first experiments in 1966

ARPA requested quotations in 1968

packet switching was widely doubted, but was desired for its fault tolerance. One objective was to build a system that could withstand any systematic attack on central nodes, such as from a nuclear strike.

(the van Johnson story)

AT&T was particularly pessimistic!

4 computers on ARPANET in 1969

in 1973 an effort began to connect ARPANET with mobile networks using synchronous satellites (SATNET) and mobile packet radio (PRNET), this effort became known as “internetting”

part of this research effort resulted in Ethernet (in Hawaii)

July 1977 a four-network demonstration linked ARPANET, SATNET, and the PRNET. TCP/IP version 4 came in 1978.

the new internet protocolls, generally called TCP/IP, began to be developed in the early 70s, and ARPANET switched to them in January 1983

supercomputer centers programme in 1986 (Senator Gore’s legislation) led to the NFSNET, which remained the backbone until April 1995

experimental electronic mail relay put into operation in 1989, interconnecting MCI Mail with the Internet. Compuserve, ATTMail, and Sprintmail followed shortly