Internet timeline : 1970s

1970s

• 1970
  
  • First publication of the original ARPANET Host-Host protocol: C.S. Carr, S. Crocker, V.G. Cerf, "HOST-HOST Communication Protocol in the ARPA Network," in AFIPS Proceedings of SJCC (:vgc:)
  • First report on ARPANET at AFIPS: "Computer Network Development to Achieve Resource Sharing" (March)
  • ALOHAnet, the first packet radio network, developed by Norman Abramson, Univ of Hawaii, becomes operational (July) (:sk2:) connected to the ARPANET in 1972
  • 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
  
  • 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 hosts (September)
  • 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) (:amk:irh:)
• 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)
  • Larry Roberts writes first email management program (RD) to list, selectively read, file, forward, and respond to messages (July)
  • 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)
  • 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).
  • 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 networking technologies. Vint Cerf appointed first Chair. By 1974, INWG became IFIP WG 6.1 (:vgc:)
  • Louis Pouzin leads the French effort to build its own ARPANET - CYCLADES
  • RFC 318: Telnet specification
• 1973
  
  • First international connections to the ARPANET: University College of London (England) and NORSAR (Norway)
  • Bob Metcalfe's Harvard PhD Thesis outlines idea for Ethernet. The concept was tested on Xerox PARC's Alto computers, and the first Ethernet network called the Alto Aloha System (May) (:amk:)
  • 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 (:vgc:)
  • Cerf and Kahn present basic Internet ideas at INWG in September at Univ of Sussex, Brighton, UK (:vgc:)
  • RFC 454: File Transfer specification
  • Network Voice Protocol (NVP) specification (RFC 741) and implementation enabling conference calls over ARPAnet. (:bb1:)
  • 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
  • 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)
  • RFC 527: ARPAWOCKY
  • RFC 602: The Stockings Were Hung by the Chimney with Care
• 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 (:amk:)
  • BBN opens Telenet, the first public packet data service (a commercial version of ARPANET) (:sk2:)
• 1975
  
  • Operational management of Internet transferred to DCA (now DISA)
  • First ARPANET mailing list, MsgGroup, is created by Steve Walker. Einar Stefferud soon took over as 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
  • 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 UCLA
  • "Jargon File", by Raphael Finkel at SAIL, first released (:esr:)
  • Shockwave Rider by John Brunner (:pds:)
• 1976
  
  • Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom sends out an email in February 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.
  • Multiprocessing Pluribus IMPs are deployed
• 1977
  
  • THEORYNET created by Larry Landweber at Univ of Wisconsin providing electronic mail to over 100 researchers in computer science (using a locally developed email system over TELENET)
  • RFC 733: Mail specification
  • Tymshare spins out Tymnet under pressure from TELENET. Both go on to develop X.25 protocol standard for virtual circuit style packet switching (:vgc:)
  • First demonstration of ARPANET/SF Bay Packet Radio Net/Atlantic SATNET operation of Internet protocols with BBN-supplied gateways in July (:vgc:)
• 1978
  
  • TCP split into TCP and IP (March)
  • RFC 748: TELNET RANDOMLY-LOSE Option
• 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).
  • USENET established using UUCP between Duke and UNC by Tom Truscott, Jim Ellis, and Steve Bellovin. All original groups were under net.* hierarchy.
  • First MUD, MUD1, by Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw at U of Essex
  • ARPA establishes the Internet Configuration Control Board (ICCB)
  • Packet Radio Network (PRNET) experiment starts with DARPA funding. Most communications take place between mobile vans. ARPANET connection via SRI.
  • 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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