Taliban bans Internet access countrywide, including from Government offices, in an attempt to
control content (13 Jul)
2001: Code Red worm and Sircam virus infiltrate
thousands of web servers and email accounts, respectively,
causing a spike in Internet bandwidth usage and security
breaches (July)
2001: A fire in a train tunnel running through Baltimore,
Maryland seriously damages various fiber-optic cable
bundles used by backbone providers, disrupting Internet
traffic in the Mid-Atlantic states and creating a ripple effect
across the US (18 Jul)
2001: Brazil RNP2 is connected to Internet2's Abilene over
45Mbps line (21 Aug)
2001: GEANT, the pan-European Gigabit Research and
Education Network, becomes operational (23 Oct),
replacing the TEN-155 network which was closed down
(30 Nov)
2001: .museum begins resolving (Nov)
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2001: First uncompressed real-time gigabit HDTV
transmission across a wide-area IP network takes place on
Internet2 (12 Nov).
2001: Dutch SURFnet and Internet2's Abilene connect via
gigabit ethernet (15 Nov)
2001: .us domain operational responsibility assumed by
NeuStar (20 Nov)
2001: Viruses of the Year: Code Red (Jul), Nimda (Sep),
SirCam (Jul), BadTrans (Apr, Nov)
2001: Emerging Technologies: Grid Computing, P2P
2001: US ISP Association (USISPA) is created from the
former CIX (11 Jan)
2001: name begins resolving (15 Jan)
2001: .coop registrations begin (30 Jan)
2001: .aero registrations begin (18 Mar)