You think you know all about the Internet? Check this out:

Facts found in RFC2235 which is actually Hobbes' Internet Timeline, of which a current version can be found at http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/

• In 1957 the seeds for the Internet were sown with the Sputnik launch and ARPA in response. (Advanced Research Projects Agency)

• In 1962 Paul Baran outlines packet-switching networks.

• In 1965 the first two machines were linked.

• In 1967 the first design paper for ARPANET is presented. (Lawrence G. Roberts)

• In 1969 the first RFC was drafted. X.25 Merit network for students established. ARPANET is established.

• In 1971 the first trans-net email program arrived. (Ray Tomlinson)

• In 1972 the telnet command was drafted. ALOHAnet connects to ARPANET.

• In 1973 the first international connections are made. Metcalfe outlines ethernet proposal.

• In 1974 the first public packet data service appeared (Telenet). TCP is outlined (Vince Cerf)

• In 1975 the "Jargon File" was first released.

• In 1976 UUCP was drafted.

• In 1978 DEC's VT100 Terminal is introduced.

• In 1979 USENET was established (via UUCP) and the first MUD came to be.

• In 1981 BITNET was created.

• In 1982 TCP/IP came to be. EGP specifications are laid out.

• In 1983 the net cuts over from NCP to TCP/IP. ARPANET splits into ARPANET and MILNET. Desktop workstations come into being. 4.2BSD is released. FidoNet is developed. It was a good year.

• In 1984 DNS was introduced and the number of hosts on the net breaks 1,000. Moderated newsgroups are introduced.

• In 1985 WELL is started. The first domain is registered (symbolics.com).

• In 1986 NNTP is created for USENET along with MX records for DNS. IETF started. The great USENET name change. NSFNET has a backbone speed of 56 kbit/s.

• In 1987 UUNet was founded and the number of hosts passes 10,000. The 1000th RFC is drafted.

• In 1988 CERT came to be and IRC was created. 60,000 hosts on the net. DoD adopts OSI model. The NSFNET backbone is now a T1 (1.5 Mbit/s). FidoNet connects to the rest of the net.

• In 1989 the number of hosts reaches 100,000. PINE (mailer) is created. RIPE is formed. First commercial email relays to the net.

• In 1990 ARPANET goes away and the first commercial ISP is started (world.std.com). Archie is created.

• In 1991 the WWW is invented. Really. Linus Torvalds begins working on Linux. The CIX is formed. WAIS invented. Gopher released. PGP released. NSFNET backbone becomes T3 based (45 Mbit/s).

• In 1992 the number of hosts breaks 1,000,000. First MBONE multicast. Japan's first ISP.

• In 1993 the InterNIC is created and the White House goes online. Mosaic arrives and the WWW gets popular.

• In 1994 the Internet celebrates it's 25th anniversary. The first "spam" is sent (Canter & Siegel). Linux version 1.0 released.

• In 1995 AOL finally connects to the Internet. Netscape gets big. Domain names are no longer free. NSFNET is no longer the primary backbone, replaced by interconnected ISP's. RealAudio released. Netscape goes public.

• In 1996 Internet-phones are a big deal. The CDA becomes law. Evil USENET cancelbot.

• In 1997 the 2000th RFC is drafted. ARIN is established.

• In 1998 Hobbes' Internet Timeline is released as RFC 2235

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