Historical Timeline of Internet

YEAR NAME OF OUTPUT DESCRIPTION

1969 ARPANET (Advanced Developed by the
Research Project Agency Advanced Research
Network) Projects Agency (ARPA) of
the U.S. Department of
Defense. ARPANET
allowed several
computers to
communicate on a single
network and share
information. The present
counterpart is the
Internet today.
1971 EMAIL (Electronic mail) Ray Tomlinson sent the
first network email using
@ symbol to separate
user name from the
computer name. It allows
messages to be sent
between different
computer systems. Email
services like Gmail,
Yahoo, Outlook are the
present counterpart.
1974 TCP (Transmission Control Vinton Cerf and Robert
Protocol Kahn published a paper
outlining the details of
TCP, which allows for the
reliable transmission of
data between networks.
1979 Usenet (User’s Network) Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis,
graduate student at Duke
University. It is similar to
an online forum or
discussion platform
where users can discuss
various topics in so-called
“newsgroups.”
1981 CSNet (Computer Science National Science
Network) Foundation funded
CSNet. It is a computer
network designed to
extend networking
 benefits to universities
and institutions that
could not be directly
connected to ARPANET.
1983 DNS (Domain Name Paul
System) Mockapetris expanded
the Internet beyond its
academic origins by
inventing the DNS. It
allows users to access
websites using domain
names instead of
numerical IP addresses.
1987 GIF (Graphics Stehpen Wilhite figured
Interchange Format) out how to compress
images so they wouldn’t
lose their sharpness and
would load quickly and
could appear on any
computer.
1988 IRC (Internet Relay Chat) Jarkko Oikarinen created
IRC. A protocol for real-
time text messaging
between internet-
connected computers
1988 The Morris Worm Created by Robert Morris.
The purpose of the worm
was to gauge the size of
the precursor “Internet”
of the time – ARPANET.
1989 WWW (World Wide Web) Created by Tim Berners-
Lee. Refers to all the
public websites or pages
that users can access on
their local computers and
other devices via
hyperlinks through
the internet.
1990 ARCHIE Created by Alan Emtage.
It is a tool to automate
the process of searching
for files on FTP servers.
1991 info.cern.ch Created by Tim Berners-
Lee. The first website that
provides information
 about the World Wide
Web project.
1993 Mosaic Marc Andreessen and Eric
Bina released Mosaic. It
was the first web browser
with the ability to display
text and images inline,
meaning you could put
pictures and text on the
same page together, in
the same window.
1994 Netscape Navigator Netscape
Communications
Corporation. It is the first
commercially successful
web browser with a
graphical user interface
that renders images in
line with the text.
1997 Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) Vic Hayes introduced the
international standard for
wireless networking. It is
wireless networking
technology that allows
wireless to access the
internet.
1998 Google Founded by Sergey Brin
and Larry Page. Google
expertly assimilating
information from the
world and making it
readily accessible on the
web.
1998 Napster Sean Parker founded
Napster. It allows users to
share music files over the
internet. Spotify, Apple
Music, etc.
2001 Wikipedia Founded by Larry Sanger
and Jimmy Wales. To
benefit readers by
presenting information on
all branches of
knowledge.
2003 Skype Founded by Niklas
 Zennstrom and Janus
Friis. It gives a user-
friendly interface to Voice
over IP calling.
2003 MySpace Tom Anderson and Chris
DeWolfe. Service
that allowed users to
create profiles that
featured photos,
displayed their interests,
and linked to other
people's profiles
2004 Facebook Founded by Mark
Zuckerburg. To help
friends and family
connect with each other
2005 YouTube Founded by Steve Chen,
Chad Hurley, and Jawed
Karim. A video sharing
service where users can
watch, like, share,
comment and upload
their own videos.
2006 Twitter Founded by Biz Stone,
Evan Williams, and Jack
Dorsey. Is a
microblogging platform,
allowing users to post
short messages
(“tweets”) and interact in
real-time.
2007 iPhone (Smartphone) Introduced by Steve Jobs.
A handheld electronic
device that provides a
connection to a cellular
network and the internet
2008 Bitcoin Developed by Satoshi
Nakamoto. A way for
people to send money
over the internet and
provide alternative
payment system.
2009 WhatsApp Founded by Jan Koum and
Brian Acton. A messaging
app, offering an
 alternative to SMS by
using the internet to send
messages, photos, and
videos.
2010 Instagram Created by Kevin
Systrom. A photo-sharing
app, emphasizing visual
content and social
networking.
2011 Snapchat Created by Evan Spiegel,
Bobby Murphy, and
Reggie Brown.
Introducing the concept
of ephemeral messaging,
where messages and
media are automatically
deleted after being
viewed.
2016 TikTok Founded by Zhang
Yiming. Social media
platform for creating,
sharing and discovering
short videos.
2017 WannaCry Ransomware Widely attributed to a
hacker group, Lazarus
Group. To encrypt files
on infected computers
and demand a ransom in
Bitcoin for the decryption
key.
2022 ChatGPT Created by OpenAI, an AI
research company. To
generate human-like text
responses for tasks like
answering questions,
providing explanations,
text generation, and
conversational
engagement based on
user input.