Internet Timeline

Vladimir Vrabec vrabec at cs.felk.cvut.cz
Mon Jan 24 19:11:40 CET 1994


Pratele,
pro zajemce prikladam Zakonovu prvou verzi prehledu hlavnich udalosti v zivote
Internetu. Zdravi
                     Vladimir Vrabec

--------- Text of forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 23 Jan 1994 11:37:26 +0500
From: Robert H'obbes' Zakon <hobbes at hobbes.MITRE.ORG>
Subject: Internet Timeline v1.0 (final release)

Archive-name: Internet Timeline v1.0
Last-modified: January 23, 1994
Maintainer: Robert H'obbes' Zakon, hobbes at hobbes.mitre.org
Description:
An Internet timeline highlighting some of the key events which helped
shape the Internet as we know today.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

                            Internet Timeline v1.0
                                     by
                            Robert H'obbes' Zakon
                           hobbes at hobbes.mitre.org


1960s   Packet-switching networks
        - Paul Boran, RAND: Distributed Communications - no single
           outage point

1967    ACM Symposium on Operating Principles
        - Plan presented for a packet-switching network

1968    Network details presented to the Advanced Research Projects
        Agency (ARPA)

1969    ARPANET commissioned by DOD for research into networking
        - Uses NCP (Network Control Protocol) through IMPs (Information
          Message Processors).
          IMP = Honeywell 516 mini computer with 12K of memory.
        - First node at UCLA and soon after at Stanford Research
          Institute, UCSB, and U of Utah.

1970    ALOHAnet developed by Norman Abrahamson, U of Hawaii (:sk2:)

1972    Network of Networks starts forming
        - International Conference on Computer Communications with
          demonstration of ARPANET between 40 machines.
        - InterNetworking Working Group (INWG) created to address
          need for establishing agreed upon protocols.

1975    Operational management of Internet transferred to DCA (now DISA)

1970s   Store and Forward Networks
        - Used electronic mail technology and extended it to conferencing

1976    uucp (unix-to-unix copy) developed at AT&T Bell Labs and
        distributed with UNIX one year later

1977    THEORYNET created at U of Wisconsin providing electronic
        mail to over 100 researchers in computer science.  (uses uucp)

1979    Meeting between U of Wisconsin, DARPA, NSF, and computer
        scientists from many universities to establish a Computer Science
        Department research computer network.

        USENET established using uucp and client/server technology.

1981    BITNET, the "Because Its Time NETwork"
        - Started as a cooperative network at the City University
          of New York (CUNY).
        - Provides electronic mail and listserv servers to distribute
          information.
        - Unlike USENET, where client s/w is needed, electronic mail
          is only tool necessary.

1982    INWG establishes 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 definition of an "internet"
          as a connected set of networks, specifically those using TCP/IP.
          and "Internet" as connected TCP/IP internets.

        CSNET (Computer Science NETwork) comes into being providing
        a dial-up capability to electronic mail.  Many universities feeling
        left out of ARPANET, join CSNET.

1983    Name server developed at U of Wisconsin, no longer requiring
        users to know the exact path to other systems.

        CSNET / ARPANET gateway put in place

        ARPANET split into ARPANET and MILNET with the latter becoming
        integrated with the Defense Data Network created the previous year.

        NSF takes over administering ARPANET backbone.

        Desktop workstations come into being, many with Berkeley
        UNIX which includes IP networking software.

        Need switches from having a single, large time sharing computer
        connected to Internet per site to connection of an entire
        local network.

        Berkeley releases 4.2BSD incorporating TCP/IP (:mpc:)

1984    Domain Name Server (DNS) introduced.  It would take 4 years
        for full implementation.

        # of hosts breaks 1,000

1986    NSFNET created
        - NSF establishes 5 super-computing centers to provide
          high-computing power to all.
        - ARPANET bureaucracy keeps it from being used to interconnect
          centers
          and NSFNET comes into being with the aid of NASA and DOE.
        - This allows an explosion of connections, especially from
          universities.

        Cleveland Freenet (start of NPTN) comes on-line (:sk2:)

1987    NSF awards NSFNET management contract to Merit Network, Inc.,
        which ran Michigan's educational network in partnership with
        IBM and MCI.

        RFC #1000 released - "Request For Comments reference guide"

        # of hosts breaks 10,000

1988    Internet worm burrows through the Net

1989    # of hosts breaks 100,000

1990    ARPANET ceases to exist

1991    WAIS released by Thinking Machines Inc.

        Gopher released by University of Minnesota

1992    Internet Society is chartered

        World-Wide Web released by CERN

        # of hosts breaks 1,000,000

1993    Management of NSFNET contracted out to:
                AT&T - directory and database services
                Network Solutions Inc. - registration services
                General Atomics/CERFnet - information services

        US White House comes on-line

        HRH Elizabeth, Queen of England, sends out an e-mail

        Internet Talk Radio begins broadcasting (:sk2:)

        Businesses and media take notice of the Internet


Internet growth summary:

   Date       Hosts      |    Date       Hosts     Networks    Domains
   -----    ---------    +    -----    ---------   --------    -------
    1969            4    |    07/89      130,000                 3,900
   04/71           23    |    10/89      159,000
   06/74           62    |    10/90      313,000                 9,300
   03/77          111    |    01/91      376,000
   08/81          213    |    07/91      535,000                16,000
   05/82          235    |    10/91      617,000                18,000
   08/83          562    |    01/92      727,000
   10/84        1,024    |    04/92      890,000                20,000
   10/85        1,961    |    07/92      992,000      6,569     16,300
   02/86        2,308    |    10/92    1,136,000      7,505     18,100
   11/86        5,089    |    01/93    1,313,000      8,258     21,000
   12/87       28,174    |    04/93    1,486,000      9,722     22,000
   07/88       33,000    |    07/93    1,776,000     13,767     26,000
   10/88       56,000    |    10/93    2,056,000     16,533     28,000
   01/89       80,000    |

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Comments/corrections should be sent to hobbes at hobbes.mitre.org.

Internet Timeline (c)1993-4 by Robert H Zakon.
Permission is granted for use of this document in whole or in part
for non commercial purposes as long as appropriate credit is given
to the author/maintainer.  For commercial uses, please contact the
author at the address above.

---
The Internet Timeline was compiled from a number of sources, with some
of the stand-outs being:

Hardy, Henry.  "The History of the Net."  Master's Thesis, School
of Communications, Grand Valley State University.

Kulikowski, Stan II.  "A Timeline of Network History."  Unpublished?

Quaterman, John.  "The Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferenceing
Systems Worldwide."  Bedford, MA: Digital Press. 1990

---
Contributors to the Internet Timeline have their initials next to
the contributed items in the form (:zzz:) and are:

mpc - Mellisa P. Chase (pc at mitre.org)
sk2 - Stan Kulikowski (stankuli at uwf.bitnet) - see sources section


:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) ;-)  Help the Author  (-: (-: (-: (-: (-: (-:

The author is on an eternal geneological search.  If you know of
someone whose last name is Zakon or could spare 1 minute to check
your local phone book, please e-mail any info (i.e., name, phone,
address, city) to rhz at po.cwru.edu; your help is greatly appreciated.
--------- End of forwarded message ----------




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